FilmScene is giving audiences a chance to revisit controversial films that were once booed at the Cannes Film Festival throughout April. On April 16, the theater screened Lars von Trier’s film, “Dancer in the Dark.”
“That film is incredibly sad,” Filmscene’s programming director Ben Delgado said. “There is a strong reaction to it, but I think that says something about how powerful it is as a piece of art.”
“Dancer in the Dark” was just one of the films featured in FilmScene’s latest series, Cannes-celled. According to Bijou’s programming director, Ben Romero, this film series took inspiration from the Cannes Film Festival’s method of showing their approval or disapproval after films premiere.
“It’s this historic film festival in Cannes, France,” Romero said. “It’s the film festival that’s been around the longest.”
The film festival was known for its audience members clapping for up to nine minutes, depending on the crowd’s appreciation for the film. Occasionally, before the trend of long- standing ovations came along, the audience would boo the film in front of the filmmaker.
“The coverage shifted,” Delgado said. “It’s now about how long a standing ovation is, and the boos don’t really happen anymore.”
FilmScene took inspiration from that festival by deciding to showcase films that had originally been booed but later went on to win awards. After each film, FilmScene invited each audience member to leave a red or green sticky note with their opinions of the film.
“Dancer in the Dark” warranted a lot of positive comments from FilmScene’s audience because of its sad nature. The negative comments were directed at the film’s camera style, as the movie had the fuzzy quality of being shot by a home video camera.
Before watching the film, attendee Paul Wise noted the complaints about the handheld camera work but found it enjoyable.
“I liked it a lot,” Wise said. “I thought it was really interesting and it added so much to the film.”
FilmScene front of house staff supervisor and Bijou member Grace McCabe also liked the camera work of the film.
“I thought that was very interesting, and I didn’t expect it to be shot that way,” McCabe said.
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Björk, an Icelandic singer-songwriter and actress, played Selma Ježková, a Czech immigrant living in the U.S. Selma works in a factory to provide for herself and her son, 12-year-old Gene.
Within the first few scenes, Selma begins going blind due to a genetic eye condition. Characters in the film take advantage of Selma’s kind nature and unfortunate condition, particularly her friend and wealthy landlord, Bill Houston.
The difficult subject matter of the film is another element often cited by the audience members who originally disliked the film. As the film intensifies, the brief musical numbers help provide some comic relief as Selma is cast in a rendition of “The Sound of Music.”
“I really liked the musical scenes,” Wise said. “They were just so well done.”
During the film, Selma mentions how she would leave the theater during the next-to-last song so that the movie could go on forever when she was a kid. In a touching and heartbreaking parallel, Selma sings to her son Gene, but the movie ends before she can finish the song.
“They say it’s the last song/They don’t know us, you see/It’s only the last song/If we let it be,” read lyrics on the screen before it faded to black, leaving the viewers to process in stunned silence.