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Index

I. Overture......................................................................................................................... 1

II. Development................................................................................................................. 2

1. Synopsis .............................................................................................................. 2

2. On Audibility, Diegesis and Acousmêtre ........................................................ 3

Cvalda.................................................................................................................. 5

3. Dogme 95 and sound ....................................................................................... 9

4. Music as Escapology........................................................................................10

Scatter Heart ....................................................................................................11

5. Why Björk? .......................................................................................................12

6. I’ve seen it all....................................................................................................14

7. Dancer in the Dark and musical predecessors .............................................16

III. Reprise .........................................................................................................................18

IV. Bibliography ................................................................................................................21

V. Appendix

1. Transcriptions

2. Dogme 95

3. The Vow of Chastity

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I. Overture

Dancer in the Dark is a very tragic and realistic story on the one hand, and a musical

on the other. The working relationship between Lars von Trier as author, director,

cameraman and Björk as film music composer and protagonist has often been described

as very complicated and difficult one. Yet, it is this affiliation that lead to such an

astonishing film that depicts the story of Selma, a Czechoslovakian immigrant who loves

American movies and musicals. At the Cannes film festival, Dancer in the Dark won the

Golden Palm for Best Film and Björk herself won the award for Best Actress, which is even

more remarkable given that it was her film debut. Björk’s song, I’ve seen it all was also

nominated for an Oscar, and moreover Dancer in the Dark won several other awards.

Although being quite controversial, film and soundtrack were also incredibly well received

by the general public, which could partly be credited to the social-criticism on America

displayed in the movies plot. This story found a willing audience in Europe in 2000. In this

paper, I aim to understand what else made Dancer in the Dark so successful. This being a

musicological paper I will concentrate on the musical aspects, although there are

numerous reasons for the films success, including the camera work and screenplay.

The function of music in relation to diegesis is most unusual in Dancer in the Dark,

and will be examined in chapter I.2, On Audibility, Diegesis and Acousmêtre. This leads to

another aspect, Lars von Trier’s and Thomas Vinterberg’s famous Dogme 95, in which

they state their theories on film as directors.1 They blame the use of special effects and

“strive to recover a sense of naturalness and immediacy”.2 One of the main interests of

Dogme is the use of music and sound in film, which does not allow any non-diegetic

sound at all. I will discuss whether or not Dancer in the Dark with all its musical sequences

can be credited to this manifest and if the gamble with certain rules of it eventually

caused positive publicity. In the meantime, the question of diegesis also brings up other

psychological and theoretical aspects, with which chapter I.4, Music as Escapology, will

deal.

Chapter I.5 will investigate why Lars von Trier chose Björk both as composer of the

film music and for the role of Selma and whether this was in any way important to the

success of the film. Being the most famous song of the film I’ve seen it all as signifier of all

the songs gets its own chapter, number I.6, which will query, what the musical reasons

for the great success of the film and soundtrack are. Subsequently the soundtrack will be

placed in his outer-context; musical predecessors will be examined, links to Leonard

Bernstein (West Side Story and On the Waterfront) and Pierre Schaeffer’s movement

1 Trier, Lars von and Thomas Vinterberg: “Dogme 95”, and “The Vow of Chastity”, in The Official Dogme

95 Website (Copenhagen, 13/03/1995); http://www.dogme95.dk/the_vow/index.htm andhttp://www.dogme95.dk/the_vow/vow.html; accessed 27/03/2005.The Appendix of this paper includes a copy of the text.

2 Grimley, Daniel M.: “Hidden Places: Hyper-realism in Björks Vespertine and Dancer in the Dark”, inTwentieth-century music 2/1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 39.

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musique concréte of the late 1940s will also be established.3 The Reprise will conclude the

results of this case study. But for the understanding of this paper it seems necessary to

begin with a Synopsis.

So far, Dancer in the Dark has found its way into numerous academic books, but

until now a full (musicological) study has not been conducted. As it is a comparatively

young artwork to write on in a theoretical manner, the bibliography mostly contains

reviews from the Internet, others are articles in books on a broader issue. The online

research on Dancer in the Dark and Björk is ongoing, but the list of essential writings

should be complete. The only music scores available from the films soundtrack is I’ve Seen

it All4 and New World5 for piano and voice, but the sound where the song evokes from in

the film and the orchestra part is not included and is therefore is of no use to this paper.

Because of this lack of material, a full musical analysis is missing and will be a most

welcome addition for any following study on Dancer in the Dark.

II. Development

1. Synopsis

The single-mother Selma (Björk) is a Czechoslovakian immigrant in the America of

the iron curtain. She has an incurable disease, which makes her go gradually blind. Her

only son Gene (Vladica Kostic) has the same hereditary illness, but his sight could be saved

with an early operation. Selma’s love for her son sees her work tirelessly to earn enough

money to pay for his operation. Consequently she has to keep her fading sight a secret in

order to keep her job, at least until she has saved enough money. The only little pleasure

she grants herself is to join a theatre school in which she wins the role of Maria for their

amateur production of The Sound Of Music. Although life is very hard for her, she always

sees the beautiful aspects in it. She gets enjoyment from the simplest things. As Selma

loves musicals, which are usually very joyful reflections of real life with happy endings, she

tries to imagine that her life is a musical itself.

She lives with her son in the backyard of Bill (David Moorse), an American cop, and

his wife Linda (Cara Seymour). Bill is insolvent but incapable to admit his financial

problems to his wife. He finds out about Selma’s blindness and savings and steals them

3 Trier himself is aware that he did not just create a musical with Dancer in the Dark. He crosses the genres

Melodrama, Musical and Opera in a musical point of view, and furthermore with his Dogme 95documentary camera work style. (Trier, Lars von: “Über Musicals, Oper und Operette”, in Interviews.Lars von Trier über Dancer in the Dark [Lars von Trier about Dancer in the Dark];http://www.dancerinthedark-film.de; accessed: 16/02/2005.)Many articles already dealt with the question of genre and the overall solution is always, that Dancer inthe Dark is a mixture. As I cannot add anything to this, I will leave the question of genre out in favourof a more precise study at other issues.

4 Björk: I’ve seen it all; http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtd.asp?ppn=mn0039797; accessed:27/03/2005.

5 Björk: New World; http://www.musicroom.com/de-DE/se/ID_No/0518010/details.html; accessed:27/03/2005.

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the same day she looses her job. When Selma tries to take back her money Bill pulls his

gun. In the struggle he gets wounded and begs Selma to finish the job. Finding no way

out this situation she does so. Afterwards she goes to the hospital and pays for Gene’s

operation in advance and later in the plot she gets arrested. As she kept her and Gene’s

illness and the savings secret, in trial everything turns against her. She is found guilty and

sentenced to death by hanging.

Jeff (Peter Stormare), Selma’s long-time admirer, finds out about the money for

Gene’s operation and together with Kathy (Catherine Deneuve), her best friend and work

colleague, he gets her case re-opened. But Selma refuses to use the money meant for

Gene’s operation to pay for the lawyer. Dancer in the Dark ends with Selma’s execution.

