De Lutrede (The Purified): An Introduction to Dogme 95Jul 24 '04 (Updated Aug 05 '04) Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line "De Lutrede" is a Fascinating, Amazing Introduction to the Dogme 95 Film Movement. (4.5 out of 5). The year was 1895 when a couple of French brothers named Louis and Auguste Lumiere created the moving pictures with the first ever movie called “La Sortie de Usines” and several other short films. Their little pictures would revolutionize the way images have been produced. While they used heavy cameras and there was no color, the idea of a moving image changed the way we see things. One hundred years later, the vision of the Lumiere Brothers would revolutionize the idea of going to the cinema with each passing time as a viewer is drawn to the image and the aesthetics of filmmaking. Sadly in that same year, whatever visions the Lumiere Brothers had were now suffocated by the greed and superficiality of Hollywood. In Paris of that year, a press conference was held to celebrate 100 years of cinema where a revolution began from one of European’s most notorious filmmakers in a way to purify the idea of filmmaking back to storytelling in a movement that would change cinema once again called “Dogme 95". In 2002, Danish filmmaker Jesper Jargil released a documentary on the Dogme 95 movement entitled “De Lutrede (The Purified)” about the movement of Dogme 95 founded by Danish filmmakers Thomas Vinterberg and European bad boy Lars von Trier, who was the one announcing the movement at the Paris press conference. With fellow Danes Soren Kragh-Jacobsen, Kristian Levring, and writer Mogens Rukov, they went against the highly stylized, technical sophistication of modern cinema in a return to what the Lumiere Brothers had in the beginning. “De Lutrede” is a sixty-eight documentary film where the filmmakers talk about the movement, how it started and their struggles to stay true to the movement while admitting the idea of being used to traditional film styles and genres. While it’s not a documentary for everyone, it’s a spectacular film for those interested in the movement. The film begins with a film from the Lumiere Brothers that leads to the press conference where von Trier denounced that today’s films have become “rubbish”. Already gaining notoriety for his stylized filmmaking style in his first three films about the disintegration of Europe, von Trier by 1995 was at a spiritual and artistic crossroads as he decided to take “a vow of chastity”. In response to what was going on in filmmaking, von Trier decided to stray away from the styles of the past to go back to basics without using any lighting, special effects, or any produced sounds. The idea of Dogme 95 was just to tell stories on location and with just a handheld camera, a microphone, and natural lighting. The film then fast forwards to 2001 as von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg, Soren Kragh-Jacobsen, and Kristian Levring decided to meet to discuss about the movement and their own films in the Dogme 95 style while watching Jargil’s shots of each of their films being made as well as Mogens Rukov talking about the movement. Then the film moves fast-forwards where von Trier discusses his vow of chastity and the ten rules into the ideals of the Dogme 95 Manifesto. Here, von Trier made this following speech, followed by his vow of chastity and rules: Dogme 95 is a collective of filmmakers founded in Copenhagen in spring 1995. DOGME 95 has the expressed goal of countering “certain tendencies” in the cinema today. DOGME 95 is a rescue action! In 1960 enough was enough! The movie was dead and called for resurrection. The goal was correct but the means were not! The new wave proved to be a ripple that washed ashore and turned to muck. Slogans of individualism and freedom created works for a while, but no changes. The wave was up for grabs, like the directors themselves. The wave was never stronger than the men behind it. The anti-bourgeois cinema itself became bourgeois, because the foundations upon which its theories were based was the bourgeois perception of art. The auteur concept was bourgeois romanticism from the very start and thereby ... false! To DOGME 95 cinema is not individual! Today a technological storm is raging, the result of which will be the ultimate democratization of the cinema. For the first time, anyone can make movies. But the more accessible the media becomes, the more important the avant-garde, It is no accident that the phrase “avant-garde” has military connotations. Discipline is the answer ... we must put our films into uniform, because the individual film will be decadent by definition! DOGME 95 counters the individual film by the principle of presenting an indisputable set of rules known as THE VOW OF CHASTITY. In 1960 enough was enough! The movie had been cosmeticised to death, they said; yet since then the use of cosmetics has exploded. The “supreme” task of the decadent film-makers is to fool the audience. Is that what we are so proud of? Is that what the "100 years” have brought us? Illusions via which emotions can be communicated? ... By the individual artist’s free choice of trickery? Predictability (dramaturgy) has become the golden calf around which we dance. Having the characters’ inner lives justify the plot is too complicated, and not “high art”. As never before, the superficial action and the superficial movie are receiving all the praise. The result is barren. An illusion of pathos and an illusion of love. To DOGME 95 the movie is not illusion! Today a technological storm is raging of which the result is the elevation of cosmetics to God. By using new technology anyone at any time can wash the last grains of truth away in the deadly embrace of sensation. The illusions are everything the movie can hide behind. DOGME 95 counters the film of illusion by the presentation of an indisputable set of rules known as THE VOW OF CHASTITY: “I swear to submit to the following set of rules drawn up and confirmed by Dogme 95: 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). 