Kelly>>Dogme 95, you know, these crazy films made by Danes running around with camcorders, full of damaged people, first fights, hard sex, and general mayhem.

So where the hell did it come from?

In 1995, the centenary[1] era of the cinema, director Lars Von Trier decided it was time to start a revolution. Von Trier had already earned a reputation as the great ENFANT TERRIBLE of European cinema, hugely acclaimed for complex Art films like ZENTROPA.

[Dramatic music]

Kelly >>Made in 1991, it established Von Trier as incorrigible stylist and innovator.

International success came with BREAKING THE WAVES, winner of the Gran Prix in the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.

[Bagpipe music]

Together with another Danish director Tomas Vinterberg, he wrote a MANIFESTO OF DOGME 95.

Lars Von Trier => imdb

Lars Von Trier >> I remember calling Tomas and asking him if he wanted to-to start a new wave with me. You know, that was the words, I remember.

Kelly >>The manifesto railed against how shallow and crass movies had become. It propose ten restrictive rules for making simple, more truthful film using minimum equipment. And with a mischievous nod to catholic piety, these rules were branded THE VOW OF CHASTETY. Von Trier and Vinterberg enlisted two more directors, SOREN-KRAGH-Jacobsen and Kristian Levring, thus forming the DOGME BROTHERHOOD. And following the example of Jean Luc Godard in the French new wave of the 1960's Von Trier chose to launch his offensive in Paris, birthplace of so many Great Revolutions.

Lars Von Trier >>In the theater in Paris, kind of took these red leaflets and kind of threw them out over the balconies. It was beautiful; it was kind of like in the old days. And then I read, you know, I read the manifesto and then they asked me questions, and I said, 'I was allowed by the brothers to read the manifesto but not to discuss it'. I thought that was clever. It was kind of - - and then all said, why do you - why do you come here when you hate film so much? That was kind of the response to this.

Kelly>> Do you both write for that?

Lars Von Trier >> No, but I thought it was interesting. It was really provocating. So that's very strange, because why? You know, I'm not saying that people have to do DOGME. I'm just saying that I am doing this.

Kelly >>So, just what were those controversial commandments?

Kelly >>Pause a moment for reflection. Dogme dictates the director must not be credited. So let us begin again.

Kelly >>Better. But Dogme also states that you cannot use any special effects or filters: so no superimposed titles.

Kelly >>And non of those smart-aleck special effects, like painting that blood red:

Kelly >>when everything else is in black and white. We're still blaspheming. Dogme forbids genre film, so no westerns, no science fictions, or, in this case, no gangster films. Also, the films must take place here and now. So no pretending otherwise.

Kelly >>Furthermore, you must not have any sounds that are recorded separately from the image. So banish your big orchestral soundtrack, your overdubbed gunshots, and your voice-over. The sound must be real.

And wide-screen, that big cinematic experience is also prescribed. Instead, dogme filmmakers must use the squarer academy ratio like the early silent films and everyday television. On top of that, shooting must be done on 35-millimeter film stock; a rule, which we'll discover, hasn't been that easy for the brethren to abbey. Further stripping away the artifice - all those smooth tracking shots and steadying tripods -- well, you can't have them ether. Everything must be handheld. These further simplifies production, making it possible to film with fewer crew members and less equipment.

Oh, yes, Dogme demands there be no superficial action, so purge the story of weapons and murders. And those pretentious, arty filmmakers can kiss their black and white good-bye.

Dogme films are exclusively in color. And vital to the whole ethos of back-to-basics production, special lighting is unacceptable. Natural lighting or lights found on location are all you've got to work with.

And finally, absolutely no sets or props are permitted.

So all filming is on location, and you use what you find there. Taken all together, these ten rules can save directors from the vices and the tricks of the trade that they so often succumb to. They must redeem themselves by forcing the truth. Out of characters and settings at the cost of any good taste or esthetic consideration. Thus, I make my vow of chastity.

Kelly >>The resulting films have a very distinct flavor.

Tomas Vinterberg => imdb

Tomas Vinterberg>>The emotional life is very explosive in all of them, which I think is because you have nothing else to tell the story then the actors. You have nothing else when-when you want to express feelings. You don't have the music to make the crescendo. You have to make them faint or puke or fight. Something to express whatever you wanted to get out.

Kelly >>We're going to Denmark to find out what the hell these Danes thinking they're doing and when I say 'We', I mean myself and my crack team of multiskilled digital video operators who will be dogging my every move. With our favorite track by Kim Larsen, Denmark's top folk rock superstar, we toured in Copenhagen.

Copenhagen

[Danish folk song playing]

Kelly >>You know, I really thought it would be bigger.

Is Dogme 95 just of having fun with film, or is it a whole new way of looking at life through a lens.

Is it just a passing fad in arthouse cinema, or can it capture a wider audience and inspire other filmmakers in its wake?

Or in the end, is it just a clever way to make films cheaply?

There were the questions that were preying on my mind.