The blinder Selma gets the more she has to rely upon her other senses, mainly on

her feeling and hearing. But then her imagination more and more frequently wins the

upper hand – out of the rhythms of e.g. the machines in the factory where she works, she

hears the beats of a song. Like in the musicals she loves so much in her mind, when she is

daydreaming, everybody spontaneous starts singing and dancing together to the same

music. The spectator is taken to Selma’s fantasy-world as soon “her” music enters, and

knows himself placed back into the “real-time” as soon it stops. From the mixture of

“real” music, beats and sounds, diegetic music of e. g. The Sound of Music, and

imaginary music in Selma’s mind, a very unusual soundtrack und use of music evokes.

2. On Audibility, Diegesis and Acousmêtre

One of Claudia Gorbmans main questions in her book Unheard Melodies is why we

don’t actually hear film music.6 After various attempts to answer this question, it has

actually turned around nowadays and in fact you start wondering, why you hear music in

a film when it’s present. Surprisingly in Dancer in the Dark every single piece of music is

perceived which is unusual. Film music is not “subordinate” to the story or image;7

instead the narrative is sometimes conducted by the music. The first step to answer either

of the questions is to distinguish between diegetic and non-diegetic film music. But how

exactly can we label the various sounds in Dancer in the Dark? In answering this question

it seems that firstly an analytical overview on a representative part of the film would be

appropriate:

Dancer in the Dark starts with an overture, which is quite standard in musicals. It

was composed by Björk, arranged, orchestrated and conducted by Vincent Mendoza and

foreshadows the sadness of the narrative, although not to the extent of the cruelty that

ultimately comes to pass. The instruments apparent are brasses and timpani; it starts off

with a deep chord on E, several bars long and without the genus-decisive third. The first

6 Gorbman, Claudia: Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music (Indiana: Indiana University Press/ BFI, 1987).7 ibid, p. 52.

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theme / melody line is played by the French horn and enters above this pedal point like

chord. It arises unto its highest pitch to move down again, it develops until a second

theme is introduced, which carries on the mood the first theme already shaped.8 With

dark drum rolls the timpani add dramatics. At the end the slowly developed but now wide

range gets reduced back to a calm chord, referring to the beginning. Everything finds

together and dies away.

This is visually supported by a slide show of abstract paintings, which are

subordinate to the music, giving the viewer a very strong awareness of the Overture of

Dancer in the Dark. After these abstract paintings the movie’s title, Dancer in the Dark, is

displayed above the directors name “Lars von Trier”. The spectator finds themselves

directly in the middle of a theatre school, where Selma and Kathy rehearse Raindrops and

Roses from The Sound of Music. A somewhat oddly tuned piano can be heard and soon

Selma (playing Maria) enters singing Raindrops and Roses. The music here is

unquestionably diegetic, the snappers of Sound of Music, which appear in Dancer in the

Dark are not on Björks soundtrack to the film, Selmasongs. Back in the factory she can’t

resist studying the script of The Sound of Music while you here the rhythmical noises of

the machinery in the background. These noises are very even, and foreshadow the song

Cvalda later in the film. At this point we get our first glimpse into the idea that Selma is a

daydreamer, musical dreams that are often only instigated by any constant sound, yet she

is interrupted by the announcement that Bill is at the factory with her son Gene who

skipped school.

In the sixth chapter Kathy and Selma are visiting the cinema and watching Top Hat

with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers. Again diegetic musical fragments can be heard –

you may even say ‘double’-diegetic, as this scene in Top Hat is diegetic itself and this is

shown as the source of sound in the film. Moreover the soundtrack is not just Top Hat, as

we additionally hear the noises of Selma and Kathy’s surroundings and their talk, which

are diegetic also.

Chapter eight (My Secret) is a key-scene in Dancer in the Dark. Selma and Bill

exchange their secrets – Bill his big financial problems, Selma her blindness and saved

money for Gene’s operation – which is vital to the plot and will for both turn out as fatal

mistake. Selma also tells Bill how she deals with hardships in her life, which is worth

noting, as up to this point there has not been any fantasy music:

I’ve got little games I play when it goes really hard. When I’m working in the factory and themachines they make this rhythms and I just start dreaming, it all becomes music.9

8 Transcriptions of the themes are added to the Appendix. The film will show, that the two main themes

will become very important in the music later.9 As said in Trier, Lars von: Dancer in the Dark. [DVD-film] (FilmFour / Zentropa 2000), chapter 8.

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As a spectator, you don’t really need this explanation to realise what is going on

when the first major song, Cvalda, happens, but it makes sure that even the least sensitive

viewer will understand it. A few sentences later, now they are talking about movies and

musicals, Selma states another point, which in the context seems random and not

important at all but will explain a lot for the end of the film.

…But isn’t that annoying when they do the last song when the film stops? You just know whenit goes really big and the camera goes like out of the roof and you just know its gonna end? Ihate that. I really hate that. I used to cheat on that when I was a little girl back inCzechoslovakia. I would leave the cinema just after the next to last song and – the film wouldjust go on forever.

The last song in the film will be when Selma sings while waiting for being hanged.

She sings the Next To Last Song, pretending that there is no last song and therefore her

life will not end. But back to a chronological order.

Scene nine again is in the factory, even machine noises can be heard and Selma

almost destroys one of the tools because she lost herself in daydreaming and could not

see well enough. Kathy saved the tool just in time but also figures out that Selma does

not see good enough to work at the machines. From now on it seems that Selma indeed

sees less and less. She almost gets knocked from her bike by a truck she did not see, but

she hears the roar just in time. On her way back to the factory the next day she has to

wait for the train which she could see earlier in the film quite well. Now the camera is

focused differently, the train appears as if you just see the coloured shapes out of the

corner of your eyes – so without the noise of it you would not necessarily know what it is.

Again the noises are conspicuously rhythmical and foreshadow the song I’ve seen it all.

When Selma begins to work nightshifts it becomes obvious that her sight is totally

deteriorating to the point where she is almost blind and the machine noises take over.

Selma is tired; the noises grow louder, you could call it a sound close-up, and get

transformed into music beats. Finally after 38 minutes of Dogme 95-camera work in

homemade-video-, documentary style the song Cvalda happens, everybody is dancing

along. At first you are not entirely sure if Kathy hears what Selma is singing or not.Cvalda

Cvalda opens with regular machinery noises, which become soon more structured

and musical. In the lyrics Selma explains to Kathy how this works – hearing music in the

noises. Therefore the lyrics are initially onomatopoetic,10 Selma imitates what she hears:

“Clatter, crash clack, / Racket, bang, thump, / Rattle, clang, crack, / Thud, whack, bam…

It’s music / Now dance!” just like noises on almost not identifiable pitches. As her

imagination Selma let her voice run wild.11 In her fantasy she takes complete control of

the music; it’s almost as if she is conducting and she points at the different machines

10 Bone, Martyn: “Dancer in the Dark” [Review], in the Institute of Film Studies, (Nottingham: University of

Nottingham, 01/05/2001); http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/filmrev/dancer-in-the-dark.htm; accessed:23/03/2006.

11 Gittings, Ian: Björk, Human Behaviour, Die Story zu jedem Song, trans. Karin Miedler und CäciliePlieninger. (Schlüchtern: Rockbuch Verlag Buhmann & Haeseler GmbH, 2003), p. 104.

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pretending they are instruments. She tries to convince Kathy to dance and transform into

Cvalda, how Selma always calls her. As soon as she addresses Kathy in her song (“Listen,

Cvalda, / you’re the dancer”), the pitches become more identifiable and other instruments

enter the music. The melody is not based on in a tonal key but a on a whole-tone scale

based on c’.12

The melody is circling, the timbre of the orchestration in bright, instruments like a

glockenspiel and celesta, later flute glissandos, create a sense of magic and fantasy and

remind of 19th century ballet music. The music is exhilarating and enthusiastic. Reaching

the refrain again the heavenly programming of Mark Bell13 and strong synthesised brasses

take over from the orchestra.

