FERNNDEZ IZUZQUIZA, Laura

DANCER IN THE DARK Lars Von Trier Script Analysis and reshooting of scene number 53

If living is seeing, Im holding my breath.

Laura Fernndez Izuzquiza Directing The Feature Film Chris Eyre Santa Fe University of Art and Design 25th October 2012

FERNNDEZ IZUZQUIZA, Laura

Dancer in the Dark is part of what he called the Golden Heart trilogy: The Fools, Breaking the waves, and Dancer in the Dark. Its a musical and a drama that tells the story of Selma and her son and how she saves him from having a disease that would take is sense of sight away. This musical tries to do something different as In a musical nothing dreadful ever happens. Musicals represent everything that is good of Americas dream for Selma. Anyway, reality will hit her to death. Money/ Contradictions of American way of life/ Capitalism/ Consumerism/ Selma is a Czechoslovak woman that has immigrated to America, land of opportunities. The period of time is the 60s. The United States of America embraces everything what shes looking for: employment, health, money. The film is full of symbols that represent certain stereotypes of the American way of living. Musicals from the 50s are The US is represented by these symbols that show the contradictions of the country. It is, in fact, the place of freedom where everyone can find a job and, step by step, expand their quality of life. On the other hand, its also the place where those opportunities lead to overemphasize consumerism until the point where it might take over the people. For Selma the US are the place where medicine is advanced enough to get her son the surgery he needs. Its also the country where she can find a job to save money for that surgery. But the US is also a place where welfare state doesnt exist. When Selma is going through the trial the bad side of the country sublimates. Its also a country where judiciary is affordable only by wealth families. In order to get a good defense she would have to spend the little money she has to hire a lawyer, something she cant take into account. In the end, its all about the money, having it or not. For Bill is maintaining the stereotype, keeping his position towards the rest of the world, keeping on living how he is supposed to. The money for him is his insurance to be on the top of his own pyramid. Above all, having money means having a wife. As long as he has money Linda will stay with him. The goal of the two characters of the selected scene is related to money. Employment/ Industrialization/ Workers chain/ Dehumanization Dancer in the dark focuses in many points of social criticism. The movie claims social injustices. One of the most important one is the loss of peoples identity because of industrialization. Selma works in a factory that reduces the workers to a mechanical duty. Workers become a part of a work flow where they become a machine themselves. That chain of work erases any trace of the workers identity. The first song inspired by the noise the machines do has a part that restores and dignifies that identity: Listen, Cvalda,/ You're the dancer,/ You've got the sparkle in your eyes. There is also a difference between immigrants and Americans. Kathy is Selmas best friend and shes from France. They empathize with each other as their immigrant circumstances are similar (poverty, hard workers). When Selma breaks the machine shes fired immediately. Her boss, American, dont do anything for her. Bill has a job, hes a cop. However his job is not giving him enough money for the life that he wants. Truth/ Perception/ Fact distortion/ Pretending Lars von Trier uses fact distortion through the whole movie. The difference between what the characters are perceiving. She has so deeply rooted moral values that she wont defend herself properly during the trial. I promised no to say that what she will say about not explaining the robbery of the money. Mums the word is a sentence stuck in her behavior and she cant betray her principles. Selma lies en her trial because

