The Cinematheque, founded in 1972, is a film institute and media education centre devoted to understanding the art and history of Canadian and international cinema and the impact of moving images and screen-based media in our lives. Our public activities include a year-round calendar of curated film exhibitions devoted to important classic and contemporary films and filmmakers; and an array of community outreach programs offering interactive learning opportunities in film appreciation, filmmaking, media literacy, and critical thinking.
The Cinematheque’s collections include a Film Reference Library housing thousands of film-related books and periodicals, and a West Coast Film Archive holding some 2,000 Canadian motion pictures, including a core collection of historically and artistically significant British Columbian works.
We value cinema as a communal and transformative experience; believe in the importance of inclusivity and diversity in programming; and are committed to showcasing the finest achievements of local and national artists along with the best cinema from around the world.
- Dancer in the Dark
- Denmark/Sweden/France/Iceland2000
- Lars Von Trier
- 140 35mm
- 14A
Screening Dates
- June 1 (Saturday) 8:40
- June 4 (Tuesday) 7:00
- June 9 (Sunday) 8:25
35mm Print
“Dancer in the Dark is not like any other movie out this week, or this year. It smashes down the walls of habit that surround so many movies. It returns to the wellsprings. It is a bold, reckless gesture.”Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Between her masterpieces Homogenic and Vespertine, Björk wrote, produced, and performed the songs for Dancer in the Dark, a menace of a musical that at turns embodies and collapses all the strengths of the genre. Björk plays Selma, a Czech factory worker pulling double shifts and dealing with macular degeneration in a small Pacific Northwest town circa the mid-20th century. Lars Von Trier’s post-Dogme approach, led by cinematographer Robby Müller (Paris, Texas), is to fragment space and collapse time between shots, meaning we’re stuck anywhere (or nowhere) in an ersatz USA, populated by a cop, a boss, and a crowd ready to be swayed as in an Ibsen play. “The guy has no heart,” wrote Dennis Cooper of Von Trier, but Björk’s escapist numbers, captured by dozens of DV cameras in synchronicity, push matters—of life and death and musical intertextuality—to the extreme.
In English
Palme d’or, Best Actress
Cannes Film Festival 2000
“Von Trier lovingly extracts elements from the musical tradition and refigures them into a decidedly anti-American narrative performed by an international cast … This marriage of a scrutinizing documentary approach to the joyous excesses of Rodgers and Hammerstein is unlikely, brilliant and almost certainly a landmark in recent cinema.” Rhys Graham, Senses of Cinema
1131 Howe Street
Vancouver
The Cinematheque is situated on the unceded, ancestral homelands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
Office
200–1131 Howe Street
Vancouver, BC
Canada V6Z 2L7
Tel: 604 688 8202
Office Hours
Monday to Friday
9 am–5 pm