Even in Selma’s fantasy it takes a little while until

Kathy is talked into playing Cvalda and it is only after the

so called Stomp interlude, which is reduced to sampled

rhythmical noises, that she changes into Cvalda and smiles,

dances and sings with the rest.14 But at the end of the

song the music gets blurred, the instruments fade away

like awakening from a dream, the sampled machine beats

turn back into real machine noises and catapult Selma

rough back into reality when she noticed that she just broke the machine she was

working with.

Until Cvalda the only thing heard in the film is undoubtedly strict diegetic music,

e.g. when Selma attends the rehearsals in the theatre-school for The Sound of Music.

Then when you hear the first Selma-song Cvalda it is not diegetic – but it is not non-

diegetic either. In the quite even machine noises Selma hears a rhythm and she starts

singing to it and imagining a song in her head. The machine noises are diegetic and can

be heard by everybody. They help to slip the spectator into Selma’s fantasy; suddenly you

see the world in her eyes and her imagination. This works for the spectator but certainly

not for the other film characters. Selma can hear the music – or, one could even say, is the

source of the music herself – while the other characters cannot, they perceive the noises

differently. The music itself makes it clear that Cvalda is absolutely personal to Selma. If

the other characters would start singing, then certainly not with a melody based on a

whole-tone scale instead of a ‘normal’ western key. The instrumentation creates a strong

12 A transcription is added to the Appendix.13 Mark Bell, member of the electronic duo LFO, which formally released Frequencies (Warp Records, 1991),

Advance (Warp Records, 1996) and most resent as solo album of Bell Sheath (Warp Records, 2003).Björk worked together with him on her album Homogenic and for the music of Dancer in the Dark.Brewster, Bill: LFO Biography, (2003);http://www.warprecords.com/?section=artists/index.php?/artist=lfo; accessed: 27/03/2006.

14 Trier, Lars von: Dancer in the Dark [Screenplay], (London, Basingstoke and Oxford: FilmFour Books, 2000),p. 52.

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sense of fantasy and magic and Björk’s singing technique is also very unusual for western

music. So can this be considered diegetic or non-diegetic?

Usually it is diegetic music which is audible to the viewer, but as explained there is

quite a lot to speak against this classification. Certainly you cannot speak of non-diegetic

music either, as it is heard and experienced by the main character. Also the classification

“acousmatic” of Chion15 is not applicable to Dancer in the Dark, at least not to the

sounds, which are in the film. The Overture before and New World after the narrative are

slightly different things. Indeed the sound in this movie is “neither entirely inside nor

clearly outside”16 as the body of interest in Chion’s study is, but he is still speaking of a

sound which is clearly linked to a source inside the film, no matter if visible or not. Indeed

all the songs in Selma’s fantasy are based on noises produced in the film, but sooner or

later other fantasy created sounds enter. The only source of this is Selma’s imagination,

which can more precisely be located somewhere in Selma’s brain – but even a genius

brain cannot produce the sound of a full orchestra audible to the spectator.

In literature there exist three different narrator perspectives, most common are the

First-Person-narrator and the omniscient narrator. The third less known one is the Third-

Person-narrator. The story is told out of the point of view of one of de characters in the

narrative but not as a First-Person-narrator. The reader or listener knows what is going on

in the mind of this particular character but just like him or her not what is going on in the

others mind. The narrator can leave the body and observe other things around the

character but never enter other people’s minds. Therefore the narrator is not omniscient.

This is similar to how Dancer in the Dark is presented to the spectator.

The camera work with its documentary-style is as neutral as possible, as Selma can

barely see anything the viewer sees more then she does. But the surrounding is always

received through Selma’s hearing; the spectator never slides in the fantasy of anybody else

and is exposed to the emotions and tragedy of Selma. Most clearly shown is this at the

very end of the film in the chapter I’m scared. Selmas knee weaken when she is on the

scaffold, she cannot stand on her own without a board / straightjacket. Seeking for a way

to distract for her situation she hears her own heart beating and starts singing to it, it’s

the Next To Last Song. Again a play with diegesis – the heartbeat is a real noise but way

to low to be heard by Selma’s surrounding. The spectator hears what Selma hears, not the

other roles in the film. Selma’s singing however is diegetic, she is completely taken up in

her fantasy world and does not even realise the ringing of the phone, which is the final

sign to execute her.

Very suddenly after this call and while she is still singing; she is hung. As soon she is

dead, she not only stops singing immediately, but no sound at all can be heard anymore.

15 Chion, Michel: “Prologue Raising the Voice”, in The Voice in Cinema, trans. Claudia Gorbman (New York:

Columbia University Press, 1999).16 Chion 1999, p. 4.

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With Selma’s dead also the sound in the films world is killed, what lasts are the images,

which she could not see anymore anyway. 17

Sound and music in Dancer in the Dark act like a third-person-narrator in literature,

neither diegetic- nor non-diegetic, so I suggest calling it Selma-diegetic – or more general

imaginary-diegetic music. In a way this also reminds of Siegfried Kracauers set outs on

“Revealing Functions” of film, films “tend to reveal things normally unseen; phenomena

overwhelming consciousness, and certain aspects of the outer world which may be called

‘special modes of reality’,”18 although he is not talking about showing somebody’s

particular fantasy.

As mentioned before, it’s a different story with the Overture and the New World.

The Overture is non-diegetic. The reason that it is still audible to the spectator is because it

is not illustrating or accompanying motion pictures, but instead is illustrated with to the

music subordinate abstracts. The music seems to be more concrete then the visuals and

therefore gives the spectator more to hold on to. Given that this is the Overture, the

source of music can be imagined as coming from an off-screen orchestra pit, which would

make it rather acousmatic then non-diegetic, but that is open to question.

New World goes with the credits and is sung by Selma, the first time in this film that

Selma can be heard but not seen. But here Selma is dead and sings from a new

perspective, bodiless from her afterlife, what Chion would call a perfect example for

acousmatic music.19 Being played after a seemingly long time of absolute silence in the

film, New World is perceived as a relief for the viewer, who now may breathe again and

therefore must notice that there is music.

The whole soundtrack, in between the Overture and New World is either diegetic or

imaginary-diegetic. There is no absolutely non-diegetic music, but still the music evokes

mood, like non-diegetic music is said to do after Gorbman.20 Unlike non-diegetic music

Selma’s songs interrupt the flow of the narrative,21 as in real time the daydreaming

moment lasts only a few seconds while the songs last several minutes.

This lets the relationship of Dancer in the Dark and Dogme 95 appear in quite

another light as Grimley describes: Dancer in the Dark brakes “especially through the

17 The song refers to what she told Bill in chapter eight: She used to cheat and leave after the next to last

song. This time she cannot leave or cheat, but she tries to convince her self that her life still is a musicaland it will go on if there just is no last song. As she cannot finish the song, the last lines are written onscreen: “They say it’s the last song / They don’t know us, you see / It’s only the last song / If we let it be.”Quoted from Trier [DVD] 2000, chapter 31.

18 Kracauer, Siegfried: “From Theory Of Film. The Establishment of Physical Existence,” in Film Theorie andCriticism: Introductory Readings (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1999), pp. 293-303.