FERNNDEZ IZUZQUIZA, Laura

her romanticism and that lie will be her final sentence. Also pretending becomes main theme for Bills character, he is a complete liar. Moral integrity/ Virtue/ Merit/ Righteousness Selma carries in her shoulders a gigantic weight. She locks herself up into a specific way of behaving. She behaves like if she was fulfilling the conditions of a moral contract. Shes not only extremely demanding with herself; her son is the object of her demands. Im not that sort of mom. She locks herself up into her principles and rarely betrays them (only when she lets Gene have the bike). These themes link to the ending of the movie and the death sentence. The movie takes place in Washington during the 60s, a state where they would hang the convicts condemned to death. The rope is a symbolic element in the movie that connects to the American expression tap-dancing at the end of a rope. Escapism/ Evasion/ Irrationality/ Romanticism Selma shows irrational behavior, which is a big part of her personality. This is irrationality is directly connected to music. As Selma is going blind, hearing substitutes her main way of interacting with the world around her. Her romantic feelings for music make this sense to go away from reality. Her reality is so raw, so unbearable, that her own body pulls her away from. Its her main tool to survive. She uses this tool because she cannot control is, its a feeling deeply born inside of her. Her own organism develops that process so she can continue with her life. She says more that once that she doesnt know why she likes it so much. The only thing she cant control is the one she loves the most. Thats why she goes on daydreaming so much. If she could dominate those feelings her moral values cut her wings in that aspect to as she thinks she doesnt deserve it. Abnegation/ Self-denial/ Sacrifice/ Martyrdom/ Redemption Abnegation of women is the main theme and a recurrent theme for Lars von Trier. Selma is a radical character.. She gives her life away, literally, to redeem herself. Everything Selma does in her life is for his son. Selma works every day of her life in order to save his son from the blindness she was condemn to. Is not that she lives for her son but she stops living for him. During her life everything she does she does it to get her goal. Ultimately shes going to give her life, literally, for her purpose. Selmas stubbornness makes her live her life in way that will redeem her from her unconfessed sin. Later on, when Selma is already in jail, she will confess to Kathy her best friend that she had Gene because she just wanted to hold a little baby on (her) arms. Her obligation is to save his child from that decision. When she had him she knew her child would inherit her disease. Abnegation provoked by an unconfessed guilt. The spine of the story is that se blames herself because she thinks she was selfish, those circumstances didnt make her think that maybe it was better not to give to birth a human being that would go blind eventually. The question that lies there is: Is that enough reason to not to have an already conceived child? Her answer is no. She made up her mind according to that. Shes committed to her sacrifice and salvation of her son in such a radical way. Her whole life goes is driven by that decision. She even avoids being loved by Jeff because she doesnt have time for those beautiful things of life. Actually, she thinks she doesnt deserve it. That way of thinking also has repercussions on Gene. Selma puts a great deal of pressure on his education. From not wanting him to accept a bike from Bill and Linda to avoid seeing him during her stay in

FERNNDEZ IZUZQUIZA, Laura

jail. Abnegation affects negatively in the relationship between Selma and her son. As Kathy tells her listen to your heart her own heartbeat is the inspiration sound she needs to evade the fact that shes being hanged. She will realize that whens shes about to be hanged: I should have known I was never alone. This isnt the last song. Her mind drastically built, it borders a disorder and something supernatural. Her radical moral values will lead her to death; shes a martyr. Anyway her behavior in not portrayed as an example to follow but is the only way she has to get her main objective. Although she dies Gene has the surgery done. Gene glasses will fall to the floor at the same time shes hanged. Selmas musical is over, the curtains close up and she rises up to heaven. They say its the last song. They dont know us. You see, its only the last song if we let it be. Selma he denies herself from anything that gives her happiness or pleasure, that motivates the story. Life should be that thing to go through in order to get as much happiness you can from it. Happiness is not a finishing line but they way life should be lives. The sentence be happy should be replaced by live your life happily. Selma denies herself her own happiness to provide Genes happiness. Shes so obstinate about that she forgets enjoying life with her son. We barely see them together. Their relationship is forced to wait because her main objective takes over everything else. She puts so much pressure on herself, shes so busy she forgets to live her life. When she condemned to death she wont even let Gene come and see her. More than that she wont write to him or let anyone say anything to him for her. She creates a great distance between both of them instead of spending her last days of her life as much as she can with him. Apparently the reason is also for Genes benefit: if he doesnt worry his eyes will remain in better conditions. As Selma and Bill are sharing their objective as characters, what they need becomes an obstacle for each other. There is the conflict. Selma: her main objective is to earn enough money for the surgery her son needs. That surgery will release him from blindness, the inherited disease both Selma and Gene have. By having Gene Selma thinks she condemned him to blindness. She blames herself and to release herself from that heavy weight she needs to cure him. She loves her son so much she will kill and die to get him cured. Bill: his main objective is to keep his wife besides him. As her wife is a victim of consumerism she spends more than they can really afford. Shes used to a certain lifestyle and without that Bill knows she will dump him. There are some other biographical features that are important for each character. Selma: shes a Czechoslovak immigrant. She doesnt have any money so she works har to get enough for the operation. At some point its said that shes a communist. She never has a father so she makes up that her father is Olrich Novy (a tap dancer from the 20s in Czechoslovakia). Bill: Bill and Linda represent the perfect American marriage: a housewife and a policeman. He used to have an inheritance that he already spent and now he doesnt have enough money to pay their bills. He and his wife want to maintain his lifestyle, a position inside society to feel comfortable with himself. Linda knows nothing about their debts and hes not brave enough to tell her. Bill cant get more loans from the bank and he needs to find another way to get his goal.