We're at the gates of film city, a group of buildings on the heavily wooded outskirts of Copenhagen, strange to relay it, this place, in fact, the beating heart of the Dogme 95 operation, because these houses the offices of Zentropa and of Nimbus. The two production companies responsible for the Danish dogme product. In the movie business, the Dogme Manifesto hadn't been taken too seriously at first. After all, Von Trier had written Manifestos before. In one of these, he'd even describe himself as simple masturbator of cinema. So wasn't Dogme just another self-publicizing jerk off?

The mood changed dramatically at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival when Martin Scorsese's jury gave a top prize to DOGME 1. The Celebration.

Dogme 1: FESTEN.

Scorsese>> And FESTEN. Tomas Vinterberg. [applause]

Lars Von Trier >> I thought he would be talented, but not too talented. But then later on, in turn out that he was too talented. But then you can't win them all, you know? So Yeah.

Kelly>>Are you proud of him, because of the way in which he took the concept and made a success of it?

Lars Von Trier >>Not at all. %. He should be grateful, the bastard.

Kelly>> FESTEN(The Celebration) in the story of the family celebration that goes horribly wrong.

[speaking Danish] the hero from The Celebration film:

>She had the most infectious laugh you can imagine. In no time at all we'd both be howling with laughter and we'd get caught. But nothing ever happened to us. It was much more dangerous when Dad had his bath. I don't know if you remember, but Dad was always having baths. He'd take Linda and me into the study:as there was something he had to do first. Then he'd lock the door and roll down the blinds. Then he'd take his shirt off and his trousers and make us do likewise. He'd lie us across the green couch that's been throw out now: and abuse us sexually. He Raped us. Had sex with his little ones :

>Christian!

>A couple of months ago, when my sister died I realized that Helge was a very clean man, with all those baths

Kelly>>It's weird that sometimes when Christian makes his first terrible speech--, see, it's looks as if some of the actors haven't actually heard what he was said.

Tomas Vinterberg>>We didn't tell the actors that the film was about child abuse and then he was going to make the speech like that. So they were there for 14 days, getting to know etch other, becoming a family, huge fans of the father. He's been doing 40 films as the good guy, and then-and suddenly, that guy stands up revealing[2] this. It was interesting, 'cause nothing really happened. It was quite - a quite true[3] moment, actually.

Kelly>>Exactly

TV>>People really couldn't deal with it. So they just kept talking. I have understood that it was really touched something Danish, and I have understood that people have felt - that very provoked by a film coming that close to something they know.

Kelly>>Deprived of their usual technical tricks, Dogme directors depend more than most upon their actors. Paprika Steen is virtually the mascot of the movement, having appeared in the first three films.

Paprika Steen >>Actually I didn't know what Dogme was before - before I was in it. And you know, working with it. We heard that we don't have to - the actor doesn't have to follow the camera. The camera has to follow the actors. So actually, we could just, you know, forget about the camera. They would -- they would get us.

Tomas Vinterberg >>Suddenly, the camera became, how do you say? That's a cliché, but the fly on the wall

>I'm so happy you came.

>Yes, so are we.

[Danish]

- Michael, what are you doing?

- What the hell do you mean?

- I don't know. He's trying to throw me out[4].

- Mind your fucking manners!

- How dare you drag some monkey to Dad's party?

- Are you calling Gbatokai a monkey? How dare you? Chill out[5].

- You Nazi bastard!

Kelly>>The story reads like a classical piece of Scandinavian theater, but the Dogme rules, including handheld camera and natural lighting, inspire to make the film fell more like a disturbing home movie.

[yelling [6]in Danish]

male >I've got fucking news for you! You're the one who does the packing! And every single time you lose my shoes! You're the one who wanted to visit your fucking parents!

Kelly>>Crucial[7] in the development of this visual style is cameraman Anthony Dod Mantle. Who's now shot three of the first six Dogme films, and he's celebrated here in Lars Von Trier's 'BREAKING THE WAVE'.

[pastor at the grave]

>Anthony Dod Mantle. You are a sinner, and you deserve your place in Hell.

Anthony Dod Mentle => imdb

Anthony Dod Mentle>>Dogme cameraman, the dog - Mr. Dogme, Anthony Dogme Mentle. When those rules were written on the lavatory seat, or wherever they were written, I think one was imagining the kind of second world war, whatever 35-mil handheld camera, available light. Let's go for it, boys, charge, you know.

The film format must be Academy 35 mm.

Kelly to Vinterberg>>t was financial or budgetary choice for you. That FESTEN was digital.

Tomas Vinterberg>>Definitely. %.

Anthony Dod Mentle>>So we went for the video, and I thought, 'Oh, we gotta do something dramatic here.' The only camera for me, really sat in my hand. I really felt, 'Wow, this is a weapon,' you know, was a Sony at that time called PC7, which is about twice the size of this glass, and I'm sure you know that camera. It's a first generation consumer camera, and I realized could make movement and make - make this kind of - this kind of look work on somebody's film because it was story that would be perfect for this light, almost like the camera was to be operated by some family member who didn't really quite grasp what was going on around him.

Kelly>>At Cannes, this raw look caught[8] critics by surprise.

Jonathan Romney(film critic)>>I think there was some perplexity[9] because suddenly on big screen in the palais, you were watching something that looked liked a home video. This was very odd. There was a feeling that something had somehow wandered onto the screen.

