Perspectives: 5 Reasons Why Dancer In The Dark Is Postmodern

Pastiche: 
In the musical numbers Dancer in the dark is a pastiche of the musical genre albeit a less opulent and more grittier version as Selma played by Bjork manifests her visions of musicals into her mundane life.

Deconstructed:
The film deconstructs the musical genre and flips the viewers expectation, juxtapositioning it with the harsh truth of Selma's reality.

Parody:
The film is also a parody of of the musical genre as the majority of musicals are full of vitality that enrich your eyes with glamourise set designs and costumes that feel otherworldly and too good to be true. Dancer in the dark capsizes this oversaturated genre into a storyline that is extremely melancholy as Selma is progressively getting more blind with her son being diagnosed with the same condition. Only in Selma's day dreams of musicals can she feel free and vivacious feeling the rhythm of music in the dark and dreary warehouse where she works as "nothing dreadful ever happens in musicals" and "someone is always there to catch you in musicals" only in Selma's actual reality, those people to catch her are the police to whisk her away for the trial of manslaughter. 

Fragmented:
The film is fragmented and broken up into parts that question what is the viewer actually watching, a musical? or a indie film? shot on a cheap hand held camera. As the film is shot on a motion sickness inducing hand held camera such as The Blair Witch Project it feels as though the viewer is watching a day in the life of Selma, but then the musical numbers are implemented late into the first arc with Selma telling the viewer "In musicals why do they start to sing and dance all of a sudden" it is more of a slow burn into the musical element as Selma starts to hear patterns and rhythms all around her.

Mise-en-abyme:  
Dancer in the dark is littered with Mise-en-abyme as Selma's day dreams of hearing the hum of factory machinery and having them merge into an orchestra of sounds that translate into a musical number in which all the characters on screen join in is tapping into Selma's unconscious.