Dogme 95 is a 1995 avant-garde filmmaking movement founded by the Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, who created the "Dogme 95 Manifesto" and the "Vows of Chastity" (Danish: kyskhedsløfter). These were rules to create films based on the traditional values of story, acting, and theme, and excluding the use of elaborate special effects or technology. It was supposedly created as an attempt to "take back power for the directors as artists", as opposed to the studio.[1] They were later joined by fellow Danish directors Kristian Levring and Søren Kragh-Jacobsen, forming the Dogme 95 Collective or the Dogme Brethren. Dogme (pronounced[ˈtʌwmə]) is the Danish word for dogma.
Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg wrote and co-signed the manifesto and its companion "vows". Vinterberg said that they wrote the pieces in 45 minutes.[2] The manifesto initially mimics the wording of François Truffaut's 1954 essay "Une certaine tendance du cinéma français" in Cahiers du cinéma.
They announced the Dogme movement on March 13, 1995, in Paris, at Le cinéma vers son deuxième siècle conference. The cinema world had gathered to celebrate the first century of motion pictures and contemplate the uncertain future of commercial cinema. Called upon to speak about the future of film, Lars von Trier showered a bemused audience with red pamphlets announcing "Dogme 95".
In response to criticism, von Trier and Vinterberg have both stated that they just wanted to establish a new extreme: "In a business of extremely high budgets, we figured we should balance the dynamic as much as possible."[3]
Since 2002 and the 31st film, Spanish director Juan Pinzás is no longer needs to have their work verified by the original board to identify it as a Dogme 95 work after finishing up his own trilogy. The founding "brothers" have begun working on new experimental projects and have been skeptical about the later common interpretation of the Manifesto as a brand or a genre. The movement broke up in 2005.[5]
Since the late 2000s, the emergence of video technology in DSLR photography cameras, such as the Canon EOS 550D, has resulted in a tremendous surge of both feature and short films shot with most, if not all, of the rules pertaining to the Dogme 95 manifesto. However, because of advancements in technology and quality, the aesthetic of these productions typically appears drastically different from that of the Dogme films shot on Tape or DVD-R Camcorders. Largely erasing the primitive and problematic features of past technologies, newer technologies have helped Dogme 95 filmmakers achieve an aesthetic of higher resolution, as well as of lower contrast, film grain, and saturation.
Goals and rules
The goal of the Dogme collective is to "purify" filmmaking by refusing expensive and spectacular special effects, post-production modifications and other technical gimmicks. The filmmakers concentrate on the story and the actors' performances. They claim this approach may better engage the audience, as they are not "alienated or distracted by overproduction". To this end, von Trier and Vinterberg produced ten rules to which any Dogme film must conform. These rules, referred to as the "Vow of Chastity", are as follows:[1]
Shooting must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in (if a particular prop is necessary for the story, a location must be chosen where this prop is to be found).
The camera must be hand-held. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted.
The film must be in colour. Special lighting is not acceptable. (If there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera.)
Optical work and filters are forbidden.
The film must not contain superficial action. (Murders, weapons, etc. must not occur.)
Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden. (That is to say that the film takes place here and now.)
″Furthermore I swear as a director to refrain from personal taste! I am no longer an artist. I swear to refrain from creating a “work”, as I regard the instant as more important than the whole. My supreme goal is to force the truth out of my characters and settings. I swear to do so by all the means available and at the cost of any good taste and any aesthetic considerations. Thus I make my VOW OF CHASTITY.″[6]
Firsts
In total, thirty-five films made between 1998 and 2005 are considered to be part of the movement.
The first of the Dogme films (Dogme #1) was Vinterberg's 1998 film Festen (The Celebration), first produced in Denmark.
Since the first four films from Denmark were released, other international directors have made films based on Dogme principles. French-American actor and director Jean-Marc Barr, a von Trier's frequent collaborator, was the first non-Dane to direct a Dogme film: Lovers (1999) (Dogme #5).
American director Harmony Korine's film Julien Donkey-Boy (Dogme #6) is also a first non-European and the first American film to be considered a Dogme.
South Korean's La Femis-graduate and academic Daniel H. Byun, who directs his film debut Interview (Dogme #7), being the first and only Asian film ever made under the Dogme movement.
Argentine filmmaker José Luis Marquès' mockumentary film Fuckland (Dogme #8), is the first Latin American and the first Argentina film to follow the Dogme 95 movement minimalist guidelines.
