p.o.v.

Number 10, December 2000   [PDF]

CONTENTS

Aspects of Dogma

Introduction

1. DOCUMENT

   Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg:
   The Dogma 95 Manifesto and Vow of Chastity

   
   

2. On THE IDIOTS

   Dogma Certificate

   Jan Oxholm Jensen and Jakob Isak Nielsen:
   The Ultimate Dogma Film.
   An interview with Jens Albinus and Louise Hassing on Dogma 2 - The Idiots

   Ove Christensen: Spastic Aesthetics - The Idiots

   Bodil Marie Thomsen: Idiocy, Foolishness and Spastic Jesting

   
   

3. On THE CELEBRATION

   Palle Schantz Lauridsen: The Celebration - Classical Drama and Docu Soap Style

   Thomas Lind Laursen: The Agitated Camera
   - A diagnosis of Anthony Dod Mantle's camera work in The Celebration

   Claus Christensen: The Celebration of Rules

   
   

4. ON THE DOGMA MOVEMENT IN GENERAL

   Mads Egmont Christensen: Dogma and Marketing

   Ove Christensen: Authentic Illusions
   - The Aesthetics of Dogma 95

   Søren Kolstrup: The Press and Dogma 95

   Edvin Vestergaard Kau: Auteurs in Style.
   The Heresy or Indulgence of the Dogma Brothers

   Niels Weisberg: Great Cry and Little Wool

   Scott MacKenzie: Direct Dogma: Film Manifestos and the fin de siècle

   Ian Conrich and Estella Tincknell:
   Film Purity, the Neo-Bazinian Ideal and Humanism in Dogma 95

   Richard Raskin: An interview with Daniel Kothenschulte on Dogma 95

Introduction

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About a year ago, Claus Christensen suggested that an issue of this journal be devoted to the Dogma phenomen, and proposed the names of several highly qualified people who might contribute articles on the subject. His advice and assistance were invaluable in the planning of this issue. Thanks are also due to all of the contributors for their thoughtful work; to Jens Albinus and Louise Hassing for the interview they kindly granted to Jan Oxholm Jensen and Jakob Isak Nielsen; to Ditte Hegelund at Zentropa for permission to reprint the Dogma 95 manifesto and Vow of Chastity; and to Mette Hjort for her invaluable help with proof-reading this issue. In keeping with the overall policy of p.o.v., an attempt has been made here to illuminate the subject at hand from a number of points of view, and through the eyes of critics as well as admirers. Most of the attention in these pages has been focused on the first two Dogma films: Thomas Vinterberg's Festen/The Celebration (Dogma 1, 1998) and Lars von Trier's Idioterne/The Idiots (Dogma 2, 1998). Since little or no attention is devoted here to Søren Kragh-Jacobsen's Mifunes sidste sang/ Mifune's Last Stand (Dogma 3, 1999) and Kristian Levring's The King Is Alive (Dogma 4, 2000), not to mention the growing number of Dogma films produced outside of Denmark, we have made a point of entitling this issue: Aspects of Dogma in order to emphasize the fact that our treatment of the subject is far from exhaustive. Few events in the history of cinema have polarized film professionals to the same degree that Dogma has, with the result that colleagues who have the highest respect for one another's discerning judgment, can find themselves on opposite sides of the fence with respect to the Dogma principles and - though perhaps to a lesser degree - to the Dogma films. It is difficult to understand how equally competent and perceptive researchers, reviewers and filmmakers can have such diametrically opposed views on the same phenomenon. This in itself would be a worthy subject for study by sociologists of culture, though they too might well be divided in their outlook. In any event, the articles in this issue will both confirm and challenge the reader's views, whatever the reader's standpoint may be. And though the reader may still see Dogma in essentially the same light after reading this new material, he or she may have a slightly clearer sense as to how that case might be argued and defended, as well as a better understanding of the opposing points of view.

Richard Raskin    Editor --- assisted by Claus Christensen in the planning of this issue

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