SELMASONGS [AKA: DANCER IN THE DARK] (OST)

I won't hide the fact that I've actually never seen this soundtrack album existing, although I've no doubt it exist. Indeed the music of this Lars Von Trier movie is made by the top actress in the movie (a title she can dispute to a low-keyed Catherine Deneuve) where our Icelandic elf plays (or should I say over-plays) a death-row convicted woman. For those knowing Von Trier's cinema, they shouldn't panic, because he doesn't use the Dogma95 syndrome of no make-up, hand-held camera and other lighting twists that make these Nordic films relatively difficult sighting for the eyes (very unstable cameras and therefore pictures) and interest (let's face it these movies are relatively boring in the best of cases). Sooooo I will be reviewing the movie rather than the soundtrack album, but it shouldn't be too different, since I will concentrate on the music from now on.

In some of the sequences throughout the movie, the prison scenes are interrupted by some "dream sequences" (lack of better words) by the musical fantasies of the convicted murderer, headed for the gallows pole. These are actually sometimes breathtaking (like the group playing on a moving train, a bit like queen a few years before) and bring you back to the best stuff of Bjork's Debut album's better songs, which IMHO are still from far her best stuff

Despite Bjork's almost insufferable over-acting (I think this was her first and last movie role), Dancer In The Dark is good film, in spite of the difficult and controversial subject of the death penalty. As for Bjork's music included on the OSB, it's definitely worth your while to lend an attentive ear, in case you liked her Debut album.