[speaking Danish]

Anthony Dod Mentle>>I wanted this square, academy organic mass[10] to bubble up[11] there.

[classic piano music]

Anthony Dod Mentle>>I just wanted to find the cinematic language that I felt related[12] to the pretty catastrophic, pitiful, amusing, as well, situation these family members were in. I wanted to, like, get a Vermeer and get a Rembrandt, and get a big soupspoon and sort of go like this, you know, porridge[13] oats[14].

The camera must be hand-held.

Kelly to Vinterberg>>You allowed[15] to yourself one violation of the handheld rule, am I right?

TV>>Yeah, that's right. I used a boom stick.

Anthony Dod Mentle>>I gaffer the camera onto this. It was like part of the hand. I was still holding it. I was just like an extension to my hand. So I had it up in the sky and just whacked it down into the face of this actress. I suddenly glanced across the room, and there's this mirror, and I'm standing there in shot, and you can actually see it as the camera's moving down. Just glance across the back of the room. You'll se this pole and this idiot probable as well.

Vow of Chastity

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.

Kelly>> But even if that doesn't break the letter of the law, sorely giving the film a visual style breaks the spirit of the vow of chastity.

Tomas Vinterberg>>We didn't prepare. We just saw the scene, and then we - we talked about where to put the camera so that we felt that it kind of happened in the moment. And of course, that became esthetic choices. But it became instant and improvised esthetic choices., which I found was quite OK.

Kelly>>Controversial, acclaimed around the world, and the bigger hit in Denmark than TITANIC, The Celebration launched Dogme with a bang. Even more controversial then The Celebration was Von Trier's own Dogme offering, THE IDIOTS. And at Cannes its notoriety was exploited by a central figure in the selling of Dogme, Von Trier's business partner in Zentropa, the cigar-smoker, bike-riding, table-bashing, press-baiting ringmaster of the Dogme circus, Peter Aalbæk Jensen.

Peter Aalbæk Jensen => imdb

Peter Aalbæk Jensen >>Yes, my partner has, you know, an artificial 'Von' in between his first and his family name, which is totally fake, which is also a movie tradition. I have adopted the cigar, which is also a movie tradition.

Kelly>>Can you tell us how you and Lars Von Trier first hooked up together?

Peter Aalbæk Jensen >>It was in '88, and I was went bankrupt with my first company, and then I had to be employed, you know. It was pretty disgusting[16] for me. And Lars was, you can say, artistically, he was bankrupt, because, you know, nobody wanted to invest in his movies:

LARS VON TRIER >>That's a lie.

Kelly>>Yeah?

LARS VON TRIER >>I've never been - he has been all his life.

Peter Aalbæk Jensen>>Maybe it was because two flops, you know, united and was in desperate need for - for each other. I don't know. But they had worked ever since, yeah?

LARS VON TRIER >> And it's still not good. But we're working on it.

Peter Aalbæk Jensen >>And both Lars and I are also old left wings, you know, which we are pretty proud of.

LARS VON TRIER >>Was it this hand or was it this hand?

Peter Aalbæk Jensen>>We talk on the phone about nothing three to four times each days, absolutely about nothing, never about work.

Kelly>>Just like lovers.

Peter Aalbæk Jensen>>Yeah, like old girlfriend. And we have never seen each other privately, and that's very important for us that the friendship doesn't include any kind of privacy.

Kelly>>So you wouldn't go out for a drink together.

Peter Aalbæk Jensen>> Nope, Nope, that is - sounds pretty disgusting for both of us, to be together in our spare time. Jesus Christ, that's horrible, yeah?

This is his car, camouflage-painted, electric golf cart - on a military camp, yeah? If you really push it, I think it goes around 20 kilometers per hour. There's a little flash here. It goes when he's driving around.

Kelly>> In 1996, Von Trier and Peter Aalbæk Jensen had collaborated on Breaking the wave, the film which foreshadowed certain elements of Dogme.

>That's great. You're great. Great movie but maybe you could talk to me.

Peter Aalbæk Jensen>>I'm pretty proud of Lars, that, you know, after Breaking the wave, it would have been so easy for him to make a little bit more slick film and a little bit more Hollywood-like, you know, and everybody would have been sitting there, applauding in their fatty, greasy hands, you know, and say, 'now he's become adult.' You know, and then, you know, he makes a film that practically everybody hates.

Dogme 2: THE IDIOTS

Kelly>>the film is about a group of middle class Malcontents who decided to provoke the community at large by behaving like idiots or spassing, as they call it.

Kelly>>The desire to challenge what society calls 'Good behavior' can be taken as a metaphor for the intensions[17] for Dogme itself.

LARS VON TRIER >>This idea of putting limitations on yourself, something that, of course, when you think about it, it's something you do all the time, but it's provocating to do it and in public.

Kelly>>The Idiots embodies the manifesto's commitment to abandon esthetics and good taste. The Von Trier of old would never have allowed himself such sloppy framing and jarring[18] cuts. But like he says 'That's what you get when you follow the rules.'

