Professional Documents
Culture Documents
DOGME 95:
A RESEARCH ESSAY IN
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
BY
ANTHONY J. COX
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Table Of Contents
Introduction 3
Thomas Vinterberg 8
Dogme 95 9
In Summary 22
Bibliography 25
Filmography 27
3
Introduction
life itself, then the film-maker must submit to the “truth” within
product. Films became large than life with special effects being the major
drawcard for box office success, Hollywood megastars paired with celebrity
representation of the world we live in with images that literally jump off
the screen in Avatar (James Cameron 2009), epic battles in worlds unlike
our own in The Lord of the Rings trilogy (Peter Jackson 2001, 2002, 2003)
and a look at the future in The Matrix trilogy (Andy Wachowski, Lana
Wachowski 1999, 2003) all critically acclaimed and Academy Award winning
films. These are a few of the films that extend past the boundaries of our
known reality and redefined the experience of going to the cinema for
modern audiences.
sinking the worlds largest ocean linear in Titanic (James Cameron 1996) a
film movement would emerge from Denmark almost forty years after the last
‘new wave’ and spark debate in film criticism, theory and production on a
global scale. No other film movement to date has been received with such
ionization for Lars von Trier (one of the co-creators) who subjects his
its ‘cosmetics’.
can imagine can be and is reproduce on the screen to the infinite degree.
The rate of measuring creative success is now in summed up with nine figure
sums and the words ‘weekend gross’. With so much creative freedom for a
the new ‘old’ movement in world cinema. It gave Denmark, the country of
one must first understand the principles it is built upon, the ‘truthful
cinema’.
1 Vinterberg, Thomas, and Lars von Trier. Dogme 95 Manifesto, 1995. Print.
5
During the post-war period of the 1950s, filmmakers had very limited
resources available to them to produce films and certainly the films that
did emerge were in no way comparable with the ones being shipped from the
United States which featured the latest in technological scope and movie
what you have got’ and thus it became a signature item for post-war
European cinema that films were shot on location and avoided the use of
During the 1940s news reporters and military photographers made use
needed only one operator, they were easy to transport and quick to set up,
making there use ideal to document the war and subsequent events. After the
war ended, these cameras were in abundance and cameramen were able to get
hold of them relatively cheaply, this meant that film crews could be
smaller and travel faster often filming handheld in areas that were before
off limits to the 35mm production cameras that required a lot of man power
to operate.
factory worker before De Sica cast him as the lead, he knew nothing of
the time, often gritty stories from the war were retold or they were films
about coping with life and the loss of loved ones. These narratives broke
6
away from the traditional structures used by Hollywood in its Golden Age
Fellini, Roberto Rossellini and Luchino Visconti. Direct Cinema from the
decade later Britain’s Free Cinema was to come to strength with directors
Karel Reisz, Tony Richardson and Lindsay Anderson. French New Wave came
about from the critics of French film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma that
Rohmer.
These movements had a commonality in their goals and methods, the aim
was to emphasize story and performance over production aesthetic. The films
the time, they focused on local production methods and critical adoration
They are partly classified as falling under the French term cinéma
rather than creating stories and characters that are fictional and set in
stories for the screen that as an audience member you may relate to or
recognise fragments of from your own life and present the images in a very
honest and raw state. Films often began to examine society or individuals
95 film references and borrows different aspects from each of the movements
theories.
Truffaut’s iconic 1959 film Les quatre cents coups is often discussed
as being the film representing the pinnacle of French New Wave. It explores
the character Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud) and shows the journey of
Doinel’s life over the course of several weeks that takes him from
countryside.
