Dancer in the Dark. Against all expectations, I actually got to see Dancer in the Dark on the big screen tonight as part of the campus film series (the film not surprisingly never came to Kirksville’s family 3-screen theatre during its summer release).

What an amazing movie. I’d already fallen in love with the soundtrack (available for download from selmasongs.com) and have been listening to it almost daily for months, and now I see how the music fits the plot. Suffice to say, I don’t think I’ll be able to listen to the songs for a while because I am still reeling in sorrow about the sad fate that Bjork’s character met and the noble sacrifice she made for her son. As a life long lover of the musical theatre, I totally empathized with her character — it’s strange, but my greatest fear for a long time has been that I would either go blind or deaf and then be unable to once more perform on stage again.

I don’t think I’ve wept so openly at a film since 1996 at — don’t laugh — Grisham’s A Time to Kill (when that shot rang out on the courthouse steps at the end of the film, I burst into tears and my friends had to help carry me out of the movie theatre).