Film: Rushes

AS THE Idiots strikes bewilderment into British cinemas, news arrives that Lars Von Trier has this week begun his next project. It stars Catherine Deneuve and Bjork, and it's a musical. Honestly. It looks as if the Icelandic pop star will play Selma, whose only escape from her rural existence is a love for classic Hollywood musicals. Selma's a factory worker, but we're promised show-stopping production numbers with Deneuve too. If this sounds like uncharted territory, hang on a minute. Deneuve starred as a down-trodden shop-girl in the 1964 film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Bjork also proved herself as an effective hoofer in Spike Jonze's video for her version of "It's Oh So Quiet". It all sounds a riot, but a Von Trier film needs its dollop of Scandinavian gloom. Here, it's Selma's son who will fall victim to the same condition that's eating away at his mother's eyesight unless she can pay for an operation. The film's title? Dancer in the Dark.

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A CAST is taking shape for the film adaptation of Sebastian Junger's best-seller, Perfect Storm. The book is about a 1991 storm in which a fishing boat, the Andrea Gail, went down with all hands off the north- eastern US coast. George Clooney is being lined up to play the skipper, with Ben Affleck as a crew member.