Recently, I have watched many cruel movies, but they are not as cruel as this “Dancer in the Dark”. In tragic stories, there is always an abrupt end to life, and this time, it is Selma, an ordinary immigrant who is nearly blind. The film is brutal, telling a brutal story, filmed on the realistic scenes with a very documentary film approach, Selma’s fantasy of singing and dancing scenes and shot very phantasmagorical, so that people know at first glance is a fantasy, waiting for Selma brutally awakened. This is the kind of movie that if you watch in the theater, you will leave the theater in silence, as I did not watch in the theater, but, after the film, I was still stunned at the screen.
The most tragic thing about this film is that I could not find a “villain” in it, I could not find an object for me to vent my disappointment and anger, I could only quietly taste the cruelty of this reality, and at the moment when Selma was hanged, I felt sad for an innocent life and the child she left behind with an uncertain fate. I can only savor the cruelty of this reality. Who is the villain I can condemn, is it the police officer Bill, who directly caused Selma’s “crime”? He and his wife provide Selma with a place to live, take care of her child, and buy the child a bicycle as a birthday present. He also seems so pitiful and helpless, suffering as a man for not being able to earn the money that would satisfy his wife’s life. So I believe that his stealing Selma’s money is not the crime of an evil man, but the cruel natural reaction of a weak man trying to hurt an even weaker man in a fit of desperation. Even when Selma approached him to get the money back, he also showed a helpless plea, and then he insulted Selma theft is obviously an impulsive behavior, so much so that Selma also in a panic impulse and desperation, so that I both pity and hate the police officer lost his life. So was it Bill’s spendthrift wife? Obviously, she is just an ordinary housewife, the desire for a more comfortable life also seems to be beyond reproach, not to mention that she also initially showed so much kindness, so that people can not have the slightest blame on her. Others cannot be blamed, and the aggressive lawyer in court? In the premise that we know about Selma’s misfortune, we will be full of sympathy for her, and some disgust for the lawyer who asked Selma all the questions, but he was just doing his duty, not to mention Selma’s flawed arguments made her conviction seem so “natural”. The director of the orchestra that delayed her was just doing his civic duty, and the cold-hearted executioners, though seemingly callous, had done nothing wrong. So, who caused all this? Who pushed a soft and kind woman into a desperate situation? Perhaps, I can only say is society, but this too abstract “responsible for” can not be relieved, only to Selma’s death added to the sadness.
In this film, many kind people still feel a touch of warmth, such as the one who has been helping Selma’s Casey, the one who loves Selma’s Jeff, the female prison guard who cried with Selma after she was approved for a death sentence. But these characters and the warmth of these moments combined with Selma’s tragedy is even more lamentable, as if tragedy gradually fell on Selma in the silent, suddenly, a good woman who loves the opera, jumping to slip under the gallows, such a process is abrupt, but also seems so natural, coupled with the documentary-like filming effect, so that people feel it is incredibly real, real heartbreaking . When the final scene of Selma’s hallucinatory opera, she walked step by step towards the execution chamber, singing the number of steps towards the execution chamber, this set of shots impressed me, my heart actually counted with it, until the screen, suddenly counted to 107 steps, the number of steps to death. I saw for the first time a modern society’s hanging process, saw the black hood, saw the support plate prepared to prevent the prisoner from standing up, saw the death penalty can actually be carried out in full view of the public. More than that, I saw the kind of horror when a person is walking towards death. At first, Selma was filled with fear of death, but who is not. She was just a tender woman who came to America from what was then Czechoslovakia in order to cure her child so that he could see his children and grandchildren get married and grow up. She was helped by many people and she was always grateful, but she kept the secret that her child had the possibility of losing his sight so much that she couldn’t even buy him a birthday present on his birthday, which seemed so unconscionable. She worked playfully, silently saving up for her child’s treatment, even remembering clearly the ten cents, while she carried the dream of opera in her heart, discovering the beauty of music from all the sounds in her life, and even though she fell into the darkness brought by her blindness, she still danced in the darkness in her heart. It can be said that her child and music are her life, and for the sake of her child, she is even willing to throw away the chance of overturning her case and to sacrifice herself. In the end, when she learns that her child has been treated, she is finally relieved, using music to dissipate the fear of death.
This film, I think it is very good, but I do not have the impulse to see a good film in the past to impatiently recommend it to friends to see, because it is good, but not “good”, it does not have a happy ending, but also does not render a lot of tragedy is unique to the so-called tragedy in the “beauty “to. After watching it, you suddenly feel like you’ve lost something, I think it’s the loss of hope for the good woman to be saved. As with any film where the unfortunate appear, I kept expecting a turnaround during the viewing process, and when the lawyer who tried to overturn Selma’s case appeared, I thought what would follow would be Selma getting out of jail amidst a wave of media solidarity. However, soon because of the reluctance to pay the money for the child’s treatment to the lawyer, this ray of hope immediately dashed, at that moment, I can not help but blame the lawyer why so cold, not the kind of lawyer we often heard of fighting for justice, at this time, the reporter where to go, the street parade where to go? Director Trier reveals the most normal life, the most real, but I can’t respect him, can’t say “this is life” with aplomb. I think everyone has the expectation of a good life and a good humanity in their hearts, and I don’t want this expectation to be brutally shattered by Trier, so after watching the story of the dancer in the dark, I couldn’t calm down for a long time, the film is really good, but I won’t go to see it a second time.