The opening shots comprise of the Parisian city scape from the point
of view of a moving car, this instantly sets the tone of cinéma vérité: the
about within the city of Paris at its own will eventually choose Doinel as
its subject, but only for a little while. Handheld camera work, location
shooting, a linear story and inexperienced child actor, all these elements
engaged by Truffaut make it a classic in French New Wave. Even the last
shot does not attempt to define a closing statement instead it leaves the
viewer with an open ending and forces them to make their own
interpretation.
film, for the manifesto directly quotes from Truffaut’s 1954 essay titled
Une certaine tendance du cinéma français, written five years before Les
8
quatre cents coups was released. The essay addresses ‘certain tendencies’
ideology, one can expect similarities in its goals and what it sets out to
achieve.
Lars von Trier is notably one of Denmark’s most famous film directors
to emerge in the last twenty years with a reputation for dealing with
as a director who is hard to work with. Both Björk (Dancer In The Dark
(2000)) and Nicole Kidman (Dogville (2003)) vowed to never work with him
not unusual for him to hand the directing reigns to someone else and leave
Thomas Vinterberg
2 Hernandez, Eugene. "Von Trier: 'I Am the Best Film Director in the World' -
IndieWIRE." IndieWIRE. 18 May 2009. Web. 08 June 2010. <http://www.indiewire.com/
article/von_trier_i_am_the_best_film_director_in_the_world/>.
9
movement, also graduated from the National Film School of Denmark (though
filmmakers due to the success of Dogme 95’s first film, Festen (Thomas
Vinterberg 1998).
short films which were well received having won the Jury and Producer’s
Awards at the International Student Film Festival in Munich and winning the
Dogme 95
In the early 1970s, not long after The Hays Code3 had been withdrawn,
position until Star Wars (George Lucas 1977) was released4. Jaws is
considered to be the inherent god mother of blockbuster film and began the
era of New Hollywood or the Movie Brats, who stirred cinema in the 1980s
3 The Hays Code (also known as The Motion Picture Production Code of 1930) was a
strict policy of censorship guidelines governed by The Motion Picture Producers and
Distributors of America, Inc. (MPPDA) that restricted content in films involving
(and not limited to) nudity, violence, adultery and profanity. It was formed in the
1930s and was withdrawn in the 1960s with the current Motion Pictures Association
of America (MPAA) film rating system taking its place.
into something hi-concept and consumer driven. The stylistic structure Jaws
held over the cinema of the auteur kick started an era where American
heightened cinema.
Cameron began to pioneer special effects with films such as The Terminator
(1991) and The Abyss (1989). The blockbuster director employed a similar
of the heros journey is summed up by Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero
A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of
decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious
adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man. (Campbell
1968:30)
in storytelling the blockbuster director and studios made sure their multi-
Few directors were practicing art films at the time and if they were,
they were not successful in dollar terms. Von Trier and Vinterberg were
aware of what was happening in the industry abroad and locally. European
let alone in other countries. Cinema screens would much rather show back to
back Hollywood epics than independent features shot by a Danish crew with
Von Trier and Vinterberg understood the industrial climate and saw
the need to address the issue and Dogme 95 seemed to be the ‘rescue action’
with all the answers. In March 1995 von Trier and Vinterberg held a press
conference during the event Le cinéma vers son deuxiéme siécle, it was
celebrating the first one hundred years of film making and had a series of
seminars discussing cinema and where it was headed in its second century.
It was symbolic that the event was being held at the Odéon, one of France’s
six national theaters, for it was here in 1968 during the Paris student
riots that the theatre warmly opened its door to young performers and
artists who were trying to issue in a new era of performance art and
experimental works.
press conference held by von Trier and Vinterberg was short, it started and
questions and von Trier gave indecisive, short answers before leaving
some three years later before the first of the Dogme 95 films was to
actually be seen. This lag meant some saw Dogme 95 as a joke or publicity
screened only days apart, they were known as Dogme #1 (Festen Thomas
Vinterberg 1998) and Dogme #2 (The Idiots Lars von Trier 1998). Von Trier
and Vinterberg, it had seemed, had lived up to their proposal from three
years earlier. The films sparked heightened discussion at the festival and
nonetheless to see what sort of films could come about by following the
If the two films had not drawn enough discussion by simply being
selected for official competition, Festen won the Jury Prize causing a
frenzied rush for territory rights amongst distributors, it also meant that
Dogme 95 had been shoved onto the international stage. Although Idioterne
did not win any prizes it was certainly controversial regarding its subject
matter and the mere fact it was a Dogme 95 film and its brother had won a
prize meant that it became one of the hottest ‘must haves’ amongst
distributors as well.
