FRANCE: BJORK, CATHERINE DENEUVE AND OTHER GUESTS ARRIVE FOR POST SCREENING PARTY AFTER "DANCER IN THE DARK" PREMIERE

Record ID: 389317

  • Title: FRANCE: BJORK, CATHERINE DENEUVE AND OTHER GUESTS ARRIVE FOR POST SCREENING PARTY AFTER "DANCER IN THE DARK" PREMIERE
  • Date: 17th May 2000
  • Summary: CANNES, FRANCE (MAY 17, 2000) (REUTERS) ( ** BEWARE FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY**) WIDE OF GUESTS ARRIVING AT POST-SCREENING PARTY, PAN TO BUILDING WHERE PARTY HELD VARIOUS, LARS VON TRIER POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS (3 SH0TS) SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) LARS VON TRIER SAYING "I always likes musicals when I was a child and suddenly I was in a position where it was actually possible
  • Embargoed: 1st June 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CANNES, FRANCE AND VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
  • Country: France
  • Reuters ID: LVA65S9VTFXTJRYD5JX31I7ICWB4
  • Story Text: Danish director Lars Von Trier won a wild standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival for his weepy melodrama "Dancer in the Dark".The film, starring Icelandic pop-singer Bjork, and veteran French actress Catherine Deneuve, is one of 23 films in competition for the prestigious Palme D'or In the film, which blends emotional tension with elaborate song and dance numbers, Bjork plays a Czech immigrant and single mother working in a factory in rural 1960s America while French actress Catherine Deneuve plays her friend and guardian angel.Selma.
    Bjork's character, has a terrible secret: she suffers from a hereditary disease that gradually makes her go blind.
    She puts away every spare penny of her paltry wages, determined to pay for an eye operation for her son Gene to save him from the same fate.
    Whenever life becomes too much to bear, Selma daydreams of musical comedies, which are played out in the film with song and dance in vivid colour - a first for Von Trier.
    But everything goes wrong.Selma's vision worsens and she is fired from her job, only to find her nest egg has been stolen by the friendly policeman who was like a father to Gene.
    In a tussle over the money, Selma shoots the policeman with his own gun and the the film comes to a tragic conclusion, that left much of the audience at the official screening in tears.
    Von Trier originally commissioned Bjork to write the score but ended up persuading her to take the lead role, despite the fact that she had never made a film before.
    Von Trier admits that working with his leading lady was difficult, one one occasion she stormed off set and did not return for four days, but feels that the final result is worth it: "It has been hard work, for both of us, extremely painful, it's a painful film in many ways but it pays off, I think she has done a film."
    Peter Stormare, who plays Jeff, Selma's simple minded suitor, was also moved by seeing the final results of Von Trier's efforts, but was in a jubilant mood after the film's incredible reception.
    Grande Dame of French cinema Catherine Deneuve, despite being a film actress since the age of fourteen, claims that making dancing in the dark was one of the most challenging processes she has experienced, but one that was enjoyable nonetheless: "It was an incredible experience, great, I already held a press conference so I don't want to talk too much, but it was really special, working with video, improvisation, performing in English, working with Bjork was a great experience."
    Von Trier is now considered to be among the favourites to scoop the Palme D'Or on Sunday (May 21), a prize that has eluded him twice already with "The Idiots" and "Breaking the Waves.
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