From 1995 to 2005, a new way of making films, known as the Dogme filmmaking movement, was developed and widely accepted in the industry due to the recognition of the artist rather than the amount spent on special effects.
This movement was based upon the Vow of Chastity, which was a set of 10 strict guidelines on how a film was to be made, with the story being the most important aspect followed by the actor and his performance. Dogme was developed in Denmark by directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, with Kristian Levring and Soren Kragh-Jacobsen later joining the movement.
These filmmakers had intended to take the essence of filmmaking back to its fundamentals and dispel complex processes of production. The first ‘vows’ they constructed and signed stemmed from Francois Truffaut’s ‘Une certaine tendance du cinéma français’ (1954), for this was a manifesto that wanted to bring back the notion of raw filmmaking in a way that challenged the traditional form of cinema and was influential for decades.
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History of Dogme 95
Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, the two founding members of Dogme 95, wrote and signed the manifesto and the so-called ‘vows’ within 45 minutes. The manifesto initially copied the style of François Truffaut’s 1954 essay “Une certaine tendance du cinéma français.
The Dogme movement began when it was proclaimed on March 13, 1995, during the Le cinéma vers son deuxième siècle conference in Paris, at which the film fraternity convened to commemorate the first century of cinema and explore its evolution. In his lecture, The Future of Film, Lars von Trier handed out red flyers stating Dogme 95 to the viewers’ amazement.
The directors, namely Von Trier and Vinterberg, intended to give a new meaning to the term ‘cine-ma extreme’ in order to offset the rising phenomenon of big-budget films. In 1996, the movement took its inspiration from Breaking the Waves, although, in fact, the film actually contradicted most of the rules of Dogme in that it had built sets and post-synched music.
It also became a landmark year in low-budget filmmaking as Dogme 95 emerged. By 2002, Spanish director Juan Pinzás did not require the endorsement of the original board for him to claim his projects as Dogme 95. The movement was officially declared over in 2005, and the original members moved on to other experimentations, avoiding Dogme 95 as a marketing label or a category.
As technology advanced in the late 2000s, especially digital, more films were made using the Dogme 95 principles with DSLR cameras, which offered a better resolution as compared to the tapes or DVD-R camcorders used before. It became possible to keep the spirit of the movement in filmmaking while using all the possibilities of new technologies.
Goals of Dogme 95 and its Impact
The purpose of the Dogme 95 movement, initiated by Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, was to dramatically change cinema, refusing to rely on most of the expensive extras or complex post-production work.
To achieve this, the movement concentrated exclusively on the narrative and performance aspects of filmmaking and aimed at providing an enhanced and realistic cinematic experience.
This was to demystify filmmaking and make it lean so that directors could pull off this art form regardless of the amount of funding available. Thus, keeping away the unnecessary encumbrances of overproduction, Dogme 95 was meant to bring the audience closer to a film and its characters and make the art of cinema more democratic.
The Vow of Chastity
There was an establishment of the Dogme 95 manifesto, referred to as the Vow of Chastity, which put restrictions on directors and cinematographers to create elementary and genuine films. Films had to be shot on sets, using no props and set designs but those that were available in the real world.
Both sound and image were to be performed simultaneously; the music that was to be used had to be originally part of the scene. During filming, there was no room for the use of camera mounts, and films had to be shot in colours with no artificial lighting. Optical work and filters were off-limits, as were surface-game actions such as murder or weapon usage.
The show was specifically banned from being set in the future or in the past, in a fictional or imagined world, or even having any science fiction or fantasy elements. The film format was determined to be Academy 35mm, and more significantly, directors could not use their names in their films.
Commitment to Authenticity
In addition, the Dogme 95, “Vow of Chastity,” consisted of a technical rule that restricted movement and camerawork to genuine motion and, additionally, a spiritual rule that required the director to abstain from personal artistic creativity.
Directors promised to avoid self-expression and never attempt to make a ‘piece of work’ as a film but to preserve the genuine moments of people in the film. This commitment also indicated the need to get a realistic portrayal of actors and to avoid shooting scenes in unnatural locations.
The director’s role, in particular, was to stand back and let the story grow out of the characters and their experiences – the immediate reality of the story. This approach was of deliberately shooting scenes to capture the essence of the story in as truthful a manner as possible, leaving behind aesthetic appearance as a secondary priority.
Key Films
- Festen (1998)
- The Idiots (1998)
- Mifune (1999)
- Julien Donkey-Boy (1999)
- Italian for Beginners (2000)
Impact and Legacy
Dogme 95 has influenced the film industry by causing a paradigm shift in filmmaking and provoking the creation of low-profile films with high rates of impact. As the movement championed the use of narrative and performance instead of sheen, it offered the filmmakers permission to be truthful.
This approach demystified the process of making a film, which was before the exclusive preserve of people with lots of cash to spare. The ideals encapsulated within the movement of New Hollywood. Specifically, the insistence on truth to materials and a focus on simplicity have remained popular with audiences and inspirations to filmmakers.
These ideas are still reflected in current cinematographic trends that focus on minimalism and realism, which emphasise that simple and graphically realistic stories can always engage the viewers and impress them with great performances and subtle scripts.