Von Trier attempted to make into a Dogme trilogy as "Golden Heart" (consists Breaking the Waves (1996), The Idiots (1998; Dogme #2), and Dancer in the Dark (2000)), but only The Idiots is a certified Dogme 95 film while Breaking the Waves and Dancer in the Dark are sometimes associated or heavily laid out with the movement.[7] As a result, Pinzás was the only filmmaker to submitted three films, consists into a trilogy as "Gay Galician Dogma", which directs Once Upon Another Time (2000; Dogme #22), Wedding Days (2002; Dogme #30), and The Outcome (2005; Dogme #31)[8]
Attempts
Although Interview (2000) does not explicitly mention that it is registered as Dogma #7, it refers to a scheduled German film titled Broken Cookies, directed by another von Trier's frequent collaborator Udo Kier, for officially submitting the manifesto as the seventh Dogme, but the film's production was never realized or suspended before ended up submitted by Byun's Korean film.[9]
The end credits of Het Zuiden (South) (2004), directed by Martin Koolhoven, included thanks to "Dogme 95". Koolhoven originally planned to shoot it as a Dogme film, and it was co-produced by von Trier's Zentropa. Finally, the director decided he did not want to be so severely constrained as by Dogme principles.
Uses and abuses
The above rules have been both circumvented and broken from numerous films submitted as a Dogme, particularly a director's credit and background music appearing in Interview and Fuckland as for examples. Some films include;
For instance from the first Dogme film to be produced, Vinterberg "confessed" to having covered a window during the shooting of one scene in The Celebration (Festen). With this, he both brought a prop onto the set and used "special lighting".
Korine's Julien Donkey-Boy features two scenes with non-diegetic music, several shot with non-handheld, hidden cameras and a non-diegetic prop.
Byun's Interview also features that violated the rules including cramming in dolly shots, moody lighting, a director's credit, and Park's background music.[10]
Márques' Fuckland broke some of the Dogme 95 guidelines, including the use of non-diegetic music, digital video, and a directorial credit.
Concepts and influences
In Von Trier's first film of "Golden Heart" trilogy, Breaking the Waves, after founding the Dogma 95 movement with Vinterberg in 1995, heavily influenced by the movement's style and ethos, despite it breaks many of the movement's "rules", including a directorial credit, background sets, non-diegetic music, and use of CGI.[11]
The 2001 experimental film Hotel, directed by Mike Figgis, makes several mentions of the Dogme 95 style of filmmaking, and has been described as a "Dogme film-within-a-film".[12][13]
Dogme certificate for Bier's Elsker dig for evigt (Open Hearts, 2001), Dogme No. 28.
A complete list of the 35 films is available from the Dogme95 web site.[15] Juan Pinzás (#22, #30, and #31) is the only filmmaker to have submitted more than once.
Most of Dogme films received mixed or negative reviews, while some of the other films were critically acclaimed such as Vinterberg's film Festen (The Celebration), Scherfig's film Italiensk for begyndere (Italian for Beginners), and Bier's film Elsker dig for evigt (Open Hearts). Films such as Von Trier's film Idioterne (The Idiots) and Jacobsen's film Mifunes sidste sang (Mifune's Last Song), also received lukewarm reviews.
Although the movement was dissolved in 2005, the filmmakers continued to develop independent and experimental films using or influenced the concept including Jan Dunn's Gypo and Brillante Mendoza's films Serbis, Tirador, and Ma' Rosa.[18]
The use of 'Dogme 95' style filming is in a list of a hostage taker's demands in the Black Mirror episode, "The National Anthem".
Much of Von Trier's works were influenced by the manifesto. His first film after founding the movement was Breaking the Waves, which was heavily influenced by the movement's style and ethos, although the film broke many of the "rules" laid out by the movement's manifesto, including built sets, and usage of non-diegetic musics and computer graphics. Most of his films since the 1998 film Idioterne until Riget: Exodus.[20][21]
Vinterberg's 2012 film, Jagten, was also influenced by the manifesto.[21]
Lars von Trier is a Danish filmmaker, actor, and lyricist. Trier's career has spanned more than four decades and his works have gained notoriety for his trademarks including European frequent actors, different thematic trilogies, handheld camerawork, upsetting subject matters, genre and technical innovation, confrontational examination of existential, social, and political issues, and his treatment of subjects such as mercy, sacrifice, and mental health.
Thomas Vinterberg is a Danish film director who, along with Lars von Trier, co-founded the Dogme 95 movement in filmmaking, which established rules for simplifying movie production. He is best known for the films The Celebration (1998), Submarino (2010), The Hunt (2012), Far from the Madding Crowd (2015), and Another Round (2020). For Another Round, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director and won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.