were taking the Dogme 95 document seriously which in 1995, no one thought
was going to happen. Not only a critical success the films also proved a
small financial victory with Festen earning more than its expenses by the
time the gross was calculated and Idioterne matching its own. The rest of
the world now waited for Dogme #3 and to see what other directors would
idea devised by von Trier and Vinterberg to reform filmmaking. At the time
of its announcement, they (von Trier and Vinterberg) saw cinema as being
against lavish interiors on studio lots - even the gritty gangster drama of
Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarintino 1992) came with a style guide. They
wanted to bring cinema back to a truer state and felt it should question
and not make a mockery of life in the way the Hollywood exports do, much
parallels from other film movements with the most obvious being French New
1954:1) and the fact Von Trier and Vinterberg chose to begin their
1954 and the theories championed by other notable contributors at the time,
the manifesto continues to state ‘in 1960...the goal was correct but the
means were not! The New Wave proved to be a ripple that washed ashore and
14
turned to muck.’ (Dogme 95, 1995) The manifesto is making claims French New
Wave failed in realising its goal, so there sat two filmmakers who claimed
they had the means to do what the founders of French New Wave had not done.
A bold and big statement that instantly drew criticism on all fronts.
Not only is the manifesto riddled with direct quotes from earlier
movements but the very decade in which it came about also parallels the
invention of light weight and portable crystal synched 16mm cameras during
the war. A portable sound recorder that was crystal synched was also
invented which meant sound could be recorded on location and matched to the
vision. The laborious task of rerecording all sound in a studio after the
film had been shot was no longer necessary. A director could potentially
take a camera operator and a sound recordist or if he wished carry both the
camera and sound recorder himself and document the immediate surroundings
these devices could now record synched image and sound onto a single tape
with the whole device fighting in the palm of a hand. Just as there was a
technological shift that freed filmmakers in the 1950s, the 1990s saw
filmmakers able to move around the streets and carry their equipment
pick up a camera and begin to make their own films and thus the manifesto
production pathway for a films creation. The rules are both contradictory
New Wave and directors (such as Truffaut) saw themselves as the auteurs of
their films: the film was inexplicably and creatively owned by them. To not
credit the director means the film becomes the work of a faceless author,
the author becomes the viewer and not the director. It is a direct attempt
location, all shooting must be on location and props can not be bought to
the location. Unlike the polished production aesthetic that Hollywood had
perfected, the Dogme 95 film attempted to break down the fourth wall and
envelope the viewer in a realistic, gritty ‘there and now’ environment. The
the idea was to strip the movie to its barest and reveal the very bones of
its construction through the performance and narrative. If one was weak,
This breaking down and literal dirtying of the image frees the
an expensive Director of Photography and stunts the filmmaker can now grab
Simons 2007:21).
The manifesto was not aimed at the hobbyist, von Trier had written to
prominent figures such as Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg asking them
contradiction to rule number eight ‘genre movies are not acceptable’ (Dogme
95 1995).
work, editing and special effects used by big budget studio productions,
the Dogme 95 films which emerged, due to the restrictions, are as every bit
The idea that anyone could make a Dogme 95 film if you followed the
rules was soon picked up by amateur and independent filmmakers from around
the world. Instead of following the rules they simply imitated them.