LARS VON TRIER >>When you have done with film until today is that you have made such a great, great effort to make it very smooth and everything. Otherwise it doesn't look real, but what looks real, you know? I think it could be much, much more abstract, and you still, I think, that within the brain of spectator or anybody, there is a will to find the story line, if you want to call it that, or the logic between the things that are happening I'm sure that this will is what we're working with, and we should dare much more and kind of - because you want to find it anywhere.

Paprika Steen>>The acting in The Idiots and in The Festen is really different. I think that he takes a lot more chances, Lars, with his actor, and he makes them go out and made them - make them go out where it's really embarrassing, I mean also bad embarrassing, bad acting. But it sort of came out, you know, in a good way.

Bodil Jorgensen>>From the idea he got until we finished, it was really - it was Dogme all the way. It's what you are yearning for when you're an actor, this freedom. There's no limit. There's no barriers, and it just come out.

Jonathan Romney>>As well as the rules, Von Trier has set up a kind of a social theory and he's working with a social theory, you know, the idea of the cast as a kind of collective, and you know, people interacting with each other and with the outside world in a very peculiar[19] way.

LARS VON TRIER >> I don't think that this - that we went far enough, you know. I had hoped that it would be much more kind of, like, collective, you know. But - but of course, it - it my purpose was, well, I was trying to - to do this differently from what I have done before.

Kelly>>Finally, Lars spoke movingly of his secret mentor.

LARS VON TRIER >>Old Baden-Powell, he was a good man, he would have made a wonderful dogme film, I'm sure, with very little boys was running around naked in the woods.

Kelly>>Yeah.

LARS VON TRIER >>Yes. They are out looking for Baden-Powell, you know, Ahh.

Kelly>>As Lars drove off into the sunset; we prepared ourselves to meet another icon of Danish cinema. Soren Kragh-Jacobsen is the third member of the Dogme Brotherhood and one of the Denmark's most respected directors. But on our travels, we'd been told rather more about his past life as a rock and roll legend.

Soren Kragh-Jacobsen => imdb

man>>Here we are. It's from 1975 or something like that.

Paprika Steen>>This is a classic in Denmark. It's a classic song.

Kelly>>Is this Soren on vocals?

Man>>Yes. He's singing himself and had written the tune and everything.

Paprika Steen>>Soren is my generation's biggest idol. When we was kids and teenagers, He made teenage movie and teenage records, and we were just like, 'Oh, Soren Kragh Jacobsen - is the greatest in the world.'

Kelly>>Did you buy his records?

Paprika Steen>>No, I didn't, but everybody else did. I was more disco queen, you know.

Dogme 3: MIFUNE

[Danish music playing]

Soren Kragh-Jacobsen>>It's very, very strange name, right?

Kelly>>Which name? Yours?

Soren Kragh-Jacobsen >>I wish my name were Rock Honda.

[laughter]

Soren Kragh-Jacobsen>>I start all interviews all over the world, were people say 'Please, just before we go on, you know, could you pronounce your name?' Soren Kragh Jacobsen.

I always compare the Dogme movement to the unplugged wave in the beginning of the '90s, right? Saying, why in hell did Eric Clapton suddenly start to play unplugged? Of course, because he was surrounded by new technique in the studios. You could do everything to your voice now, pitch it up, widen it out, sample it in, do whatever, and suddenly these guys, of course, wanted to hear how good they really were. And that's why they made these acoustic records, which some of them are lovely, I think. And that's exactly what we are doing with film here.

- - - - - - - - - -

= = = = = = = = = =

Lars and I often talked about, you know, when we had all the Dogme rules and the manifesto and all these things, and said, 'Beside of that, Lars, what is this about?' and he said, 'It's, of course, to give you and me joyful filmmaking back.' I said, 'good.'

It happened to suit my temper very much, this speed you're doing it in, this energy that's in production form like that. I mean, actors come in the morning. They worked eight hours a day. We do eight, ten scenes a day. They are warm, like running engines, right? And it gives it an energy, which I really believe you can see up on the big screen.

Kelly>>Now, you became the first of the brothers to shoot a Dogme film with a film camera with film in it.

Soren Kragh-Jacobsen>>I like the experiment with - with finding a type of film that I could push as much as possible. With shooting 1,000 asa indoor, pushing it to stops, and I think it worked very well with the history. Because it a live, looks a bit like polish film 1969. I wanted to go back there, because I happen to like that. I don't have anything against doing a feature film on video with three cameras. I've been doing so much three-camera things on Television back in the beginning of the '70s. I said, 'It's too easy.' I mean, the challenge must be that you have one camera here. You shoot it on film, and that's a sport, right?

Anthony Dod Mentle>>In a CELEBRATION , and it is also- you know, they interesting , both in there own rights, and we knew, and certainly Soren knew, that MIFUNE was going to be something completely different, and in itself much more gentle. And that's what it scores
points on. It also loses, you know. Some people are saying, you know, 'Where's the edge?'

Soren Kragh-Jacobsen>>Dogme is not a style. Dogme is a set of rules, but of course, I ran into that many times when the people said, 'Don't look like Dogme film.' Of course it doesn't look like Dogme film. Because I asked Tony many times to stop moving.

Anthony Dod Mentle>>It would have been totally absurd for me running around with, like, you know, a camera on my head and one out in the breast pocket, you know, 'Let's shoot it like this.'

