On Sunday, Björk shared a story on Facebook alleging that a “Danish director” had “humiliated” and “harassed” her during the production of a film. Since she has only worked with one Danish director, it was clear she was speaking about her experience with controversial director Lars von Trier on the set of Dancer in the Dark. Today, von Trier denied those charges to a Danish newspaper, saying simply, “that wasn’t the case.” He also added that the Icelandic pop star gave one of the finest performances in any of his films.
The on-set strife between the singer and director on the brilliant Dancer in the Dark has been well documented, with Björk and von Trier quarreling so frequently that she stormed off the set more than once, threatening never to return. Dancer co-producer Peter Aalbaek Jensen — also a partner with von Trier in their Zentropa production company — made a statement to the paper that featured some incredibly unfortunate wording. “As far as I remember, we were victims,” Jensen told the paper, “that woman was stronger than both Lars von Trier and me and our company together.” (While I’ve no doubt that Björk is stronger than both men combined, this probably isn’t the time to be framing yourself as a “victim”.)
Dancer is widely regraded as a new classic, won the Palme d’Or in Cannes for best film and saw Björk take the prize for best actress. The singer and von Trier were also each nominated for an Oscar for Best Song for “I’ve Seen It All”, for which von Tier wrote the lyrics.
Check back for more on this story as it develops and revisit “I’ve Seen It All” below.
