http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/newsid_752000/752417.stm 

Björk's Cannes surprise

Björk curtsies while Catherine Deneuve looks on
Pop singer Björk made a surprise appearance at
the Cannes premiere of her new film Dancer In
The Dark, hours after staying away from its
press launch. 

The Icelandic star donned a pink fair-style
dress to the celebrity showing at the Palais
des Festivals on Wednesday evening. 

She paused on her way up the red carpet to
pose for photographers, curtsying, but blinking
and turning away if anyone moved too close. 


The 31-year-old singer
arrived arm-in-arm with
her co-star, French
actress Catherine
Deneuve, who earlier in
the day had told
reporters how Björk
often found work on
the film overwhelming. 

She said: "Sometimes
she couldn't take what
she was doing. It was
like a little child running
away from school. 

"Sometimes she would run away." 

But Deneuve was greeted with applause at the
press conference when she said she
understood Björk's behaviour, and it should not
be allowed to eclipse her performance in the
film, which is one of the 23 in the running for
Cannes' top prize, the Palme d'Or. 

In the film, directed by Lars Von Trier, Björk
plays a poor Czech immigrant in the US who
fantasises about appearing in a Hollywood
musical. 

Deneuve, 56, said: "No film is without tension,
without difficulties. Björk is a wonderful person,
but she's very special. 


"She cannot really act,
she can feel in the
film." 

She added: "Let's not
let the fact that Björk
cannot be here today,
that she cannot speak
about what she's done,
be the centre, because
that's not what the
film's about." 

Lars Von Trier - best
known for films such as Breaking The Waves
and The Idiots - said the singer, who shot to
fame in the mid-1990s with her first solo album
Debut, was his first choice for the lead role. 

He added he was sure she would one day
"come out" to talk about her part - as Deneuve
joked "in 10 years". 


"Björk is not an actor,
which is a surprise for
me, because she
seemed very
professional," he said. 

"She's not acting
anything in this film,
she's feeling
everything, which is
incredibly hard on her
and hard on everyone
else. 

"It's like being with a dying person. She was
really feeling this all the time, the core of this
person. 

"This work with Björk has been very rewarding
for both of us, but also very painful." 


Dancer In The Dark is
not the 34-year-old
singer's movie debut;
she appeared in
lcelandic film Juniper
Tree in 1987 when she
fronted cult pop band
The Sugarcubes. She
also took a cameo part
in 1994's Pret A Porter.

Her distrust of the
press is well-known. In
February 1996, she
attacked reporter Julie
Kaufman in front of TV cameras at an airport in
Bangkok. 

She later apologised, saying she was trying to
protect her son from media attention.