Genre: Musical / Drama
Length: 2h 20m 0s
Director: Lars von Trier
Tagline: You don't need eyes to see.
Plot outline: Selma has emigrated with her son from east Europe to America. The year is 1964. Selma works day and night to save her son from the same disease she suffers from, a disease that inevitably will make her blind. But Selma has the energy to live because of her secret! She loves musicals. When life feels tough she can pretend that she is in the wonderful world of musicals...just for a short moment. All happiness life is not able to give her she finds there... Summary written by Fredrik Klasson {fredrik.klasson@telia.com} Selma (Björk) is a Czech immigrant, a single mother working in a factory in rural America. Her salvation is her passion for music, specifically, the all-singing, all-dancing numbers found in classic Hollywood musicals. Selma harbors a sad secret: she is losing her eyesight and her son Gene stands to suffer the same fate if she can't put away enough money to secure him an operation. When a desperate neighbor falsely accuses Selma of stealing his savings, the drama of her life escalates to a tragic finale. Summary written by Anonymous Selma è una giovane ragazza-madre di origine cecoslovacca, trapiantata negli USA. Ha una tara ereditaria, che la sta portando a perdere la vista, cosa che succederà un giorno anche a Gene, il figlio di dodici anni. Venuta a conoscenza della presenza negli States di medici che potrebbero operare il bambino, ha deciso di emigrare. Lavora sodo per accumulare la somma utile per l'intervento. Bill e Linda, i vicini, insieme alla collega di fabbrica Kathy, le danno un aiuto per gestire il figlio e per il lavoro, mentre Jeff le dichiara il suo amore. Ma la vista la sta abbandonando. L'unica sua salvezza è il rifugiarsi in un mondo di sogni a base di musica e danze, come in un vecchio musical americano, per trasformare ogni sofferenza in fiaba. Un giorno Bill le chiede un prestito, non potendo ammettere il proprio fallimento con la moglie, ma Selma non può permetterselo, essendosi avvicinata la data dell'operazione del figlio. Disperato, l'uomo la deruba, affermando che i soldi sono i suoi. Ma la donna, ancora più disperata, lo uccide. Viene arrestata e condannata a morte. Pur di far operare il figlio, rifiuta di usare i risparmi per l'appello in tribunale. Finale tragico, la legge sarà implacabile. Summary written by rosebud6
Comment: As a fan of Lars Von Trier's earlier works, as well as Bjork's music videos, I was quite excited to see a collaboration between the two. I tried not to expect much, however, as many reviews of the film were quite poor. I couldn't have been more delighted by the film. Bjork's acting ability was superb (it is a shame she will not be acting in the future), and Lars Von Trier's writing and direction proved to be intense and incredible. While he played with different themes in the genres of the Musical, the Neo-Realist film, and the Melodrama, he created a meta film, investigating human nature as well as the nature of film (or digital video) itself. An incredibly emotional film, it also proved to be poignantly intellectual.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
Country: Denmark
Language:
Subtitels: No ()
CDs: 0
| Quality: | Video (?x? @ ?.?? [[unknown] ?kb/s]) | Audio (?Hz ?bit ? chan. [[unknown] ?kb/s]) |
| Actors: | ||
| Björk | as | Selma Jezkova |
| Catherine Deneuve | as | Kathy |
| David Morse | as | Bill |
| Peter Stormare | as | Jeff |