Dogme 95, what is it really?

From a film movement, you wait for political rebellion, national tragedy or foreign influence. Not ‘strict and rigid rules’, right? Yet this is exactly what Dogme 95 is.

When I watched the movie ‘Festen’ for the first time, I sensed something strange was going on. It was somehow different from any other film I have watched until that day. It was like that from the beginning, even before coming across the unusual events in the script. And this is not just the feeling you are watching some real old record from a meeting shooted by some excited guest. Before this movie, I watched two other Vinterberg movies however this one stood up sharply from the others.

I looked it up on the internet after the movie ended. I learned that I have just watched ‘Dogme №1’. Cool but what was that? Have I ever watched the next ones?

‘Dogme 95’ is actually a set of rules made up of ten strict codes called ‘Vows of Chastity’ created by two young Danish directors Lars Von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg. ‘Dogme’ is the Danish word for dogma and ‘95’ is the year this duo came up with this idea and wrote the rules in half an hour.

Vows of Chastity:
- 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 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.)
- The camera must be hand-held. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted.
- 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.)
- 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.)
- Genre movies are not acceptable.
- The film format must be Academy 35 mm.
- The director must not be credited.

It was a rescue action for the cinema at that time. The movement has something to say about one of the main subjects of cinema and film theory: representation of reality. As stated in the manifest,

“by using new technology anyone at any time can wash the last grains of truth away in the deadly embrace of sensation”.

Hollywood movies, for which insane amounts of money were spent, were gaining more and more ground, and someone had to show that quality wasn’t directly proportional to money.

So-called amateur-looking images that make viewers able to identify Dogme movies were completely against the basic belief of cinema: viewers must not notice the backstage, they should not feel the camera. If the image shakes or if there are any sudden camera movements, it destroys all efforts to hide the production process and create environmental awareness in the viewer.

Since the director had the camera at his hand, he could move quickly and become ‘part of the action’ or ‘part of the emotion’. A normal movie set is full of lightning, makeup artists, and huge camera systems. Therefore there is nothing left of what the scene was about for neither film actor nor director. In this movement, the director is just a guest in their ‘thing’. According to insider information by Vinterberg, even Denmark’s best-known actors ironed their own shirts before shooting. It was a scandal. However, it created an atmosphere that goes between playfulness and fearfulness.

Due to limitations, the subjects of films are also actually in this dilemma. They are mostly dark and humorous in a way and there is disturbing chaotic energy. Chaos and boundaries eventually emerge as a mess. Desperate screams, emotional explosions, devastating secrets. If you can make the audience feel and shake them, all you need is a group of people and a camera.

Many of the obligations in the vows of chastity force the directors to shoot something more real. Music, light, scene transitions, setting…

Vinterberg says in an interview that he invented himself the rule forbidding any sound usage not created during the shoot. He also adds that this was a nightmare for him since sound or music was one of the things he dealt with the most during the making of a film. So you think Dogme movies should be relatively quiet? Of course, they are not.

No music meant a lot of singing and musical moments.

As a result, Vinterberg was encouraged to write more emotional things, and since there was no music, he felt that he had to immerse the audience every second.

Likewise, coloring was a nightmare for Trier, it is very important to him. In fact, these rules somehow help them get rid of their fears and maybe it speeds up the post-production process. So it is a relief for them because the rules say you can’t do anything about it, as Trier noted.

And he continues, “If you have some limitations when you work, you have to use your imagination. All these rules are designed to give away control”

So they didn’t just aim to increase reality or teach a lesson to big companies, it was much more than that. They saw and showed the world how less freedom could mean more creative films. Dogme was an idea. The idea of being liberated, in a sense, by boundaries.