The Dogme 95 Movement: Firsts
Dogme 95 was a movement in filmmaking that took place between the years 1998 and 2005 and was aimed at achieving simplicity in films, whereby thirty-five films were recognised. Its start was in 1998 by Thomas Vinterberg with Festen (The Celebration); this film is the first Dogme film (Dogme #1) shot in Denmark. After the four Danish films had been released, the movement inspired directors from other countries as well.
Jean-Marc Barr, a French American actor and director who has often worked with Lars von Trier, was the first filmmaker of Dogme 95 who was not Danish, and his Lovers, 1999 is the fifth film made under the Dogme guidelines.
In the fourth generation of films, Julien Donkey-Boy’ by Harmony Korine became the first and the only American, as well as the first non-European, film to adhere to the Dogme principles. The first and only Asian Dogme film was directed by South Korean director Daniel H. Byun, an academic and a graduate of La Femis; Interview (Dogme #7).
Argentine filmmaker José Luis Marquès followed with Fuckland (Dogme #8), which was the first Argentine and Latin American Dogme film shot within the spartan rules of the movement. Lars von Trier, who is one of the pioneers of the Dogme movement, tried to produce a Dogme trilogy called the Golden Heart series, including Breaking the Waves in 1996, The Idiots in 1998 which is the second of Dogme and Dancer in the Dark in 2000.
However, the only film that was officially recognized as Dogme 95 was ‘The Idiots’; the other two films were shot according to the rules of Dogme 95, yet they are not entirely pure Dogme 95. Thus, Spanish director Juan Pinzás was the only director who became a member of the filmmaking collective through three films, having created the so-called Gay Galician Dogma trilogy with Once Upon Another Time (2000, Dogme #22), Wedding Days (2002, Dogme #30), The Outcome (2005, Dogme #31).
These films and directors proved that Dogme 95 has the potential to ignite the creativity of filmmakers all over the world to follow the principles of basic and profound narrative and aesthetic techniques.
Uses and Abuses of Dogme 95 Rules
Dogme 95 rules were intended to be a set of guidelines for creating films rooted in the human experience; however, they have also been used and abused in various ways.
Dogme 95 and the so-called Vow of Chastity were to return to genuine filmmaking, free of tricks and hacks. Still, many films that are part of the movement chose to bend or ignore the rules outlined above. Still, these films can be considered part of Dogme 95, as they reveal the struggles and dynamics within the framework of this movement.
Right from its inception, the first Dogme film, The Celebration (Festen) by Thomas Vinterberg, did not obey these principles to the letter. Vinterberg confessed to having once placed a blanket on the window during the shooting, which means that he has brought a part of the set design onto the scene, not to mention the special lighting, which is also prohibited by the manifesto. In the same way, Lars von Trier’s The Idiots (Idioterne) employed background music, Le Cygne by Camille Saint-Saëns, which is prohibited under the Dogme 95 allowlist.
As for the limitations that were violated in Julien Donkey-Boy, Harmony Korine went even beyond the Dogme rules by using non-diegetic music, capturing some of the scenes with non-hand-held hidden cameras, and using non-diegetic props. A few more rule breakages were observed in South Korean director Daniel H. Byun’s Interview: dolly shots, moody lighting, a director’s credit, and background music by Park – all forbidden by the Dogme 95 principles.
José Luis Marquès’s Fuckland, an Argentine filmmaker, also violates several elements of the Dogme 95 rules, such as the use of non-diegetic music, utilisation of digital video, and the credit of the director. Nevertheless, the film was appreciated as belonging to the framework of Dogme 95, which indicated the fact that the rules set by this movement were not as stringent as they might seem at first sight; in addition, they allowed for a great deal of interpretative freedom.
These examples define the conflict of interest and amount of freedom or deviation within the Dogme 95 movement. Despite the fact that the ‘Vow of Chastity’ was supposed to be followed, the actual process of making a film required bending or even completely disregarding these principles.
This paradox reveals how this movement affected the process of trying to change the way that films are made, in the sense of forcing directors to come up with new ways of storytelling that could work within—or perhaps more aptly, outside of—the confines of the movement.
Criticism and Limitations
The rules of Dogme 95 provoked severe criticism for limiting the freedom of expression to a great extent in the cinematography sphere. However, most of the directors started applying these restrictions as their sources of influence, steering them toward what to do.
The goal was to establish a cinema that was pure and genuine, and even though that idea was not completely achieved, it was still the aim. Despite this, the movement was effective in achieving the intended goal of expanding funding from the Danish government for state filmmaking.
Though the rules limited the freedom in the content and expression of the filmmakers, these rules also allowed the filmmakers to explore the extent of possibilities and create significant cinematic masterpieces that are memorable to this day.
The Dogme 95 movement was a radical shift in the conception of filmmaking, stressing the principles of minimalism and a genuine approach to the primary means of expression. Praised and critiqued, subjected to instances where filmmakers twisted or ignored the rules it set, the movement spurred the creation of many inventive, shoestring-budget films.
It led to directors emphasising storytelling and actors eradicating unnecessary trappings. Even though the concept of pure cinema was not reached with the help of Dogme 95, this initiative had a significant effect on the film industry, which proved that the audience was interested in the films without using expensive special effects and complicated post-production.