19 Chion 1999, p. 36.20 Gorbman 1987, p. 32.21 ibid.

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highly synthetic artificiality of the music-video sequences” with the Dogme 95 rules.22

3. Dogme 95 and sound

Many members of the audience have wondered how Trier could possibly announce

a film like this so shortly after his own Dogme 95 concept with which he gained a lot of

public interest. The Vow of Chastity, states that music and sound in film is the following:

2. The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. (Music must notbe used unless it occurs where the scene is being shot).23

Translated into film music terminology it says that sound must neither be non-diegetic

nor acousmatic and that it must be recorded in the place where the film is being shot. As

yet shown in this paper there is no non-diegetic music in the narrative of Dancer in the

Dark. There is a lot of diegetic music (e.g. the fragments of The Sound of Music which are

rehearsed during the story). Selma’s music is - as I called it earlier - imaginary-diegetic. Its

source is Selma’s mind, which is part of the set. The daily noises, which encourage Selma

to imagine her songs, are diegetic and they are recorded at the set, where they naturally

occurred, but then sampled. Trier’s wish was to record the music while filming at the set

as well. This was as he regrets technically and logistically impossible.24

Each imaginary musical moment is heightened in colour and therefore distinguished form thealmost monochromatic bleakness of the remaining scenes, but the transitions between stylesare always triggered by onscreen action or diegetic sound,25 …

…summarises Rhys Graham. Thus, there is postproduction, but the second

paragraph of The Vow of Chastity was always in mind, and as the music takes place in

Selma’s fantasy, there is no possibility to shoot on location, as you cannot enter anyone’s

brain. This makes the case different and also explains the other colouring of Selma’s

musical sequences. They all are so much brighter and more colourful than reality, that the

viewer will understand the two different levels of the film.26 During the imaginary

sequences Selma perceives her surrounding just like this. So would it not be a more

violent infringement to Dogme 95 if the colours were not adjusted to reflect what Selma

sees? However, there are other paragraphs on the list, which are more clearly broken, like

no. 10 which notes that the director must not be credited, or no. 6: “The film must not

contain superficial action. (Murders, weapons, etc. must not occur.)”27 Thus, Lars von Trier

knew that he was producing a musical, yet he did not even dare to classify Dancer in the

22 ibid.23 Trier and Vinterberg 1995 [The Vow of Chastity]; accessed: 27/03/2005.24 Trier, Lars von: “Über die Musik und künstlerische Zusammenstöße”, in Interviews. Lars von Trier über

Dancer in the Dark. http://www.dancerinthedark-film.de; accessed: 16/02/2005.25 Graham, Rhys: “Dancer in the Dark”, in Senses of cinema (12/2000);

http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/00/11/dancer.html; accessed: 23/03/2006.26 Lars von Trier in Kaufman, Anthony: “Interview: Lars von Trier Comes out of the Dark,” in indieWIRE

(22/09/2000); http://www.indiewire.com/people/int__vonTrier_Lars_000922.html; accessed: 23/03/2006.27 Trier and Vinterberg 1995 [The Vow of Chastity]; accessed: 27/03/2005.

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Dark as a Dogme 95 film, this was not his intention. Nonetheless Dancer in the Dark

clearly sympathises with Dogme 95, especially the documentary, homemade-video camera

style, and not even these so called “Dogme films” ever fulfil the self-imposed rules of The

Vow of Chastity completely.28

Dogme 95, also called the film equivalent of punk rock, gained lots of public

attention when it was published. The film attracted both critics and sympathizers of this

concept who awaited with scepticism to see how this seemingly weird mixture of an

avant-garde style and Hollywood-like musical could possibly turn out. Although it isn’t

technically a Dogme-film, the former publicity of Dogme 95 has undeniably helped its

promotion.

What is clearly Dogme 95 influenced was Trier’s wish to see the role of Selma

played by the composer of her music, which makes the movie more convincing and the

illusion of reality stronger. Trier’s reasoning for choosing Björk and not somebody else is

the point of interest in a later chapter (Why Björk? I.5, p. 12).

4. Music as Escapology

If the ideology of the visible demands that the [film] spectator understand the image as truthfulrepresentation of reality, the ideology of the audible demands that there exist simultaneously adifferent truth and another order of reality for the subject to grasp.29

Mary Ann Doanne (here quoted after Caryl Flinn) is not speaking of Selma- or

imaginary-diegetic music but of “normal” non-diegetic film music. This “other” truth

stays in the background while the motion pictures stay central. Yet, it is still very easily

applicable to Dancer in the Dark. Selma shows us this musical “other” truth, which usually

is inaudible to the spectator; she almost points it out to the viewer as if she would say

‘listen there, don’t you hear that rhythm? Where is your fantasy? Don’t you hear the

music?’

What Doanne calls “other truth” is a truth connected to the image. The “other

truth” normally paints the emotional truth according to the shown pictures. Selma’s

“other truth” does not concur to the pictures at all, but it relates to the sound world in

which she lives and so as long as her daydreaming lasts, it becomes her personal reality.

Music […] has the peculiar ability to ameliorate the social existence it allegedly overrides, andoffers, in one form or another, the sense of something better. Music extends an impression ofperfection and integrity in an otherwise imperfect, unintegrated world.30

Flinn believes this to be the “utopian function” of film music in the 1930s and 40s.

It is also suitable to Selma’s music. She would love to life in her fantasy, where everything

28 Anonymous: “Dogma 95”, in de.wikipedia; http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/dogma_95; accessed: 25/03/2005.29 Mary Ann Doane as quoted in Flinn, Caryl: “Introduction”, in Strains of Utopia: Gender, Nostalgia and

Hollywood Film Music (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), p. 6.30 Flinn 1992, p. 9.

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is music and she could just listen to the world. This is her utopia, which she can only

achieve in her afterlife and does in New World. For Selma the function of music is to

escape the cruelty of her life. But it is not only Selma who needs this relief from a hard

and real world. Not necessarily at the beginning but certainly from the song Scatter Heart

on until the end the viewer can barely stand the realistic drawing of the tragedy and

needs a break from reality.Scatter Heart

Selma escapes into the song Scatter Heart after Bill forced Selma to kill him. Before

she goes to the hospital to pay for Gene’s operation she has to calm down, to come to

terms with what has just happened. It is ghostly quiet in the house, only the needle of a

turntable, whose record finished before the scene but remains turning around, continually

clicking. Harp accompaniment enters right at the start, Selma is clearly exhausted and

finds it hard to force herself into dreaming, but she needs a break. As soon she is in her

fantasy world, Bill cleans himself; he starts dancing and singing with her and he gives her

mercy for what she has done, and admits that he had hurt her much more.31 Gene enters

the song, comforting his mother with making noises with his bicycle,32 singing in a

soprano voice “You just did what you had to do”. With him also strings enter the song.

