Five reasons why "Dancer in the Dark" is Postmodern

1. The main heroine of "Dancer in the Dark" Selma is transforming the universe around her by the power of imagination, she seeks support from this fabulation, with a penultimate song and a noose around her neck she fuses together an imaginary and real world, two binary opposites.


2. Throughout the film, fate is monstrously killing Selma. Police officer, foreman, prosecutor and other court visitors, even her executioners despised her however, when her imaginary musical is started, they become background dancers who support Selma, who is now a star of the show, with singing and dancing. We see Selma’s hyper reality entering the stage.


3. In th end, reality, silently swallows Selma’s hyperreality and Selma, who resists to succumb to it till the end, and despite the genre, not even a song is played at th end.(till credits)


4. "Dancer in the Dark" is an experiment with visuals and psychology, an experiment on the audience, on the whole genre of musical. The heavy "American tragedy" turns into a vaudeville -an experiment. Lars von Trier, the director, provocates the audience by making this film "all at once".


5. Lars von Trier made a magnificent pastiche of Richard Rodgers song from the musical "Sounds of Music". Music  differs because in "Dancer in the Dark", the sound was born  from the grinding of the machines, the rustling of cloth, the creaking of pen on paper, the whole world participated in the birth of this work of art. And many other musical compositions were used in this film.