A trilogy is a set of three distinct works that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games. Three-part works that are considered components of a larger work also exist, such as the triptych or the three-movement sonata, but they are not commonly referred to with the term "trilogy".
Breaking the Waves is a 1996 psychological drama film directed and co-written by Lars von Trier and starring English stage actress Emily Watson as her feature film acting debut, along with Stellan Skarsgård as his another frequent collaborator with von Trier. Set in the Scottish Highlands in the early 1970s, it is about an unusual young woman and of the love she has for her husband, who asks her to have sex with other men when he becomes immobilised from a work accident.
The Idiots is a 1998 Danish dark comedy-drama film written and directed by Lars von Trier. It is his first film made in compliance with the Dogme 95 Manifesto, and is also known as Dogme #2. It is the second film in von Trier's Golden Heart Trilogy, preceded by Breaking the Waves (1996) and succeeded by Dancer in the Dark (2000). It is among the first films to be shot entirely with digital cameras.
Kristian Levring is a Danish film director. He was the fourth signatory of the Dogme95 movement. His feature films as director include Et skud fra hjertet, The King is Alive, The Intended, Fear Me Not, and The Salvation.
The King Is Alive is a 2000 drama film directed by Kristian Levring. The fourth film to be done according to the Dogme 95 rules, it was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.
Julien Donkey-Boy is a 1999 American experimental drama film written and directed by Harmony Korine. The story concentrates on Julien, a man with schizophrenia, played by Scottish actor Ewen Bremner, and his dysfunctional family. The film also stars Chloë Sevigny as Julien's sister, Pearl, and Werner Herzog as his father. Julien Donkey-Boy was the sixth film to be made under the self-imposed rules of the Dogme 95 manifesto, and the first non-European film to be made under the Dogme 95 "vow of chastity".
The Celebration is a 1998 Danish dark comedy-drama film directed by Thomas Vinterberg and produced by Nimbus Film. The film tells the story of a family gathering to celebrate their father's 60th birthday, juggling subjects of abuse, death, incest, suicide, and trauma. Vinterberg was inspired to write it with Mogens Rukov, based on a hoax broadcast by a Danish radio station.
Denmark has been producing films since 1897 and since the 1980s has maintained a steady stream of product due largely to funding by the state-supported Danish Film Institute. Historically, Danish films have been noted for their realism, religious and moral themes, sexual frankness and technical innovation.
Kirstine "Paprika" Steen is a Danish actress and director best known for her performances in Dogme 95 films Festen, The Idiots, Mifune, and Open Hearts. Steen was the first Danish actress since Karin Nellemose in 1994 to win both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress in the same year at the Robert Festival, the Danish equivalent of the Oscars.
Shari Roman is an American artist, author, screenwriter and director.
Anthony Dod Mantle, DFF, BSC, ASC is a British cinematographer and still photographer. He won the Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography for Slumdog Millionaire (2008). Other accolades include two Bodil Awards, two European Film Awards, and four Robert Awards.
Zentropa, or Zentropa Entertainments, is a Danish film company started in 1992 by director Lars von Trier and producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen. Zentropa is named after the train company Zentropa in the film Europa (1991), which started the collaboration between von Trier and Jensen.
M. David Lee III is an American film director, producer, writer, editor and director of photography. Lee is noted for his use of a version of the Dogme95 principals originally developed by Lars Von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg in his films. His production company, Triple Sticks Productions, has produced four feature films since 1997 and several short films dating back to the late '70s. Triple Sticks Productions is also distributing their film, Slow Down… You're Dating Too Fast!. Lee has also spent time as a sports anchor with Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic, SNY, WHBQ, KNTV, KDOC, and KCOY-TV.
Events from the year 1998 in Denmark.
The Robert Award for Best Danish Film is presented at an annual Robert Award ceremony by the Danish Film Academy
The Robert Award for Best Director is presented at an annual Robert Award show hosted by the Danish Film Academy. The category was introduced in 2001 and all directors of Danish films irrespective of the language of the film are eligible. The winner is selected among five nominees.
The Robert Award for Best Screenplay is one of the merit awards presented by the Danish Film Academy at the annual Robert Awards ceremony. The award has been handed out since 1984, but except in 1991 and 1993. On two occasions, in 2005 and in 2015, the Academy handed out two awards in the category, one for best original screenplay, and one for best adapted screenplay.
In film studies, historical poetics is a scholarly approach to studying film, which David Bordwell outlined in his book Making Meaning (1989). Poetics studies the text itself rather than its production, reception or cultural significance and it can therefore be seen as a logical first step - though expressly not the last step - in terms of understanding how a narrative text works.
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