FERNNDEZ IZUZQUIZA, Laura

The relationship between Bill and Selma is a good friend ship. Bill and Linda like their lifestyle and they like people to notice how wealthy and good they are. They like being noticed. However, they both help Selma in everyway they can (Selma live in a trailer in their backyard, they taking care of Gene, the give presents to them). As Selma so kind Bill trusts her enough to tell her his secret. This trust he puts on her makes her tell Bill about her own secret. Selma feels sorry for him as much as he does for her and thats the way the come up with to comfort each other. Bill sees Selma as an easy exit to his problems so she ask Selma to give him money for a month. Selma, as shes going blind already denies her help to Bill. With her money Bills problems would be solved so he decides to steal Selmas money for Genes operation (which is actually kept in a candy box that Linda gave Selma). All this makes him feel miserable. Selma is vulnerable, innocent and kind, is the last person he wants to hurt. However, is easy to take advantage of her and his needs are more important for him than that. He doesnt have courage. He prefers to kill himself rather than to live a life he doesnt want. Nevertheless, hes not brave enough to do that either so he manipulates Selma to get that goal. In the whole scene can be read in two ways: Bill is scheming everything to make Linda or anybody else- think that Selma is the thief. As the scene will be shot only with 2 characters this will be shown in a different way. Through dialogue and, in addition to that, with the fact that hes a wealthy policeman, so everything is on his side. This scene is the main turning point of the movie. Selma has already gone blind. Her blindness has made her being fired from her job. As she cant see she had to turn down her role in The Sound of Music. Shes slowly going into a darkness, literal and metaphorically. She just wants her money back because he cant save more. Selma doesnt look mad, she kindly asks for it. As the operation is the most important matter for her she will do whatever needs to be done to get that. Shes forced to kill him. The box from the bank becomes a symbol in the scene. Its the item she will have to use to kill Bill. This scene is the starting point of everything thats going to happen afterwards. Selma is the protagonist and the scene will be told from her point of view. A moment shes been waiting for all her life -complete blindness- is just about to happen. Shes not so concerned about being blind but about the consequences: she has run out of time to save more money for Genes operation. At the same time shes been robbed, shes been snatched from the instrument she needs to save his son. The scene takes place during daytime in an interior room. The cinematography in the beginning will be soft diffused light; sunlight that will be coming through the windows. As the scene goes on it will be progressively changing into high key exposure. Actual darkness will be represented by overexposure images. The last shot will be completely overexposed into the windows. It will be similar to the cinematography on Fernando Meirelles movie Blindness. In the scene Selma is the one that gets what she needs, although she is going to pay a high prize for her actions. Her objective, having her money back, is been accomplished. As Bill couldnt get his main objective he manipulated Selma to get his back up plane done. He also gets the goal of dying. Its a tragic resolution scene where both actors win and lose.
I've seen it all, I've seen the dark / I've seen the brightness in one little spark. / I've seen what I chose and I've seen what I need / And that is enough, to want more would be greed./ I've seen what I was and I know what I'll be / I've seen it all - there is no more to see!