DOGME 95 A reaction against overblown budgets and cinematic excess, Dogme 95 may have failed to spark a revolution, but its aesthetic influence has spread across the world. D ogme 95 is an avant-garde filmmaking movement
They announced the Dogme movement on
started in 1995 by the Danish directors Lars von Trier
March 22, 1995 in Paris, at Le cinéma vers
and Thomas Vinterberg, who created the “Dogme 95
son deuxième siècle conference. The cinema
Manifesto” and the “Vow of Chastity”. These were rules
world had gathered to celebrate the first
to create filmmaking based on the traditional values
century of motion pictures and contemplate
of stor y, acting and theme, and excluding the use of
the uncertain future of commercial cinema.
elaborate special effects or technology. They were
Called upon to speak about the future of film,
later joined by fellow Danish directors Kristian Levring
Lars von Trier showered a bemused audience
and Søren Kragh-Jacobsen, forming the Dogme 95
with red pamphlets announcing “Dogme 95”.
Collective or the Dogme Brethren. Dogme is the Danish word for dogma.
In response to criticism, Von Trier and Vinter-
The genre gained international appeal partly because
to establish a new extreme: “In a business of
berg have both stated that they just wanted of its accessibility. It sparked an interest in unknown filmmakers by suggesting that one can make a
extremely high budgets, we figured we should balance the dynamic as much as possible.”
recognised film of a quality to gain recognition, without being dependent on commissions or
The first of the Dogme films (Dogme #1) was Vinter-
huge Hollywood budgets. The directors used
berg’s 1998 film Festen (The Celebration). It was criti-
European government subsidies and televi-
cally acclaimed and won the Jur y Prize at the Cannes
sion station funding instead. The movement
Film Festival that year. Lars von Trier’s Dogme film,
has been criticized for being an attempt to
Idioterne (The Idiots), also premiered at Cannes that
gain media attention. Others hold that Dogme
year but was less successful. Since the two films were
was initiated to cause a stir and to make
released, other directors have made films based on
filmmakers and audiences re-think the art,
Dogme principles. French-American actor and director
effect and essence of filmmaking.
Jean-Marc Barr was the first non-Dane to direct a Dogme film: Lovers (1999) (Dogme #5). The American Harmony
The friends Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinter-
Korine’s movie Julien Donkey-Boy (Dogme #6) also was
berg wrote and co-signed the manifesto
considered a Dogme film.
and its companion “vows”. Vinterberg said
10
that they wrote the pieces in 45 minutes.
Het Zuiden (South) (2004), directed by Martin Koolhoven,
The manifesto initially mimics the wording
included thanks to “Dogme 95”. Koolhoven originally planned
of François Truffaut’s 1954 essay “Une
to shoot it as a Dogme film, and it was co-produced by
certaine tendance du cinéma français”
von Trier’s Zentropa. The director decided he did not want
in Cahiers du cinéma.
to be so severely constrained as by Dogme principles.
DOGME 95