The distant siren of the nearing police car breaks through her dream world; Bill picks it up

and tells Selma to hurry. When Selma leaves the house, the

door is closed and the gramophone cannot be heard

anymore, so the music stops until Selma finds another

noise, which can take over the rhythm. It’s a flag line in the

wind, slapping against the flagpole – ironically with a hoist

American flag. Now she is apologising to Linda who also

wants her to hurry and does not blame her. The volume

and amount of noises and instruments become

overwhelming. The sound of rinsing water gets integrated

while Selma dances in the lake. The song ends with the

sound of the closing door of Jeff’s pick-up. Like in the

songs before the amount of different noises and

instruments grows step by step. Selma’s shock is exposed in the melody, which is

fragmented and incoherent. The only phrase the listener / viewer most likely remembers

of Scatter Heart is the phrase that Gene sings first.33

In accordance with ‘normal’ non-diegetic film music, it appears here when the

emotional scenes become too realistic for the viewer, one of the several functions of film

31 Arroyo calls this song gothic as a corpse (Bill) is dancing and singing, the song gives explanations and

grants forgiveness and is highly stylised. Arroyo J.: “How Do You Solve a Problem like von Trier? Larsvon Trier’s anti-musical”, in Sight and Sound, vol. 10, Issue 9 (09/2000);http://www.bfi.org/sightandsound/feature/53; accessed: 25/03/2006.

32 Trier [Screenplay] 2000, p. 88.33 A transcription is added to the Appendix.

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music, which Gorbman pointed out.34 Music is the “other”, utopian world of Selma,

“where suffering is abolished,”35 the other truth, but she never can escape fully in her

“other” world, as both music and dances “are always strongly affected by the real

world,”36 like by the siren of the police car, the flagpole or the sound of Jeff’s pick-up,

which makes an end to the song.

5. Why Björk?

Boris: Are you sure she’s good enough for the part [of Maria]? She sings funny and herdancing is not too great either.37

Right at the beginning of Dancer in the Dark, in the rehearsal for The Sound of

Music Boris, who will play Mr. Trap, expresses his worries about Selma playing Maria.

Samuel, the director obviously likes her particular style and just answers “First of all it’s the

first time she did it, ok?” In the screenplay he even explains to Boris “She just has a

particular way of approaching the song. Sure, it’s not perfect, but Selma has everything

our Maria needs. She’s a natural.” Sadly this sentence it cut out of the shot, as one could

easily change the names – Selma into Björk and Samuel into Trier. Just like Trier

acknowledges in an interview on Dancer in the Dark, printed as prologue to the

screenplay:

I couldn’t have asked for a better performer in any way. The day before we started to shoot, Irealised there was something I’d forgotten to do and that was to screen test Björk. But shegives an incredible performance and it’s not acted, it’s felt.38

In another interview he calls her so “goddamn talented”.39 It almost sounds like he

was surprised himself, that his choice turned out even better then expected. She obviously

is a natural, winning so many awards for her film debut.

Initially Björk agreed to write Selma’s music, but refused to play her role. Yet, after

she read the screenplay in order to empathize with Selma, she was touched and

fascinated by the vulnerable heroine, in addition, Trier kept trying to talk her into taking

the role; eventually she conceded and finally took over the part. Björk admits to having

certain similarities with the heroine of Dancer in the Dark. Just to start with one, ever

since she can remember, Björk was interested in soundtracks and musicals and she has

seen The Sound of Music not just once.40 “I wanted to do a musical ever since I was a little

kid. […] and then I thought ‘wait a minute! Maybe this is the film I always wanted to

34 Gorbman, Claudia: “Why Music? The Sound Film and Its Spectator”, pp. 54-55, in Gorbman 1987,

pp. 53-69.35 Matthews, Peter: “Dancer in the Dark” [Review], in www.bfi.org;

http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/339; accessed 25/03/06.36 Graham 2000.37 Chapter 2, “It’s her first time”, in Dancer in the Dark [DVD], 2000.38 Trier [Screenplay] 2000, p. VIII.39 Trier as quoted after Kaufman 2000.40 Gitting 2003, p. 102.

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do?”41 And somewhat more under the surface, Björk and Selma both feel better in the

world of a song then in the real life, as she reflects in Ian Gitting’s Björk – Human

Behavior. The Stories Behind Every Song.42 “Both Selma and I try to escape reality. I am

only secure and quiet when I make music and sing.”43 The only difference, she says, is that

Selma is much more naïve then she is and still believes life could be a never ending

musical.44

Dancer in the Dark was not the first film she wrote music for, actually her first single

that scored in the British Top 30 was written for the film Young Americans.45 On top of

that, lots of her music videos are mini musicals in them self, with complete plot lines and

artificial dancing scenes. It was, as Trier says, her music video to It’s Oh So Quiet (directed

by Spike Jonze, who also did Being John Malkovich), which drew his attention to Björk as

a possible Selma. In this video Björk is walking around in a town, claiming that it is “oh so

quiet” and suddenly bursting out into loud enthusiastic singing and dancing with random

people on street. Watching this music video Trier remembers himself thinking, “she must

be completely crazy!”46 Certain resemblances to Selma’s sudden daydreaming cannot be

denied.

Another aspect is Björk’s singing style and technique, which is very particular and

distinguished. It’s remarked by a quite Icelandic chanting style. In the time of Danish

oppression, when music and singing in Iceland was not allowed, they developed a style of

story telling that was something in between singing and speaking and that Björk mixes

with popular and classical singing techniques.47 On top of that Björk just has a very

individual voice and a quite uncommon Icelandic accent. Selma is not Icelandic, she is

Czechoslovakian, but that does not really matter. With her accent, her singing and acting

style, Björk lets Selma appear as a very individual and different person as opposed to your

average run-off-the-mill character. Björk is certainly one of the most inventive and unusual

female celebrated pop-singers at the moment, her individuality is one quality stressed by

every single speaker of the latest documentary on her.48 Other female singers who played

the main role in musical films were Madonna (Evita) and Whitney Houston (The

Bodyguard). Imagine any of them, or any of the other at the moment famous singers and

composers as Selma. For me that seems fairly impossible. Björk has a singular appearance

with which she achieved a convincing portrayal of Selma, “seeming plain one moment,

exotically beautiful the next, she conveys the extraordinary intensity of Selma’s

repression.”49

41 Björk: inside Björk [Documentary] (UK: Wellhart Ltd/One Little Indian Ltd, 2002), chapter 27.42 Gitting 2003, p. 102.43 Björk as quoted in ibid.44 Björk as quoted in ibid.45 McDonnell, Evelyn: Björk, trans. Leah Himmelsbach (Freiburg: Orange-Press, 2002), p. 114.46 Trier in inside Björk 2002, chapter 27.47 Walker, Christopher and Melvyn Bragg: Björk [Documentary] (recorded from TV-channel arte: Music

Planet, NVC Arts, 1997).48 inside Björk 2002.49 Arroyo 2000; accessed: 25/03/2006.

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Critical voices tried to dismiss Björk’s performance as simply playing herself and not

acting, probably mislead from Trier’s statement that Björk did not act but felt.50 That

seems absurd, as Björk is an obviously down-to-earth, popular star,51 who has pretty good

sight and moreover is still alive. Without any doubt Björk identified strongly with Selma

and her extremely intense performance makes it indeed even more difficult to watch the

film.

Besides all of these quite psychological and aesthetic reasons which were likely to

have factored in the choice of Björk for the role of Selma, her name and high profile were

also bound to boost the films promotion, this of course has never been discussed by Trier

himself. As a singer with a great following, Björk’s presence attracted her loyal audience

to the film. Whilst she was potentially good for the films promotion, the film itself was

good for her career, taking her in new directions, showing off another side of her talent.