Soren Kragh-Jacobsen>>I don't believe that intensity and energy is in the restless camera. I think it's between actors.

Kelly>>MIFUNE won The Silver Bear at the 1999 Berlin Film Festival, further promoting the Dogme cause and Danish cinema.

Tomas Vinterberg>>The reason for hitting the table so hard is, of course, when you're a small country, you have to yell to get heard. It's the same thing as a person with a small penis wanting a huge motorbike. I think part of that arrogance behind Dogme 95 is we represent a very small country with very small penises.

Kelly>>Leaving Denmark, we tracked down the fourth Danish Dogme brother on our home turf, London.

London

Kristian Levring => imdb

Kelly>>Kristian Levring, a big-time commercials director was cutting his film here in Soho, once home to the author of another rather influential manifesto.

Kristian Levring >>It had become a much of thing to say ,'Well, that's the way to do a film. There is like a standard way and there is also standard way of telling a story, because of all this is very controllable.' And I think Dogme is just a way to say, 'Okay, let's do it differently.'

Dogme 4: THE KING IS ALIVE

Kelly>> The King is Alive boasts an international cast, including Janet McTeer and Jennifer Jason Leigh. It's about a group of terrorists stranded in the African dessert. Facing almost certain death, they try to lift they spirits by performing Shakespeare's KING LEAR.

Female1>Nothing

Male1>Nothing will come of nothing; speak again.

Male2>Good my liege.

Femal2 to Male2>Shh, it's not your turn.

Female1>Unhappy that I am. I cannot leave? have?

Male3>It's 'heave'[20]

Female1>heave. Oh.

Male4>Sorry

Female1>Unhappy that I am. I cannot heave my heart into my mouth. I love your majesty according to my bond no more, no less.

Kristian Levring >>Because when you shoot Dogme, the actual setup of the scene is very, very fast, and because of that, we were able to reshoot a lot of scenes two or three times, we went on until we felt 'Now it's there. Now it's good.'

Female2>Well, it's about a king who has two daughters.

Male>All right.

Female2>or maybe it's three. I'm not really sure. But anyway, he has a couple of kids. And he's old and he wants to retire, and he wants to divide his kingdom between his kids.

Male >All right.

Female2>So whoever says they love him the most gets the biggest share. That's it.

Male >And you get to play the evil daughter, right?

Female2>Sure. I get to play the real bitch. You don't have to worry, you know. Nobody has to fall in love and anybody gets to die in the end.

Genre movies are not acceptable.

Kelly>>In the sense, the story of your film, a group of individuals under adversity, relationships falling apart bears a certain relation to movies like THE TOWARING INFERNO or THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE or ALIVE.

Kristian Levring >>If you look at that rule, I think that the way it's meant is which is like it's not a western, it's not a film noir, it's not a historic piece, it's not a society fiction, , but, of course, every film has a genre, and if you dig very deep in my film there's an [speaking French] that's a genre.

Tomas Vinterberg>>I thought about this genre rule. And I found it a bad rule. Because it's very difficult to avoid being a genre. And it's not very creative, because it's not easy to - it's not very specific. The good rules, the ones who are encouraging creatively, are the specific rules. You have to hold the camera in your hand, you cannot add any props, but not being able to make a genre film, or not being allowed to have a taste is in a way impossible.

Kristian Levring >>Because every time you point a camera somewhere, you make an esthetic choice: things you put in your frame and the things you leave out of your frame.

Male>:to this hard house. My master calls me

Kristian Levring >>Lars has talk about it. Thomas has talk about it. Soren has talk about it. And I experienced it: how joyful it was to do films according to these rules.

Kelly>>The King is Alive completes a quartet of films by the founding brotherhood. So maybe the most vital part of the Dogme experiment is now complete.

Kelly>>Do you think you'll make another Dogme film when you are finished with this one?

Kristian Levring >>No, I don't think so.

Tomas Vinterberg>>we invented this in '95s. We're done Dogme.

Kelly>>But that's not the end of the story.

Next stop America.

America

We are on route to a little place called Rankin, Illinois, to meet with actor-turned-director Jean-Marc Barr.

Jean-Marc Barr => imdb

A trusted collaborator of Lars Von Trier, Barr made the first Not-Danish Dogme film LOVERS. He's in Rankin shooting the follow-up, too much flash.

What's going on over there? Believe it or not, is the making of a feature film? Yep. That's right. That small mob[21] of people are the TOO MUCH FLASH crew. Although not a Dogme film, it's being produced using many of the same techniques. Compare this to the enormous crews employed on the average Hollywood film set we sat down with Jean Marc during his crew's lunch break to discuss his experiences making LOVERS.

Jean-Marc Barr>>We took dogme as being a chance to get the film done. A lot of first time filmmakers today are thrown into the situation where, you know, if they got $5 million to make a picture, but if it doesn't work out they got to go work at MacDonald's. It really puts them in a very stressful, uncreative situation. We shot LOVERS for a budget of about $400 000 $500 000 and in all, it took us abut seven months.

Kelly>>Right

Jean-Marc Barr>>And all that time, non one studio nor television company told us what to write, how to shoot. And that, for us, was a real change in contrast to other bigger project.

