“An exhilarating and original work of cinema. A triumph of form, content, and artistic integrity. Astonishing!” - Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

January 2, 2001

LARS VON TRIER'S AWARD-WINNING DANCER IN THE DARK AVAILABLE FROM NEW LINE HOME VIDEO ON VHS AND DVD MARCH 20

New Line Home Video today announced the release of DANCER IN THE DARK, winner of the Palme D'Or at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, starring Golden Globe Best Actress nominee and winner of the Best Female Performance at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival and three-time Grammy nominee Björk. Selected as the opening night film at the 38th Annual New York Film Festival, DANCER IN THE DARK, directed by Lars Von Trier, is an entrancing drama about a woman's battle to save her son's eyesight and the sad chain of events that lead to her ultimate ruin. The film will be available for rental on VHS and DVD, and for sale on DVD for $24.98, on March 20. GUMMO and JULIEN DONKEY-BOY will also be released on DVD for $24.98, on March 20.

DANCER IN THE DARK is a Powerful Drama
Selma (Björk) is a Czech immigrant, a single mother working in a factory in rural America. Her salvation is her passion for music, especially the song and dance numbers found in classic Hollywood musicals.

Selma harbors a sad secret: she is losing her eyesight and her son Gene stands to suffer the same fate unless she can put enough money away to secure an operation for him. When a desperate neighbor tries to steal her savings, the drama of her life escalates to a tragic finale.

Talented Stars in Front of the Camera and Behind the Scenes DANCER IN THE DARK is directed by Lars Von Trier (Breaking the Waves, Zentropa) who is widely regarded as one of Europe's most gifted filmmakers. Von Trier is known for his realistic cinematic approach and was a driving force behind Dogma 95, a collective of film directors founded in Copenhagen in spring 1995 who have the expressed goal of countering “certain tendencies” in the cinema today and the digital video filmmaking technique. The film stars musical star Björk in her feature film debut. Nominated for three Grammy Awards and with more than seven million records sold worldwide, Björk's eclectic style touches music, photography, fashion design and music video direction, and now acting.

The film's supporting cast includes highly acclaimed French actress Catherine Deneuve who has appeared in close to one hundred films and was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in Indochine and David Morse (Proof of Life, The Green Mile, The Negotiator).

Unusual Behind the Scenes DVD Features Offer Insight Into Controversial Film
The DANCER IN THE DARK DVD includes filmmaker commentary from Director Lars Von Trier, Producer Wibeke Windloer, Technical Supervisor Peter Hjorth and Artist Per Kirkeby and a second commentary from Choreographer Vincent Paterson. It also includes two documentaries: 100 Cameras: Capturing Lars Von Trier's Vision and Choreography: Creating Vincent Paterson's Dance Sequences. Additionally, there are alternate scenes and a feature called Selma's Songs that offers the viewer song by song access to the film with optional commentary by Björk. The DVD also includes cast and crew filmographies, interactive menus, the theatrical trailer, 5.1 Dolby Digital and DTS surround sound, stereo surround sound, a widescreen version of the film and English subtitles and closed captions. The DVD-Rom content includes the original website.

GUMMO Released on DVD
An electrifying succession of images - startling, hilarious, strange, tender, poetic - fills the screen in GUMMO, the directorial debut of Harmony Korine, the 23-year-old screenwriter of Kids.

Korine has created with GUMMO a suburban companion piece to Kids: a portrait of small-town Middle American life that is both bracingly realistic and hauntingly dreamlike. GUMMO is set in present-day Xenia, Ohio, a small town that never recovered, economically or psychically, from a devastating tornado that struck some twenty years ago. Xenia is a place of grimy poverty and numbing boredom, of drunken parties and summer rain showers, of casual cruelty and surreal beauty. Life goes on as it has for years and years, but hobbled.

The GUMMO DVD special features include a widescreen version of the film, an animated production photo gallery with commentary by director Harmony Korine and cast and crew filmographies.

For further information on the film, go to www.dancerinthedarkmovie.com. For more information about the 38th NYFF and additional Film Society programs, visit www.filmlinc.com

Digital Filmmaking Explored in JULIEN DONKEY-BOY DVD
JULIEN DONKEY-BOY, Korine's second film as a director, will most certainly force reactions as disparate as GUMMO, his debut. Scenes of actual poetry and beauty (highlighted by his inventive use of editing and sound) intersect with those of painfully desperate realism, in order to paint an intense portrait of one man's paranoid schizophrenia. Shot on digital video, Korine abided by the codes of the Danish Dogma 95 collective in order to become the first American filmmaker to earn its seal of approval.

The DVD of JULIEN DONKEY-BOY includes a widescreen version of the film, the theatrical trailer, two deleted scenes, cast and crew filmographies and “Confessions of JULIEN DONKEY-BOY,” a documentary.

New Line Home Video distributes all of New Line Cinema and Fine Line Features theatrical films on video and select titles on DVD. The company also distributes feature films and non-theatrical programs acquired or produced by New Line Home Video and New Line Television. New Line Cinema is the leading independent producer and distributor of theatrical films. New Line also licenses its films to ancillary markets including cable and broadcast television as well as in all international markets.

For more information about DANCER IN THE DARK, visit www.dancerinthedarkmovie.com. To download DANCER IN THE DARK, GUMMO and JULIEN DONKEY-BOY DVD box art and screen shots, and for other New Line Home Video press releases and photos, visit New Line's website at www.moviepublicity.com.

For screening cassettes or artwork, please mail your request to Meg O'Hara, New Line Home Video 116 N. Robertson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048 or fax your request to (310) 854-0602.