Dancer in the Dark ultimately marked her as a great singer, composer and actress. This

represents a typical example of cross-promotion, where both film and singer or composer,

benefit from each other in almost equal manners.52 Often it is mainly the title song, which

causes this so called synergy. In Dancer in the Dark there is not one particular title song

although I’ve seen it all became most successful. As a result it deserves its own chapter.

6. I’ve seen it all

The song occurs after Selma’s redundancy. Having

finished long before she usually does, and thus needing

to wait for Jeff, she decides to make her own way home,

and does so by feeling her way with her feet along the

train track, as she is now totally blind. Jeff runs after her

and catches up at the train bridge. He figures out that

Selma cannot see anymore while the train as always with

rhythmical noises passes by. Selma is hurt that Jeff found out her secret and tries to

protect herself. “What is there to see?” she asks, the train horn gives the sign to start the

famous song.

I’ve seen it all has many functions; Selma tries to convince herself that turning blind

is not so bad, although indirectly it is a farewell song and resignation from a life she

already lived. It’s another for Selma’s typical approach to escape into music to recover

after her feelings have been hurt.

50 Trier [Screenplay] 2000, p. VIII (like quoted on page 12 of this paper).51 Graham 2000.52 Smith, Jeff: “Banking on Film Music, Structural interactions of the film and record industries,” in

Dickinson, Kay (ed.): Movie Music, The Film Reader (London and New York: Routledge, 2003), pp. 63-82.

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In the beginning the melody53 circles around, in the small range of a lament-fourth,

which brings it together with the minor genus to a depressed sense. The accompaniment

is melancholy and although Selma opens the range and the song gets a little brighter, she

does not manage to convince herself, so the depressed mood remains as an undertone

throughout the whole the song. It’s a sentimental farewell song from life, which is

symbolised by seeing, while fantasy and afterlife are symbolised by hearing, especially

concerning the lyrics of New World, “If living is seeing, I wonder what’s next”. I’ve seen it

all also contains the striking sentence “I’ve seen a man killed by his best friend”, which

predicts the killing of Bill as if she would know already what is going to happen.

The song is also kind of a love duet with Jeff. He had stated earlier in the film that

he finds it hard to understand musicals because people suddenly burst into dance and

song.54 Now that Selma escapes into her musical world in her fantasy Jeff approaches her

emotionally while singing with her in her personal world. Peter Stormare is – of course – a

weaker singer than Björk, but that fits the scene well, as he is only a beginner in hearing

music in daily noises. He tries to learn from her and imitates her melody. At the end of the

song the workers on the train who had been dancing along sing the chorus in a deep

undoing and sad voice, which predicts the trouble ahead. When the song is over, Selma

wakes up from her daydream in the same moment where

she had left reality; Jeff is not any closer to her world as he

was before.

Within the story the song takes place before the whole

tragedy with Bill happens. It suggests happiness, the viewer

could imagine a more joyful future if Jeff and Selma would

get together. Although it has a depressed mood the song

also has a very romantic and flirtatious touch. Among other

things they talk about marriage and grandchildren, they even

start dancing together. The train is filmed in incredibly slow

motion.

On Björk’s album Selmasongs Thom Yorke, the lead singer of Radiohead, replaces

Peter Stormare. The lyrics are more equally divided up between the two singers; in the

second verse they even change roles. Transformed like I’ve seen it all probably is most

suitable to release without the context of the film as public mostly is fond of a romantic

touch. And therefore it is also understandable that Björk got nominated for an Oscar with

I’ve seen it all as most original song.

53 For a transcription consult the Appendix.54 Dancer in the Dark [DVD], chapter 11.

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What’s remarkable is, that all the songs in the film are connected by the fact that

each theme has a circling gesture. In I’ve seen it all the first phrase arises to its highest

pitch and then goes steadily downwards back to where it started. Although the phrases

and themes are certainly not the same and have their own distinguishing qualities, this

overall description fits every single song of Dancer in the Dark. In some songs the phrases

or themes don’t make their way fully back to the lowest note from which they started,

but because of the repetitive manner the first note of the repetition functions as both first

and last note; This by no means makes the music boring. However, it creates a connection

from song to song, which goes beyond their common ground of daily noises as impetus

of the songs. It helps, that the music works within the plot and creates a sense of logical

story line from the Overture to New World. This of course is stressed by the fact that the

musical material of the first, second last and the last song is the same. New Word is in fact

a reprise of the Overture. The orchestral material is basically the same, but instead of that

the French horn plays the melody line, Selma sings it from her afterlife. Whilst it is hart to

distinguish a metre in the Overture, because of missing concise beats, New World now

provides beats that represent Selma’s pulse to which she started singing her last song in

lifetime.

7. Dancer in the Dark and musical predecessors

In his article “Björk ‘Dancer In The Dark’” David Toop55 points out several interesting

(musical) influences, but at the same time stays on the surface, trusting that the reader

will just believe what he writes. As it was a text for the press file you cannot blame him

and I am grateful for some of the ideas it provided for this paper. Nevertheless in this

chapter I will do without listing all the influences I came across in my research in favour of

having a somewhat closer look at particular ones.

Björk and Lars von Trier did not reinvent the wheel, when they created musical

rhythm and beats out of real machine noises. Not only have other popular electronic

bands like Kraftwerk or Pinkfloyd experimented with this kind of sound making, but it

goes back even further in musical history and refers e.g. to Pierre Schaeffer’s movement

of the Musique concrète,56 which was first named so in 1948. Musique concrète uses in

contrary to “abstract music” real noises that appear in daily surrounding as a starting

point. (Abstract music starts with the notation of firstly imagined sound of mostly

traditional music instruments, which eventually leads afterwards in sound realization.)57

These noises become recorded and technically transformed in several different ways that

55 Toop, David: “Björk. Dancer in the Dark”, in www.bjork.com; http://unit.bjork.com/selmasongs/toop.htm;

accessed 25/03/2005.56 ibid.57 Frisius, Rudolf: “Musique concrete” in MGG, col. 1836.

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Schaeffer as sound technician explored in the studio of the Radiodiffusion Télévision

Française in Paris. In one of his Cinq Études de bruits (1948) for example, the Étude aux

chemins de fer, he experimented with preexistent noises of a train. Another composition,

Symphonie pour un homme seul (1950), which he created with his assistant Pierre Henry,

discusses inner and outer noises of a single human body, like breath- and sigh-noises as

well as heart beats. In 1961 Philippe Carson wrote a piece of fabric noises, Turmac.58

These are only a few examples of this broad field, but especially these examples remark

strong parallels to the music in Dancer in the Dark, as I’ve seen it all experiments with

noises of a train, Cvalda with fabric noises and the Next To Last Song and New World with

heart beats. Another resemblance to Musique concrète builds the song 107 Steps, which

evokes from stamping and speaking numbers. (Within this case study is unfortunately no

closer look on this song possible.) The starting points of the songs in Dancer in the Dark

are all like in Musique concrète preexistent, naturally occurring noises.

Pierre Schaeffer might have also influenced Bernstein. His film music for On The

Waterfront (by Elia Kazan and Budd Schulberg) was released shortly after Schaeffer

produced his first Musique concrète-piece. Especially in chapter 17 to 18 Bernstein makes

remarkable use of repetitive traffic and ship machinery noises: In chapter 17 Terry and

Father Barry are surrounded by random city noises like traffic noises and the horn beeping

of unseen cars, which initially are unstructured. Through the end of this scene the

machinery noise of a big ship in the background enters quietly but soon grows louder

while two different tuned ship horns are being heard (they actually built a small sixth

which is an interval associated with sorrow). The camera follows Terry who runs closer to

the harbour to admit to Edie, his girlfriend, that he was involved in the murder of her

brother. So near the harbour the spectator can only hear fragments of their conversation.

