DANSEN (DANCERS)
Denmark, 2008, 90minutes, Colour.
Trine Dyrholm, Anders W. Birthelsen.
Directed by Pernille Fischer Christensen.
Set in a dance school (with an opening of a variety of dances and students and closing with their end of year show), this is a small but very effective drama about the manager of the school. She works with her mother and lives at home. When a reticent electrician comes to fix the faulty wiring system, she is attracted to him only to discover that he is just out of prison and has served a sentence for rape.
The film, sensitively written and directed by a woman, shows the dilemma facing the teacher: her attraction to the man (and even the exciting danger in a relationship with him) and the repulsion at his crime. He is an enigmatic figure, gradually revealing what happened and the effect on him. He is attracted to the teacher but has to find ways of telling the truth to her. She tries to probe what happened, visiting the victim.
The audience appreciates the falling in love but also understands the behaviour (firing the electrician) and sound advice of the mother even when she speaks harshly and her daughter responds badly.
While the film focuses principally on the woman's point of view, the question arises concerning a man serving his sentence and asking what becomes of him then. With empathy for the victim, one asks whether he can be forgiven or, if not forgiven, redeemed.
1.A slice of life? Ordinary people? Difficult situations? Moral choices?
2.The Scandinavian background, the dance school, apartments, the woods? Realism?
3.The musical score, the range of songs, the dances, the choreography?
4.The framing: the lessons at the beginning, the finale of the show? The range of students, the range of dancing, the moods, the teachers, Annika and her mother, Lasse and his own dancing?
5.Annika’s story: her age, background, seeing her at work, likeable, positive, her response to the students? Her past, relationships? The school, her grandfather, her mother running the school, her being a partner? The issue of the electricity, Lasse coming to fix it, the attraction, giving him the extra job in her apartment, offering to pay, the beer? His leaving? The phone contact, Lasse and the jobs, the awkwardness between them? Saying he was in prison, fraud? To go to the movies, the confession about the rape? Annika’s reaction? Her stopping the relationship, resuming contact, wanting to start over again, their discussions, her believing him, defending him to her mother? The walks in the woods? Going to the carnival and the dodgem cars? The sexual encounters? His saying he had a black hole in his memory? Her asking questions, his police record? Andreas and the phone calls, saying she should be ashamed? The visit to the house, meeting Andreas, meeting Nina, hearing her story, confronting Lasse, hitting him, drawing the knife? Her mother and the warnings, firing Lasse? Her upset with her mother, telling her to shut up, her decision to go to find Lasse, seeing him in the street, the happy ending, the dance performance, her future? Her moral choice to continue the relationship, knowing who he was? Her own desire to break out, the daring and danger of the relationship with him?
6.The mother, Annika living with her, running the school, her mother’s expectations? Sharing, her mother’s warnings, firing Lasse? The risks in the relationship, the mother being correct in her advice, the final clash?
7.Lasse, arriving, working, reticent, the job in the apartment, the beer, no pay, offering to go to the movies, telling her he was in prison, the bond between them? Tentative, the apartment, the dance lesson, the vigorous dancing? The sex, rough? The effect on her? The truth about the situation, his police record, the rape, the assault, breaking Nina’s fingers? The phone calls? The on and off relationship and its effect on him, saying he had a black hole in his memory, lying to Annika? Finally telling the truth or not? A psychologically wounded man? Deserving of forgiveness, love? Hope and the end?
8.The issue of men, aggression, sex and rape, victims, further crimes or not, forgiveness and redemption?
9.Nina, her story, the relationship with Lasse, the party, drinking, the drive home, the house, the attack, her going to hospital? With Andreas and the boy?
10.The range of students, their performance, Annika being severe on them, their complaints to their parents?
11.An effective drama, small scale, love, ethical issues?