2. The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. (Music must not be used unless it occurs where the scene is being shot). 3. The camera must be hand-held. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted. (The film must not take place where the camera is standing; shooting must take place where the film takes place). 4. The film must be in color. 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). 5. Optical works and filters are forbidden. 6. The film must not contain superficial action. (Murders, weapons, etc. must not occur). 7. Temporal or geographical alienation are forbidden. (That is to say that the film takes place here and now). 8. Genre movies are not acceptable. 9. The film format must be Academy 35mm. 10. The director must not be credited. 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.” Copenhagen, Monday March 13, 1995. On behalf of Dogme 95, Lars von Trier & Thomas Vinterberg In 1997, the making of the Dogme films officially begin with Thomas Vinterberg making the first official one with “The Celebration” about a dinner celebration where Vinterberg and his fellow Danes watch the making and the result of that first landmark film. Lars von Trier’s “The Idiots” which was the 2nd official Dogme film and the second part of his “Golden Hearts” trilogy preceded with 1996’s “Breaking the Waves” and 2000’s “Dancer in the Dark” was about a woman encountering a group of mentally challenged folks that leads to mischief and a gang-bang. Soren Kragh-Jacobsen made his third film “Mifune” with a reference to the samurai film legend about class ethics as Kristian Levring makes “The King is Alive” about a group of British and American people stranded in the middle of an African desert where they do an impromptu play of “King Lear”. While watching their films and the making, the filmmakers admit they use ways to cheat where von Trier used cables for a scene in “The Idiots” to try and get real sound while Kragh-Jacobsen discusses a scene where there’s music played that might seemed to have been added but actually, someone around that area was playing the music as if, you’re playing something right now. There, the filmmakers admit their struggle with the movement, notably Kragh-Jacobsen who is so used to using lighting and technical stuff for his own films as he and his peers argue about the way the filmmakers cheat in the Dogme films. The four also talk about the scenes they do. The film shows how small the crew is where in “The Idiots” von Trier served as his own cinematographer and, notorious for his anxiety, was giving up control for the first time on his actors. With Dogme, the actors are given a chance to improvise more and act more realistic rather than do a scene in a certain way. Plus, in the Dogme thing, the actors have to bring their own clothes. For Vinterberg on “The Celebration”, he gives the actors a chance to rehearse their scenes before any filming begins although on one scene, he was forced to do about seventeen takes. Then the film leads to the 1997 Cannes Film Festival where Vinterberg won a special award from the Jury as the first four Dogme films would win awards in the main competition. While Vinterberg was honored in his speech and on Danish television, for von Trier, who has a love-hate relationship with Cannes hates it when he has to say he was honored as the gang scolded him for being selfish and says; he’s full of it. Particularly since he’s better known than the rest. Finally, there’s the talk of why there’s no director credits for the films. Rukov says the reason is because it gives you inkling on who does the films and who made them. A couple of arrogant, self-indulgent Danish filmmakers. Since the movement was founded in 1995, there have been thirty-five Dogme 95 films with seven of them from America with Harmony Korine’s “Julien-Donkey Boy” being the most famous. The movement of course, has garnered some success, notably with the 12th Dogme film “Italian for Beginners” from Lone Scherfig, who was the first woman to do a Dogme film. For the movement’s founders, there was a rumored project for the millennium to shoot short films via satellite in the Dogme style but nothing’s been known about it since. Thomas Vinterberg, Soren Kragh-Jacobsen, and Kristian Levring have since moved on to other projects as well as von Trier while some admit if they’re not sure if they’ll revisit their Dogme roots although von Trier has kept his spirit of Dogme in his films “Dancer in the Dark” and most recently, “Dogville” by continuing to use hand-held cameras and all sorts of Dogme aesthetics. Dogme 95 has proved to be influential in some cases, notably with filmmakers. In 2001, Wayne Wang shot a Dogme-style film with a handheld digital camera for his indie-sex film “The Center of the World” which got some acclaim but it was indie-film Steven Soderbergh who tried to bring the spirit of Dogme 95 with his 2002 film “Full Frontal”. While it was shot in digital camera and used natural lighting, the $2 million project was a fiasco since it was considered too self-indulgent for its audiences and critics despite a star-studded cast like Julia Roberts and Blair Underwood. The future of Dogme 95, the founders admit, is in question since they feel there might be less since not everyone follows all of the ten rules. Maybe in 2095, another movement might emerge, as Dogme 95 is here to stay. While “De Lutrede” is clearly not for everyone, anyone interested in filmmaking should watch this film. Jesper Jargil does an excellent job in examining the movement and its founders along with the troubles and restriction of the rules they live by. Even as he shot the film in a Dogme style with a handheld camera just to show the movement’s spirit. In the end, “De Lutrede” is an excellent documentary that serves not just as a great introduction to Dogme 95 but dabbles a bit of history on how film started as Dogme 95 keeps the spirit of the Lumiere Brothers alive. Tranceformer-A Portrait of Lars von Trier (1997): http://www.epinions.com/content_133848206980 The Celebration/Dogme # 1 (1997): http://www.epinions.com/content_150498086532  |
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