Again a ship horn is heard, this time it is really overwhelming and the camera even swings

away from the couple to show the source of the noise. The sounds are very even by now,

but in the first moment received as normal diegetic background noise of the scenery.

When Edie runs away violins enter in the sound and the horn roar becomes suddenly in

key part of the non-diegetic music. The machine beats remain as the rhythmic part in the

orchestral music, but leave the soundtrack, when the scenery moves away from the

harbour back to the village. It is obvious that the machine noises are meant to provide

rhythm in the music but remain so strongly connected to their real sound source that they

have to drop out when the harbour is left.Diegetic and non-diegetic noises and sounds get mixed in these scenes. The

technique is similar to one apparent in Cvalda and I’ve Seen it All, where the clattering of

machines is sampled to the songs. You can assume that the diegetic noises in On the

58 Möller, Thorsten: “Pierre Schaeffer”, in MGG, col. 1163-1167.

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Waterfront were partly recorded on the set, which is one important case in Dancer in the

Dark and for the Musique concrète, too.

Moreover there are other parallels to a further work by Bernstein. With the

slideshow of abstract paintings, the Overture visually refers directly to Bernstein’s Westside

Story. Instead of the slideshow only one abstract painting is shown, of which the colour

changes during the overture. But it is not only a visual reference; in fact the first three

notes of the horn-theme are the whistled call at the very beginning of Bernstein’s

overture, just rhythmically stretched and a twelfth lower then its predecessor. West Side

Story is Lars von Trier’s favourite musical,59 which is one possible explanation for these

very noticeable parallels.60

Another film that uses similar recording techniques of noises at the set and

transforms or samples them with other sounds is The Garden (1990) by Derek Jarman.

What Dancer in the Dark does not in contrary to The Garden is separating soundtrack

from film, using music as a counterpoint to the image.61 Björk and Trier go even one step

further – music dictates what is shown on screen and not the other way around.62 Yet

there is a counterpuntual aspect in Selmas music as it goes against reality, against what

there just was on screen. Only that the music is strong enough to change the image as

well. So the clips are counterpuntual to the content of the narrative, but not image and

music within the clip itself; and as explained earlier, Selma needs this counterpoint to

escape from reality.

Björk’s musical education is very grounded; she has a strong classical background.

But being the same generation Björk is also strongly influenced by electronic bands. Mark

Bell, the programmer, who started working with Björk from the album Homogenic on,

has amongst other worked with musicians from Kraftwerk, Neubauten and Depeche

Mode, and his band LFO was quite influential itself on electronic music in the 1990s.63

Since her album Post Björk started, inspired by the creative surrounding of London,

experiencing and experimenting with industrial sound and recorded real noises.64

Therefore it is logical that you are sometimes reminded of some standards of the

electronic music era. Like the clattering of Genes bike in the song Scatter Heart, which

59 Trier [Screenplay] 2000, p. V.60 As mentioned by Grimley the timbre of the orchestrations and the intervallic characteristics also “inevitably

recall the openings of nineteenth-century Romantic works” and he especially refers to WagnersRheingold. (Grimley 2005, p. 41).

61 For a description of the sound techniques used in The Garden see: Davison, Annette: “Playing in TheGarden: Sound, Performance and Images of Persecution”, in Indiana Theory Review, 19 (1998), pp. 35-54.

62 This is already insisted in the Overture, as not the expected opening credits appear but instead non-representational abstract paintings occur, that draws attention of the viewer to the music of theOverture. (Grimley 2005, p. 41).

63 “Milkman”: [Interview with Mark Bell]; http://www.themilkfactory.co.uk/interviews/lfoiw.htm; accessed:27/03/2006.

64 inside Björk 2002 [Documentary], chapter 21.

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reminds of (and maybe even refers to) the song Bike by Pink Floyd. After ca. two minutes

(on the album Echoes: The Best Of Pink Floyd) noises produced by one or more bikes and

bicycle attributes take over the song and create a rhythmical section.

III. Reprise

With this contextualisation I do not claim completeness, but for the purpose of this

essay it should be enough. The connections to Björk’s musical surrounding and classical

music are obvious and justify a place for her music in both the western art and popular

music scenes. The mixture of many different music styles is too much for some people,

but it also offers a lot for everybody. She makes it possible, that even my mother, who

believes that all music after 1900 is just noise, unexpectedly says after watching Dancer in

the Dark that she really likes Selma’s music. The uniqueness of Dancer in the Dark lays in

its intertextuality – or better intermusicuality – by generic references that are meant to

situate it within and distinguish it of the history of music and the genre of the musical.

Aim of this essay was to investigate what role the music played in the success of the

film Dancer in the Dark. My Main body of interest was the function and use of music and

a contextualisation, meant to situate it in its musical surrounding. This study showed how

difficult or impossible it is to apply terms like diegetic or acousmatic to Selma’s songs and

established the term ‘imaginary-diegetic’. These difficulties appear because we hear the

film through the perspective of a living character and not from a distant and therefore

omniscient point of view (this could be a omniscient narrator as well as an omniscient

dead person). Pretending that the world is a musical Selma perceives all the noises in the

reality as a soundtrack with music in her imagination. The hearing of this soundtrack

makes the reality more accessible to Selma, as she is almost blind and pictures cannot

prove this for her. But as this soundtrack is

perceived differently from the people, who do

not need to rely on sound and cannot hear the

same music in daily noises, they cannot

understand Selma, and likewise, Selma cannot

understand reality.

As viewer you live with Selma in her

world, she makes you hear and listen to her

soundtrack and it is therefore easier for the

spectator to understand her than it is for the other characters. During the trial Selma sits

there, helpless in the courtroom. She can hear what is being said, but she is still in shock

by what she was forced to do. Nobody understands and believes her; she cannot defend

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herself and is still traumatized. As a viewer you are forced to hear (and see) what is going

on, but just like Selma you cannot do anything to rescue her. Her situation is hopeless and

as spectator you feel paralyzed. In the Musicals #2 is a relief for both Selma and the

viewer.

Dancer in the Dark points even within the text very clear at the discussion of film

music and reality, for example when Jeff explains that he cannot understand that

characters in musicals suddenly burst out in dancing and singing whilst one would never

do that in reality.65 Therefore one can see his character as an allegory of the Dogme 95

concept. Selma however shows us so unequivocally the different functions of film

music, that I am tend to call her the personification of film music. It almost seems as

if there is a competition between realism and fantasy going on in Dancer in the Dark. The

documentary Dogme 95 style competes with Selma’s musical fantasies. When so suddenly

sound stops as soon as Selma is dead, it first seems as if reality would have won, but then

Selma starts singing again from her afterlife, New World. Selma and sound is still there, so

does this highlight the victory of fiction over reality? Maybe it’s a stalemate and we can

expect more return matches in exploring this field.