By the year 1999 the Dogme 95 secretariat had shut down and gone
‘online’ as the list of submissions for certification went from only one
every other year to several a day. One point in the rules claims that the
move as the rules of Dogme 95 seemingly pit digital video (although never
17
stated) as being the first choice to shoot on, the catch which many
amateurs misunderstood. The rules makes it ‘simple’ for low budget film
making, but this rule makes the process more complex in nature as a 35mm
The manifesto described the goal Dogme 95 had set itself, the ‘VOW OF
CHASTITY’ was the means to achieving that goal. They existed as a set of
rules are to serve two purposes, one set of rules concerns itself with the
technicality of the films production and the other set concerns the film in
Rule 1 states that filming can only be done on location. Both Neo-
Realists and the French New Wave directors not only shot on location due to
contrived studio set only lent itself towards deception of the truth.
Rule 2 explains that all sound must be captured on location and never
recored or produce apart from the images including the use of score music.
Unfortunately, the Neo-Realists did not have the technical means to be able
camera up, the Italians would re-record the sound later in studios though
by the time French New Wave had implemented itself the Nagra recording
system which was crystal synced with film cameras was available and
18
filmmakers were able to record the sound of the performance as well the
by hand is allowed which mirrors that of both Neo-Realism and French New
Wave. Smaller cameras permit themselves to being hand held, which meant a
Rule 4 states that color is the only acceptable finishing look and
not black and white. This could be a ‘tongue in cheek’ dig at the Golden
Age of Hollywood where the majority of films were black and white and their
most grandest of epics such as The Wizard Of Oz (Victor Fleming 1939) and
Gone With The Wind (Victor Flemming 1939) were produced in Technicolor.
These were polished films that appeared glossy and dreamlike, both the
French New Wave and Neo-Realists shot on black and white as at the time it
Shooting in colour is in keeping with the modern times and black and white
the image, what you see is what you get. The French New Wave and Neo-
Realists had very limited access to special effects and relied on the
film. By banning all sorts of modern effects, von Trier and Vinterberg are
forcing the director into a post-war European setting where it was just the
certainly the Neo-Realists and French New Wave had no other real choice but
19
to present their films on 35mm as that was the cinematic standard and most
affordable pathway in the 1950s and 1960s, but in an age of digital movie
making it seems like a slap in the face to all the independent directors
wanting to make their own Dogme 95 film, and thats exactly what it was, to
The rest of the rules, save number 10 are about genre. Rule 6 takes a
thrived on! If it is not real it can not be shot and no weapons or murders
Rule 7 makes sure that the film is to occur in the present time it is
made, one of the most striking points of Neo-Realism and French New Wave
was the movements came about after the war and looked at what had become of
will be defined as an action piece, a musical or drama and so on. The films
of the Neo-Realists and French New Wave have formulated their own genre,
and so has Dogme 95. A genre is defined by a cohesive look amongst a group
book’. The Dogme 95 films shared a collective and stylistic branding giving
Rule 10 makes claim that the director must not be credited, perhaps
the most original of all the rules to come about in all the movements to
date. The idea the director must not be credited and relinquish themselves
20
CHASTITY’. The ruling is there to imply that what you are seeing is a slice
of life and not a piece of art made through a contrivance or single entity.
The cinema screen acts as a direct window onto the world and does not
the 1970s and 1980s directors became as famous as the stars themselves, and
so to not credit the director put the emphasis back on the film and not the
filmmaker.
trends in its production methods, notably the way studios employed their
crews and shooting phase. The ‘Hollywood’ way of producing films was and
let alone the production crew! A Hollywood crew has been fittingly referred
to as a shark, a giant predator that once the mechanics start can not be
make multiple edits of the same scene. This means the final piece or
captured ‘the moment’. Actors hold a fear that because of the amount of
times they have to repeat their words and actions their performance could
become stagnant and loose its life. Dogme 95, like that of French New Wave,
21
they happened.
The working mold of Hollywood began to infiltrate its way into the
the elite. Everything was to be same, except for the budgets of course.
Although Breaking The Waves (Lars Von Trier 1996) appears modest next to
Independence Day (Roland Emmerich 1996) both feature a crew size of over
Breaking The Waves was rumored to be made for around $1USD million.
