Dancer in the Dark

Dancer in the Dark (2000) is a Lars von Trier drama you can watch online on iFILM. It is a musical with no happy notes, built entirely around Icelandic singer Björk in her only major film role.

Selma is a Czech immigrant working a factory shift in 1960s rural America. She is going blind, and she hides every spare cent to pay for an operation that could save her young son from the same inherited fate. To survive the grind, she slips into musicals only she can hear: the clatter of machines, a passing train, a creaking floor all turn into rhythm and dance inside her head. Around her are a loyal friend, Kathy (Catherine Deneuve), and a neighbor whose plea for help sets off a chain of events that cannot be undone.

Von Trier shot the story with shaky handheld cameras in the spirit of Dogme 95, then filmed the song sequences with dozens of fixed cameras at once. Björk wrote the score and played Selma so fiercely that she took Best Actress at Cannes, where the film won the Palme d'Or. It is harsh, devastating cinema for viewers ready for the real thing. Stream Dancer in the Dark (2000) online on iFILM.