The Music in Dancer in the Dark creates a strong emotional connection with the

heroine. As I explored in the last chapter, the intertextuality/ intermusicuality offers the

possibility of associations for a broad target group. Moreover the circling gesture of the

different themes and motives creates a bond from song to song and keep the story

together. Although it is not non-diegetic but imaginary-diegetic music, Gorbman’s theory

that film music makes the viewer less sceptic and more tolerant towards the film still

seems take effect.66 Together with Selma the viewer can escape into music, in which I

looked into in the chapter on Music and Escapism. Furthermore probably both Lars von

Trier’s Dogme publicity and the degree of fame of the inventive and individual singer Björk

contributed to the success of the film and Björk is very convincing as Selma.

Björk was exhausted after playing Selma; she swore to never play a major role in

film again. Thank god that she recovered a bit from the emotional shock while playing in

Dancer in the Dark, in 2005 she released together with her boyfriend Matthew Barney the

film Drawing Restraint 9, which will be on tour this year. With two artists of this kind you

cannot expect it being a film in a normal sense. It is said to be pure avant-garde and

combine sculpture, architecture, music and performance to explore the relationship

between resistance and creativity. First of all, says Björk, “it’s a movie without dialogue”.67

After exploring Dancer and the Dark I am more then interested to see

Drawing Restraint 9.

65 Dancer in the Dark [DVD], chapter 11.66 Gorbman 1987, p. 55.67 Crisell, Luke: “New Björk. The Icelandic songstress joins forces with her boyfriend, Matthew Barney. So

what’s their film about? Sculpture, geishas, and whales.” [Review on Drawing Restraint 9], in New YorkMetro; hrrp://www.newyorkmetro.com; accessed: 26/03/03.

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IV. Bibliography

DVDs / Videos:

Æ Berstein, Leonard: Westside Story [Film], (USA, 1960).

Æ Björk: Greatest Hits (UK: Wellhart Ltd/One Little Indian Ltd, 2002).

Æ Björk: inside Björk [Documentary], (UK: Wellhart Ltd/One Little Indian Ltd, 2002).

Æ Kazan, Elia and Budd Schulberg [Music by Bernstein]: On The Waterfront (USA1954).

Æ Trier, Lars von: Dancer in the Dark [DVD], (FilmFour / Zentropa 2000).

Æ Walker, Christopher and Melvyn Bragg: Björk [Documentary], trans. into German byTI:ME:CO:DE-Filmstudio, (recorded from TV-channel arte: Music Planet, NVC Arts,1997).

Books and Articles:

Æ Chion, Michel: The Voice in Cinema, trans. Claudia Gorbman (New York: ColumbiaUniversity Press, 1999).

Æ Davison, Annette: “Playing in The Garden: Sound, Performance and Images ofPersecution”, in Indiana Theory Review, 19 (1998), pp. 35-54.

Æ Flinn, Caryl: Strains of Utopia: Gender, Nostalgia and Hollywood Film Music(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992).

Æ Frisius, Rudolf: “Musique concrete” in Finscher, Ludwig (Ed.): Die Musik inGeschichte und Gegenwart [MGG], Sachteil 6, (Kassel, Basel, London, New Yorkand Prag: Bärenreiter / Stuttgart and Weimar: Metzler, 20042), col. 1834-1844.

Æ Gittings, Ian: Björk, Human Behaviour, Die Story zu jedem Song, trans. Karin Miedlerund Cäcilie Plieninger. (Schlüchtern: Rockbuch Verlag Buhmann & Haeseler GmbH,2003).

Æ Gorbman, Claudia: Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music (Indiana: IndianaUniversity Press / BFI, 1987).

Æ Grimley, Daniel M.: “Hidden Places: Hyper-realism in Björks Vespertine and Dancerin the Dark”, in Twentieth-century music 2/1 (Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress, 2005).

Æ McDonnell, Evelyn: Björk, trans. Leah Himmelsbach (Freiburg: Orange-Press, 2002).

Æ Möller, Thorsten: “Pierre Schaeffer”, in MGG, Personenteil 14, (Kassel, Basel,London, New York and Prag: Bärenreiter / Stuttgart and Weimar: Metzler, 20042),col. 1163-1167.

Æ Smith, Jeff: “Banking on Film Music, Structural interactions of the film and recordindustries,” in Dickinson, Kay (ed.): Movie Music, The Film Reader (London and NewYork: Routledge, 2003).

Æ Trier, Lars von: Dancer in the Dark, Screenplay (London, Basingstoke and Oxford:FilmFour Books, 2000).

Æ Harenberg, Bodo (ed.): Harenberg Komponisten Lexikon (Dortmund, HarenbergLexikon Verlag, 2001).

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Internet:

Æ Anonymous: “Dogma 95”, in de.wikipedia; http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/dogma_95;accessed: 25/03/2005.

Æ Arroyo J.: “How Do You Solve a Problem like von Trier? Lars von Trier’s anti-musical”, in Sight and Sound, vol. 10, Issue 9 (09/2000);http://www.bfi.org/sightandsound/feature/53; accessed: 25/03/2006.

Æ Björk: I’ve seen it all [music score];http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtd.asp?ppn=mn0039797;accessed: 27/03/2005.

Æ Björk: New World [music score];http://www.musicroom.com/de-DE/se/ID_No/0518010/details.html;accessed: 27/03/2005.

Æ Bone, Martyn: “Dancer in the Dark” [Review], in the Institute of Film Studies,(Nottingham: University of Nottingham, 01/05/2001);http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/filmrev/dancer-in-the-dark.htm; accessed:23/03/2006.

Æ Brewster, Bill: LFO Biography, (2003);http://www.warprecords.com/?section=artists/index.php?/artist=lfo; accessed:27/03/2006.

Æ Crisell, Luke: “New Björk. The Icelandic songstress joins forces with her boyfriend,Matthew Barney. So what’s their film about? Sculpture, geishas, and whales.”[Review on Drawing Restraint 9], in New York Metro;hrrp://www.newyorkmetro.com; accessed: 26/03/03.

Æ Graham, Rhys: “Dancer in the Dark” [Review], in Senses of cinema (12/2000);http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/00/11/dancer.html; accessed:23/03/2006.

Æ Kaufman, Anthony: “Lars von Trier Comes out of the Dark,” [Interview with Larsvon Trier] in indieWIRE (22/09/2000);http://www.indiewire.com/people/int__vonTrier_Lars_000922.html; accessed:23/03/2006.

Æ Kracauer, Siegfried: “From Theory Of Film. The Establishment of Physical Existence,”in Film Theorie and Criticism: Introductory Readings (Oxford: Oxford University Press1999), pp. 293-303.

Æ Matthews, Peter: “Dancer in the Dark” [Review], in www.bfi.org;http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/339; accessed 25/03/06.

Æ “Milkman”: [Interview with Mark Bell];http://www.themilkfactory.co.uk/interviews/lfoiw.htm; accessed: 27/03/2006.

Æ Toop, David: “Björk. Dancer in the Dark”, in www.bjork.com;http://unit.bjork.com/selmasongs/toop.htm; accessed 25/03/2005.

Æ Trier, Lars von: Interviews. Lars von Trier über Dancer in the Dark [Lars von Trierabout Dancer in the Dark]; http://www.dancerinthedark-film.de; accessed:16/02/2005.

Æ Trier, Lars von and Thomas Vinterberg: “Dogma 95”, and “The Vow of Chastity”, inThe Official Dogme 95 Website (Copenhagen, 13/03/1995);http://www.dogme95.dk/the_vow/index.htm andhttp://www.dogme95.dk/the_vow/vow.html; accessed 27/03/2005.