Male>Do you really have to go to work?

Female>C'est pas vrai. I can't believe it you are search a baby. I cannot miss two days consecutive. I'll be fired.

Male>Wait, wait. I can't help it, Leanne. You get me too exited. It's too much for me. The way you're dressed - I think it's the orange tights. What do you expect? I fall in love. She wants to go to work. Come on. Cone on. Let's go back to upstairs.

Jean-Marc Barr>>When we wanted to make was a film that would touch and have an emotional intimacy that the technology that preceded that didn't have. We wanted to be able to tell the story where all of a sudden, anyone who's fallen in love would be able to identify with what's going on, and that for us is a cinematic experience.

Jonathan Romney>>And a really good set of rules is like a grid[22] where people sort of pass through. But in order to pass through, they have to leave their own baggage behind, because it won't get through the grid. And what disappointing about a film like that is it proves that someone can come to this kind of cinema, to these practices, with, you know, the most banal preconceptions, the most, kind of, outmoded kind of, you know, post - post-nouveau vague, you know, romance. And it still gets through.

Jean-Marc Barr>>When we finished the film, the hardest thing to deal with was trying to get through the Dogme Police, and, and, and to see if the film could pass.

Kelly>>Can you describe that process for us?

Jean-Marc Barr>>Well, we had to write a letter of confession[23].

Tomas Vinterberg>>I'm proud to say I was the one who invented the confessions. Actually I did to emphasize how rigid[24] I was.

Jean-Marc Barr>>Everyone, the four filmmakers who made the four previous Dogme films, watched a film and made their criticisms, and they allowed us three or four sins.

Tomas Vinterberg>>It's very, very difficult discussion every time, whether people have broken a rule or not, whether they have followed the intentions of Dogme 95 or not.

Props and sets must not be brought in.

Jean-Marc Barr>>For example, it was not an apartment that existed as you see it. It was something that you created. So it wasn't really Dogme. Because we didn't know how much light this camera can go by - and it's a camera that is very sensitive to light, and you can shoot in very low light - we put a lot of lamps around.

The director must not be credited.

Kelly>>Did you credit yourself as director in this?

Jean-Marc Barr>>No. No. Just holding the camera.

Jonathan Romney>>The peculiar[25] thing is that all the directors who have been associated with Dogme, we know who they are. Their name might not appear in the film, but we know who they are. They've each brought personal taste to bear. They all have turned up at Festivals. And I thought, 'Well, you know, if you going to be, if you going to make this claim to anonymity, well, you know, do it all the way.'

Jean-Marc Barr>>Pascal and I thought to be a little different and also that that the concept was a bit bourgeois, of not putting the name director's on there as a director, but Lars wouldn't let us get away with it.

LARS VON TRIER >>That's were I'm very dogmetic, as they say. I think it's not interesting if you don't take it seriously. Because then why do a Dogme film?

Kelly>>Yeah.

LARS VON TRIER >> It is - it is a little game, but

>>sure

LARS VON TRIER >>And if you know don't follow the rules, then why, you know, why - play football if you don't want to kind of put the ball in the, you know, the goal or whatever.

Kelly>>In the beginning, Lars Von Trier invited many A-list Hollywood directors to make a Dogme films.

LARS VON TRIER >>Yeah. I never heard from anybody.

Kelly>>So does this mean Dogme's too radical for the yanks?

Tomas Vinterberg>>I asked Mr.Spielberg, himself, whether he wanted to do one or not, and he was very enthusiastic about it. I don't think he's going to do one.

LARS VON TRIER >>If he does, we will never know, because he's not supposed to be credited.

Kelly>>Exactly.

LARS VON TRIER >>So maybe it has done already

Kelly>>Bit is it really possible for the Dogme wave to cross the Atlantic?

After all, what does Danish cultural mean to the average American except for a rather delicious kind of pastry?

Next stop. New York.

New York

Harmony Korine => imdb

In the end, it was the most conspicuous[26] figure in alternative U.S. filmmaking, 25-years-old Harmony Korine, co-writer of KIDS, and director of GUMMO, who rose to the challenge with Julian Donkey-Boy.

Harmony Korine>>A lot of people thinking that it's a kind of joke, or you know, or there's like - or there's some of levity[27] involved. But I wouldn't be interested in it if there was any irony attached to the vow of chastity. It's very serious thing.

Female>Sometimes I wish I was deaf.

Kid girl>Why?

Female >I don't know. I think the world is just too loud and -

Harmony Korine>>I kind of had lost some faith, and I still have very little faith in a - in a kind of a - in a formal screenplay structure. It's just really boring to me. So what I did was a basically wrote a list of scenes, of images, kind of like looking at photographs. It was much more random.

Kelly>> Julian Donkey-Boy is an abstract portrait of a schizophrenic man young man and his dysfunctional family.

Father>She's never gonna learn to play this harp. She's a dilettante and she's a slut[28]. You're never gonna learn to play this harp. Can't stand this any longer. Com on. Can't stand this any longer. I might accidentally step on this here. Don't try to defend your sister. You'll just look stupid. : You utterly and completely and irrevocably stupid. If I was so stupid, I was slap my own face. ::Tell him to slap his face!