One of Dogme 95’s most prolific aims was to reconstruct the methods
lends itself to shooting as the story unfolds and its method is open to
changes as they occur which gives a rawness and a reality in the films that
Both von Trier and Vinterberg searched for sincerity in their two
theorist Andre Bazin argued for films that depicted what he saw as
‘objective reality’.
than life costumes and characters distance the audience in the real world
the ‘real world’ settings found within it. The Dogme’s principles give the
films a self-awareness.
For example, in Festen the viewer could very well mistake Anthony Dod
have a video camera. Instantly through the hand held footage, the intimate
close ups and pacing of the camera one can not help but feel a nostalgic
and the operator are seen three times6 during the film which also helps in
to closed door arguments, gossip amongst guests and dinner party toasts. By
helped to lift the veil from the cinema screen in an intimate setting and
tap into the viewers self-conscious, perhaps the viewer has experienced a
similar family event where something was said or done and it too was
incest and rape emerges it comes as a shock that affects the viewer on an
emotional level due to the involvement the audience member has invested.
In Summary
When the words Dogme 95 are typed into a search engine such as
YouTube.com, the results adhere to a long list of films that at first seem
6 Once in the rear view mirror of a car, once in the sunglasses worn by Helene, and
once in the mirror in Mette’s and Michael’s bathroom.
23
sound and so forth. Yet they are not stringent to Dogme 95’s ideals and
dramaturgy, they are all contrived, superficial action occurs and the
performance is not ‘real’ but farce. The ‘VOW OF CHASTITY’ has been torn
apart from the manifesto and used in isolation. It appears that what von
Trier and Vinterberg were trying to avoid, the cinematic aesthetic and
and making the mode of film production more accessible meant that
could make a recognised film if they stuck to the rules but in doing so
side. The Dogme 95 manifesto was to go against the cosmetics of cinema but
thought cinema to be. Somehow audiences and movie goers got lost along the
way with the invention of New-Hollywood and the blockbuster, becoming lazy
with consuming films that are easy to please and require little effort to
engage. As much as the writers for Cahiers du Cinéma and the idea of cinéma
vérité challenged filmmakers in the 1950s and 1960s, Dogme 95 would stand
1990s and force them to shift their thinking and start to discuss if an
expensive and could inhibit legitimate filmmakers in the world who did not
there are several dozen that are worthy of being recognised as notable and
24
these films could potentially have never been made unless they fitted into
step back in aesthetic and went down a notch to show others its okay to use
digital video, that using digital video does not undermine your ability as
a filmmaker, it is still a real film and it is the story and your execution
that matters not the mode of production that will define who you are as a
filmmaker.
von Trier and Vinterberg did not want to achieve a collective goal towards
replicating cinéma vérité with Dogme 95 but instead wanted to take its
often overlooked.
Dogme 95 was the new ‘old’ movement in cinema, using the ideals of
reaction from the heads of studios and distributors to reevaluate their own
methods and question whether the right form of cinema was and is still
being produced.
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27
Filmography
Breaking the Waves. Dir. Lars Von Trier. By Lars Von Trier, Robby Müller,
Per Streit, Anders Refn, and Joachim Holbek. Prod. Vibeke Windeløv, Peter
Jorfald, and Sanne Gravfort. Perf. Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgård, Katrin
Cartlidge, Jean-Marc Barr, and Adrian Rawlins. October Films, 1996. DVD.
Festen. Dir. Thomas Vinterberg. Prod. Birgitte Hald and Morten Kaufmann.
1998. DVD.
Idioterne. Dir. Lars Von Trier. Prod. Svend Abrahamsen, Dag Alveberg, Peter
Aalbæk Jensen, Erik Schut, Marianne Slot, Peter Van Vogelpoel, and Vibeke
Windeløv. Perf. Bodil Jørgensen, Jens Albinus, Anne Louise Hassing, Troels
Lyby, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Louise Mieritz. Zentropa Entertainment, 1998. DVD.