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| Dancer in the Dark |
Catherine Deneuve was so taken with von Trier's
Breaking the Waves (1996), she wrote to the director saying she was available for upcoming parts.
Not one to let an interesting counterpoint pass him by, von Trier offered Deneuve the role of a factory 'den mother' opposite the sight-impaired gamin Selma (Icelandic pop princess, Bjork) in this stylistically audacious grunge musical that von Trier describes as "a musical melodrama colliding with reality."
Bjork as Selma is transcendent and Deneuve genuinely affecting as the ally who tries to shield her from the cruel vagaries of destiny (and, arguably, von Trier's perplexing gender politics).
