Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Dancer in the Dark & Rashomon, by Andy

I finally got around to watching these two movies. Good picks by the way.

I had no idea Dancer in the Dark would be so "dark." I'm not sure I've been so sad after a movie. I'm sure part of the reason for my intense feelings were from my job, having now defended a handful of guys charged with capital offenses. But still, when Bjork starts hyperventilating as they put the hangman's shroud over her, I nearly emulated her response. The movie left me sadder than any movie in recent memory. It obviously buoyed up my feelings against capital punishment.

Rashomon was also a very interesting film. It seemed kind of racy for 1950s but was a fascinating to look into Japanese culture. I'm not sure whose version of the story to believe...

1 comment:

Tod Robbins said...

I also recently viewed "Dancer in the Dark". I have to say: Lars von Triers is a manipulative director (more on that below). Björk did a superb job, though the choreography was pretty bad I must say.

von Triers' "USA: Land of Opportunities" Trilogy is interesting and yet wholly pessimistic. The films raise up the feminine-hero type and yet the character is always self-destructing and never rewarded for her efforts.

Dancer in the Dark, Dogville, and especially Manderlay are merely torture sessions that I feel von Trier must get a lot of joy out of.

This review really jived with me:

http://archive.salon.com/ent/movies/review/2000/09/22/trier_dancer/index.html

Cool blog by the way. And "Rashomon" is an excellent piece of cinema.