I have never bawled my eyes out the way I did watching Dancer In The Dark on SBS, Sunday night. And I don’t just mean that “silent cry” you do when tears just stream down your face – I was alone and full on bawled for a good last half an hour of the movie. Lars Von Trier is almost sadistic in the way he takes such an exquisite character (played by Bjork) so beautifully determined, hopeful, childlike in purity and tortures her relentlessly with misfortune.

And yet it is not a film in which you feel drained with the hopelessness and hardship. Mainly because Bjork plays her character with such utter joy you are happy with her. And during the sad parts the pain you feel is this intense, physical outpouring, sadness as pure as this character that it later felt great to just feel something so uncomplicated.

The style is documentary style, Von Trier coming from the Dogma family, with no soundtrack except of course the dance numbers interspersed throughout! I personally liked the numbers, Bjork of course is a singer with extraordinary presence, but may not be for everyone’s taste.