Bjork: Twisted genius

By DESMOND SIMPSON

Kooky, loopy, dotty and wacky. You name it, nearly every adjective for weird has been hurled at Bjork since she first emerged from Iceland in 1987 with the band the Sugarcubes.

Chatting to Bjork, now an award-winning actress as well as the owner of one of the most distinctive voices in pop, it is clear that, although she isn't from another planet, she's definitely from another world. She punctuates her sentences with quirky facial expressions, baring her teeth and repeatedly scrunching up her nose as she raves about everything and nothing.

Take this pearl of wisdom, for example: "Most of the time, our society tells us that people on their own are sad losers. But I think, actually, that these people are very self-sufficient," she declares. "I spent most of my childhood on my own but I was in heaven — in euphoric highs. If I was to pick 100 highlights of my life, 90 of them I had on my own."

Cynics might say spending too much time on her own is why Bjork has a warped perspective of life. But looking at the world through her eyes, just like listening to it through her music, is a lesson in twisted genius. That's partly why celebrated and infamous Danish director Lars Von Trier approached her to score the soundtrack for his film Dancer In The Dark.

But he had ulterior motives, believing Bjork's eccentricities would make her perfect for the lead role of Selma, a Czech immigrant who, battling blindness, retreats into a fantasy world of musicals to escape a life of monotony and misery.

"When Lars first asked me to play Selma I said, 'No way,' " sniggers
Bjork. "Eventually, after two years, I agreed because he convinced me that acting her was an extension of my songs about her. But I think the real reason he fought so hard for me to do it — and said no one else could do it — was because he wanted someone who'd disagree with him, to cause confrontation.

"That's why, if you compare the film and the music, the songs try to be very happy but the dialogue is very sad. So, there's conflict already there — that duality of fantasy and reality.

"I personally wanted to have more fantasy. I wanted people to walk out after the film and feel anything is possible, because the human spirit won 10-0, rather than walk out and feel abused. But that's where Lars and I differ," shrugs Bjork. "He's a fan of suffering and I'm more of a Pollyanna."

So, why did she decide to write the music and star in Dancer In The Dark, especially since she had never acted before?

"Because it was a challenge," she grins. "Also, after reading the script I felt so much for Selma and wanted to protect her from Lars. That's why I did the music too; I felt she needed someone to do that for her."

Accordingly, Bjork's soundtrack Selmasongs is spirited, optimistic and uplifting — a complete contrast to the film, which is often bleak and uncompromising. In effect, it's a life — and film — saver.

"I've said this before, that it's documented every time a doctor saves a life, but it isn't documented when a song saves a life. I'm naive enough to think that even in the most dodgy situations the right song can rescue us, just like it did for Selma. That's the gift of music, why it's magical."

Music's been magical for Bjork too, ever since she released an album of Icelandic folk songs at 11. Subsequently, she's unleashed some of the most beguiling and innovative pop around, firstly with the Sugarcubes and then across three solo albums.

With Selmasongs, Bjork has expan-
ded her repertoire even further, to startling effect. On Cvalda, a striking duet with costar Catherine Deneuve, she employs an 80-piece orchestra to contrast the beat provided by the sounds of assembly-line machinery. Elsewhere, she duets with Radiohead's Thom Yorke on the haunting I Have Seen It All, and the result is simply mesmerising.

Bjork's acting is equally captivating, infusing her role with so much empathy and gritty realism that it's little wonder she won the Best Actress award at Cannes this year, despite her inexperience.

"Winning at Cannes was a big shock," shrieks Bjork. "But it was also a very pleasant surprise after sacrificing three years of my life and giving everything I had to Selma. It was more than I could ask for.

"But I will never act again. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Besides, the world is full of people born to act, who can become someone else when you click your fingers. I can't do that — it took me two years to become Selma.

"Anyway, I think I'm meant to do other things, do music. I feel like a servant to music," she smiles. "That's not a megalomania thing, because from childhood music's been the love of my life. It's something I realised even more after doing this film. I realised that music's my temple, my religion, what I have to do."

*Selmasongs is out now. Dancer In The Dark is due on New Zealand screens early in the New Year.