Golden Heart trilogy | |
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Directed by | Lars von Trier |
Written by | Lars von Trier |
Release dates |
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Country | Denmark |
Languages | English, Danish |
The Golden Heart trilogy (Danish : Guldhjerte-trilogien) is three films by the Danish screenwriter and director Lars von Trier. It consists of Breaking the Waves (1996), a melodrama about sex and religion; The Idiots (1998), a Dogme 95 film dealing with moral conventions; and Dancer in the Dark (2000), a musical starring the Icelandic singer Björk. [1]
The standalone films feature female protagonists and were inspired by the children's book Guldhjertet (lit. 'The Golden Heart'), which is about a poor girl who ends up giving away all her food and all the clothes she wears in order to help others. [2] Each film premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, where Breaking the Waves won the Grand Prix and Dancer in the Dark won the Palme d'Or.
Breaking the Waves stars Emily Watson and is set in the Scottish Highlands in the early 1970s. It follows Bess McNeill, a young woman with a history of mental illness, who belongs to a tight-knit Calvinist community and marries a non-religious and foreign oil-rig worker. When her husband is seriously injured in a workplace accident, he urges her to seek out other men as sexual partners. Bess complies, thinking it will improve his condition. The film premiered on 18 May 1996 at the Cannes Film Festival.
Made according to the rules of the Dogme 95 movement, The Idiots is about a commune in a Copenhagen suburb. The residents engage in what they call "spassing", which is to pretend to have mental disabilities in order to attack the bourgeoisie and reach a state of innocence. The film follows Karen (Bodil Jørgensen), a woman with her own personal problems, as she engages with the group. The film premiered at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.
Starring the Icelandic singer Björk in one of her few film roles, Dancer in the Dark is a musical set in the United States in the 1960s. It is about a Czech immigrant, Selma Ježková, who struggles with poverty and a degenerative eye condition that slowly is making her blind. As Selma's life turns increasingly bleak, she enjoys Hollywood musicals and fantasises about a life inspired by them. The film premiered at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.
The three films were met with both controversy and positive reactions. In 2001, The New York Times described how they "routinely make critics' best and worst-film lists". [3] Kim Skotte wrote in Filmmagasinet Ekko that the act of naming them the "Golden Heart trilogy" was a greater provocation than any of the content in the films. He traced their themes through the "banal and sentimental" picture book that was their direct inspiration to a recurring theme in fairy tales and in the New Testament, placing their endlessly caring protagonists in the same tradition as Mary Magdalene and Mary, "the Whore and the Madonna". [4]
Breaking the Waves won the Grand Prix in Cannes, was a breakout role for Watson who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, and was described in Slate in 2009 as "perhaps von Trier's most widely acclaimed film". [5] The Idiots became notorious for its unsimulated group sex scene. It was included in the Danish Culture Canon. [1] Dancer in the Dark won the Palme d'Or in Cannes [3] and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "I've Seen It All". [6]
Lars von Trier is a Danish film director and screenwriter.
Thomas Vinterberg is a Danish film director who, along with Lars von Trier, co-founded the Dogme 95 movement in filmmaking, which established rules for simplifying movie production. He is best known for the films The Celebration (1998), Submarino (2010), The Hunt (2012), Far from the Madding Crowd (2015), and Another Round (2020). For Another Round he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director, the first Danish filmmaker nominated in the Best Director category.
Dancer in the Dark is a 2000 musical psychological tragedy film written and directed by Lars von Trier. It stars Icelandic musician Björk as a factory worker who suffers from a degenerative eye condition and is saving for an operation to prevent her young son from suffering the same fate. Catherine Deneuve, David Morse, Cara Seymour, Peter Stormare, Siobhan Fallon Hogan and Joel Grey also star. The soundtrack for the film, Selmasongs, was written mainly by Björk, but a number of songs featured contributions from Mark Bell and some of the lyrics were written by von Trier and Sjón.
The Element of Crime is a 1984 Danish experimental neo-noir crime film co-written and directed by Lars von Trier. It is the first feature film directed by von Trier and the first installment of the director's Europa trilogy — succeeded by Epidemic (1987) and Europa (1991).
Breaking The Waves is a 1996 psychological romantic melodrama film directed and co-written by Lars von Trier and starring Emily Watson in her feature film acting debut, and with Stellan Skarsgård, a frequent collaborator with von Trier.
The Idiots is a 1998 Danish black comedy drama film written and directed by Lars von Trier. It is his first film made in compliance with the Dogme 95 Manifesto, and is also known as Dogme #2. It is the second film in von Trier's Golden Heart Trilogy, preceded by Breaking the Waves (1996) and succeeded by Dancer in the Dark (2000). It is among the first films to be shot entirely with digital cameras.
