Bjork's silver screen dance

New York Film Festival opens with award-winning, controversial von Trier film

	MOVIES
'Dancer in the Dark,' starring Icelandic pop star Bjork, opened the the 38th New York Film Festival on Friday

In this story: The toast of Cannes Going blind, hearing music Favoring other senses 'Geniuses' clash RELATED STORIES, SITES

By Jamie Allen
CNN.com Senior Writer

NEW YORK (CNN) -- At one point during writer-director Lars von Trier's "Dancer in the Dark," Selma Jezkova, the movie/musical's lead character played by Icelandic pop star Bjork, offers a simple reason for her infatuation with movies that suddenly break into song and dance: "Nothing dreadful ever happens in a musical," she says.

Not so. At this point in the film, one character is going blind, another is dead and the whole plot has an undercurrent of dread. Yes, it's a musical, and, no, it's not your typical song fest.

Perhaps that's reason enough for it to open the 38th New York Film Festival, which bows Friday night.

	REVIEW
Stunning, compelling, and well, strange 'Dancer in the Dark' deserves an audience

The festival remains true to its avant-garde roots. This year's international stew of 26 features and 12 shorts includes high-profile ventures like "Dancer in the Dark," Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," and "Pollock," which marks actor Ed Harris' directorial debut.

Asian films are also in the spotlight, with 10 entries. Two Sunday evening screenings are reserved for the 1925 Oscar Micheaux film "Body and Soul" starring Paul Robeson, which will be given a new, live soundtrack by Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.

First, though, "Dancer in the Dark" gets its moment in the spotlight. The winner of this year's Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, it is the chance for von Trier ("Breaking the Waves," 1996) to show again his inimitable style through digital film and impressionistic editing.

The movie, which also stars Catherine Deneuve, Siobhan Fallon and David Morse, received a decidedly mixed response at a mid-week press screening. Some viewers were seen wiping their eyes with tissue as the credits rolled. Others rolled their eyes. And when NYFF program director Richard Pena announced that organizers were waiting for the talent to arrive for the post-film press conference, one unimpressed viewer couldn't resist. "We're going to be waiting a long time," he cracked.

"Dancer in the Dark" tells the story of Selma, a single Czech-immigrant mother working at a factory in Washington state in the 1960s. She's losing her sight (and trying to keep it a secret), while trying to save enough money to buy an operation that will keep her 10-year-old son from going blind from the same genetic affliction.

Obsessed with "The Sound of Music" and other musicals, she finds escape from her life by turning the sounds around her -- the factory clangs and clicks, for instance -- into the foundation for daydream musicals in which she stars.

For Bjork, who composed the soundtrack to the movie with von Trier, it is an impressive debut as an actress, as she won the best female performance award at Cannes.

"I'm very naive and innocent with acting," she said at the press conference. "I guess the only way I could do this was for the love of this (character). And I just sort of jumped off the cliff and hoped everything would go well.

Acting was not always pleasant, she said.

"It was like a lot ... of voltage running through you," she said. "Sometimes it was quite painful, but that was because of what this girl went through. Overall, it's something you do once in a lifetime and you feel lucky."

She felt connected to her character's handicap, Bjork said.

"For me, the movie was about how we all work with different senses," she said. "For me personally, 70 percent of me is audio driven about 30 percent of me might be the eyes. I don't use them very much. So for me it was a chance to sort of speak out.

Crowds gather for the opening of the 38th New York Film Festival

"It seems that most the world is driven by the eye, right? They design cities to look great but they always sound horrible," Bjork said. "They design telephones to look great, but they sound horrible. I think it was about time that the other senses were celebrated."

Bjork's acting career could be short-lived. She has been quoted as saying she no longer is interested in film, perhaps because of the controversy surrounding the production of "Dancer in the Dark": she and von Trier clashed often, prompting Bjork to walk off the set for days at a time.

Vincent Paterson, who choreographed the film's dance sequences and appears in "Dancer" as the director of a community theater, urged reporters not to make too much of creative differences between "two geniuses."

"When two geniuses who are used to living in their own environment and being able to create their own rules come together, it's not only a love fest, but a time when all the energies you have come to the foreground," he said.

"It kind of hurt my feelings a little bit that this whole thing has turned into 'a difficult star and a difficult director,'" said Paterson. "This was really an incredible family situation. I really feel it was more of a love fest than anything else."

In other words, he doesn't want audiences to forget the story or the stellar cast. Deneuve plays a maternal figure in Selma's life. Morse, as a small-town police officer, transforms from friendly presence to troubled soul.

Morse said his performance was enhanced by Bjork's presence.

"The more some of us do this (acting), the more technically minded we become," he said. "Being with Bjork, who wasn't carrying a lot of this technical baggage with her, was thrilling. That kind of life to take part in as an actor is wonderful. I think we're all grateful for those kind of moments."

More moments doubtless are in store. The festival lasts more than two weeks and concludes October 9.

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