Harmony Korine>>I was just interesting in making of kind of movie than almost like an artifact or something, like, just documenting some kind of action.

Kelly>>We spoke to actor Ewen Bremner about his experience of a dogme movie.

Ewen Bremner>>It's also a Harmony Korine movie, you know, and Harmony Korine doesn't make films like anybody else. You know, so it's just dint of the fact that I'm working on a Harmony Korine movie. It's going to have demands, which are beyond what I'm used to. The fact of the Dogme film is sort of like icing on the cake for me.

Anthony Dod Mentle>>To understand what Lars was doing in The Idiots, which for me is the most - one of the very, very interesting things of Idiots, this sudden experience of not quite knowing what you're witness to, whether you're in a real or unreal or fictional or you don't quite know any longer? I think Harmony was looking for that - those moments.

Black male with white hair>I'm a black Albino straight from Alabama, way down South. Then you know that = % yeah, check it out

Ewen Bremner>>on an artistic level, people are taking the film - people - everybody's taking a film very seriously - and which is good. A lot of people hate the film. Quite a lot of people - Americans - seem to be taking it quite technically. 'OK. This is a Dogme film. Right. Okay. I know all about Dogme. Yes.' That flouts[29] Dogme, doesn't it? Generally, that's nothing in the film that really flouts a Dogme. I don't think, and if there is, Harmony has admitted to, you know, has confessed his sins. There's a lot of ways that you got around the Dogme and very ingenious[30] ways.

LARS VON TRIER >>All the more interesting directors would, of course, go their own direction. That is why, you know, they are interesting. But that also means that they would take a set of rules and kind of go to the limit or over.

I mean, the good thing about them was they were written obtusely[31] enough that - that they left room to basically do anything that you would want to do in a film. You know, they weren't, they weren't so restricting[32] that I couldn't do what I wanted to do. It's just I had to go about, go about it in another way.

A lot of people misinterpreted[33] that for some kind of - for sinning or breaking the rules, and - which was a boring argument for me, because, ultimately, you want people to watch the film for the film.

Jonathan Romney>>No, but if you actually stick a label right on the front of the film and say this is certificated and this is made according to the rules, and you know, here's a Dog's ass. And as soon as someone does accept a label - and it's not just any label. You know, it's now world-famous, you know, it's a brand name, I mean, it's Nike - then you're asking for it to be talked about in very, very specific terms.

Props and sets must not be brought in.

Tomas Vinterberg>>There's, of course, one thing which is definitely not a Dogme thing, which is that she was not pregnant.

Kelly>>Yeah. I believe he said he tried very hard to impregnate[34] Chloe Sevigny.

Harmony Korine>>I wouldn't call it a sin, because I tried, so - it was just me shooting blanks.

Tomas Vinterberg>>to me, that was - that was a very beautiful explanation. What I found interesting with Harmony's film is that, to me it's very esthetic film. It's very obsessed with its own esthetics. You have a digital camera in your hand, and there's a lot of things you can do, and you can kind of make stop motion, and we kind of agreed on that, because it happens in the very moment, and it's a part the set, so it follow the rules. But to me, it suddenly becomes untrue to this - the basic idea of Dogme.

Kelly>>Surely what's significant is that Korine and the brotherhood recognized kindred spirits in each other and symbolically Joined Hands across the Atlantic.

Kelly>>But cynical[35] critics insisted[36] that Karine was using Dogme as a marketing ploy[37], a way of flogging [38]his otherwise unmarketable product by linking it to the latest craze[39].

Harmony Korine >>It didn't really help the box office sales. It's not like, I mean, that accusation has no bearing. And I mean, in America, the idea of, you know, of doing it, making a Dogme money - I mean, Dogme movie for the money, it's like, if anything, it's would hinder[40]. I don't even think that making a Dogme film is necessary cheaper than doing it regular. It probably would have cost me less money to do it a different way.

Kelly>>Currently, there are dogme films planned in Denmark, Spain, Brazil, England, Italy, Korea, and just about everywhere else. So has the movement been hijacked[41] by producers keen[42] to make a fast buck[43].

Tomas Vinterberg>>It is not meant to be another package, another low-budget package. It's meant to awake some directors and to encourage some directors and to challenge some directors and filmmakers. It was not the idea to make cheap film. But it's a Dogme film, and it'll sell. I mean. That's nothing.

Kelly>>Yeah.

Jonathan Romney>>It's now tag or a license that other people can pick up. I mean, I keep finding reviews of little films from around the world in VERIETY. Where it's either a Dogme film - you know, it's the first Albanian Dogme film or whatever, or someone has done a film Dogme-style, and it's a term that's used so loosely[44]. The danger is that it means nothing.

Tomas Vinterberg>>There's many sad things to say about dogme right now. I mean, it's for me, it's sad to hear that when they shoot Danish commercials, they want it Dogme-like. I mean, it's not the point. It's the point that people get angry and do something else, or they do this. It's - the point to reflect the movie business as it is, not to give it another color. It's - the idea was put a mirror in front of it and say, 'Listen, we could do it another way as well.'