Denmark has been producing films since 1897 and since the 1980s has maintained a steady stream of product due largely to funding by the state-supported Danish Film Institute. Historically, Danish films have been noted for their realism, religious and moral themes, sexual frankness and technical innovation.
Selmasongs: Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack 'Dancer in the Dark' is the first soundtrack album by Icelandic musician Björk. It was released on September 18, 2000, by One Little Indian Records to promote and accompany the film Dancer in the Dark. In the film, Björk starred as Selma Ježková, a Czech immigrant who has moved to the United States. The album features classical arrangements, as well as melodies and beats composed of sounds from mundane objects, such as factory machines and trains.
Ray Williams is a British A&R music producer and publisher. He discovered Elton John and introduced him to Bernie Taupin. Williams has been a prominent figure of the music and film industry for many years as a press agent, A&R head, artist manager, film music producer, and publisher. He was the music supervisor of films including The Last Emperor, Absolute Beginners, and Naked Lunch.
Shari Roman is an American artist, author, screenwriter and director.
Pernille Fischer Christensen is a Danish film director and the older sister of actress Stine Fischer Christensen. She started out in the movie business when she was 20 years old as an assistant to Tómas Gislason. During that time, Gislason was closely connected to Lars von Trier, and she got to listen to Gislason and von Trier's discussions about movies. In 1993, she went to The European Film College where she met and collaborated with Nanna Arnfred. In 1999, she graduated from the National Film School of Denmark with the movie India, which later went on to win the Cinéfondations 3rd Prize at the Film festival in Cannes. After finishing film school she made a short film called Habibti My Love, which won a Robert in 2003 for best short subject.
The 53rd Cannes Film Festival took place from 14 to 25 May 2000. French filmmaker Luc Besson was the Jury President for the main competition. Virginie Ledoyen was the mistress of ceremonies. Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier won the Palme d'Or for the musical-drama film Dancer in the Dark.
The Bodil Award for Best Danish Film is one of the categories for the Bodil Awards presented annually by the Danish Film Critics Association. It was created in 1948 and is one of the oldest film prizes in Europe. The jury can decide not to give out the award if no deserving films are submitted. This has occurred once, in 1974. More than one film also can receive the award in a single year, as occurred in 1955.
Antichrist is a 2009 art horror film written and directed by Lars von Trier. It stars Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a married couple who experience the accidental death of their infant son, after which they retreat to a cabin in the woods to grieve, where the man experiences strange visions and the woman manifests increasingly violent sexual behavior and sadomasochism. The narrative is divided into a prologue, four chapters, and an epilogue.
Dogme 95 was a Danish avant-garde filmmaking movement founded by Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, who created the "Dogme 95 Manifesto" and the "Vows of Chastity". These were rules to create films based on the traditional values of story, acting, and theme, while excluding the use of elaborate special effects or technology. It was supposedly created as an attempt to "take back power for the directors as artists" as opposed to the movie studio.
Melancholia is a 2011 science fiction drama film written and directed by Lars von Trier and starring Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Kiefer Sutherland, with Alexander Skarsgård, Brady Corbet, Cameron Spurr, Charlotte Rampling, Jesper Christensen, John Hurt, Stellan Skarsgård, and Udo Kier in supporting roles. The film's story revolves around two sisters, one of whom marries just before a rogue planet is about to collide with the Earth. Melancholia is the second film in von Trier's unofficially titled Depression Trilogy. It was preceded in 2009 by Antichrist and followed by Nymphomaniac in 2013.
Stig Björkman is a Swedish writer and film critic. He has also directed fifteen films since 1964. His 1972 film Georgia, Georgia was entered into the 23rd Berlin International Film Festival. His 1975 film The White Wall was entered into the 9th Moscow International Film Festival. His 2015 documentary Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words was screened in the Cannes Classics section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.
Dimension is a 2010 Danish unfinished gangster film written and directed by Lars von Trier. Production began in 1990, the film was shot in over six years from 1991 to 1997. The original intention was to continue production in four-minute segments every year for a period of 33 years for a final release in 2024. In 2002, von Trier lost interest in the project after the death of Cartlidge, Constantine, and Hugo Järegård. The unfinished film consists of the completed footage as a short film at the time, the rest of the film's development was abandoned without them.
The Bodil Special Award is one of the awards at the annual Bodil Awards presented by the Danish Film Critics Association. While the Bodil Awards as such were established in 1948, the Special Award was first presented in 2008, and has been given annually to a person or an organization who has done something special for Danish cinema.
Breaking the Waves is an opera in three acts by Missy Mazzoli with a libretto by Royce Vavrek. It is based on the 1996 film of the same name by Danish auteur Lars von Trier. The opera was first performed on September 22, 2016, by Opera Philadelphia.