From The Celebration [speaking Danish]

Father>What are you staring at? Is it my fault that I have such talentless offspring[45]?

Tomas Vinterberg>>So I was ready to end it. But Lars has a very generous mind, and he said, 'Well, other people could get a nice experience with this,' and I kind of understood that. And for me, then it suddenly opened up this whole Dogme concept.

Kelly>>So how have the four brothers kept the game fresh, short of changing the rules of play?

Kristian Levring >>There's been a lot of talking about the rules being modified. You cannot change the ten commitments.

Kelly >>Right

Kristian Levring >>but - I, my, we've changed one thing that has changed has been that Dogme has gone from Catholicism to Protestantism.

Kelly>>To get the Dogme certificate now, director just signs a piece of paper saying that he or she obeyed the rules, and, um, that's it.

Paprika Steen>>We didn't expect anything when we sat down there in 1995. We wanted to do four films in another way. We wanted to have a brotherhood. It was a kind of protest against several things. But now, when it suddenly became a wave - I don't know why it became a wave - why should we sit there and be - being judges?

LARS VON TRIER >>Estonia or some of these countries, they also suddenly came make films, you know, because, if that's a film, you know, then we make films too. I think that's great.

Kelly>>Fantastic.

LARS VON TRIER >>Yeah. Instead of thinking, 'Oh, if it doesn't look like Star Wars, then we can't make a film.' And then, you know - if that is the only thing that comes out of these, I think it's fantastic.

Kelly>>It doesn't worry you that the quality control will fall off and the Dogme name will be tarnished[46].

Peter Aalbæk Jensen>>It's not a Walt Disney here label, you know? It's a political movement, so it's free for everybody to use or misuse. Yeah.

Kelly>>Uh-huh. If it's a political movement, what's the objective?

Peter Aalbæk Jensen >>It's just to - to kick some ass in a - in a sloppy business, you know?

[Speaking Danish]

Stop it! I'm going home!

Go away.

No!

Good-bye.

Peter Aalbæk Jensen >>you know, there's nothing new to this fucking Dogme movie, nothing at all if you look into film history, more or less. But it's nice. Now and then, every, you know, business need a movement, that's doing something new or at least try to call it something new, or so that's good. And now we look for someone to rebel against us.

Kelly to LARS VON TRIER >>And it's possible that you'll inspire making different manifestos?

LARS VON TRIER >>I'll inspire people to throw this manifesto away. Why not?

Kelly>>Why should they have to follow?

LARS VON TRIER >>Gives exercise, you know! Good for your muscles too. Madness.

Captioning provided by The Independent Film Channal. Captioning by CaptionMax www.Captionmax.com

Всем привет! Слава yanko_slava@yahoo.com

[1]Centenary n. (100th anniversary) столетие. adj. (100 years old; pert. to 100th anniversary) столетний; (happening every 100 years) происходящий раз в сто лет.

[2] Reveal v.t. обнаруживать, -ть; показывать, -ать; he would not reveal his name он не хотел назвать своё имя; he revealed himself to be the father он объявил себя отцом; this account is very revealing этот отчёт очень показателен; revealed religion богооткровенная религия; it was evening before the sun revealed itself солнце показалось только к вечеру; she wore a revealing dress она была в открытом платье.

[3] True n. (alignment, adjustment): the wheel is out of true колесо плохо установлено. adj. 1. (in accordance with fact) верный, правдивый; a true story правдивый рассказ; is it true that he is married? это правда, что он женат?; all my dreams came true все мои мечты сбылись/осуществились; it is only too true увы, это чистейшая правда; (concessive): true, it will cost more разумеется, это будет стоить больше. 2. (in accordance with reason, principle, standard; genuine) правдивый; настоящий; подлинный, истинный; it is not a true comparison это ложное сравнение; the true price is much higher действительная/настоящая цена намного выше; he is a true Briton он настоящий британец; the true heir законный наследник. 3. (conforming accurately) правильный; true to life реалистический; true to type типичный, характерный. 4. (loyal, faithful; dependable) преданный, верный; надёжный; he was always a true friend to me он был мне всегда преданным другом; he remained true to his word он сдержал слово; a true sign of rain верный признак дождя. 5. (mus., in tune) верный (тон и т.п.). 6. (accurately adjusted or positioned) точно пригнанный/установленный. adv. правильно, верно; his story rings true его рассказ звучит убедительно; he aimed true он точно прицелился.

[4] Throw out v.t. выбросать, выбросить; (proffer) предлагать, -ожить; I threw out a remark я отпустил замечание; he threw out a challenge он бросил вызов; (put out): they threw out a feeler они пустили пробный шар; the tree threw out new leaves дерево дало новые листья; (build on) пристраивать, -оить; the college has thrown out a new wing к колледжу пристроен новый флигель; (reject) отклонять, -ить; the bill was thrown out (parl.) законопроект отклонили; (expel) исключать, -ить; выбрасывать, выбросить; the club threw him out его исключили из клуба; (upset) сбивать, -ить; путать (impf.); you will throw me out in my calculations вы собьёте меня со счёта;

[5] chill out, Slang. to calm down; relax.

[6] Yell n. (пронзительный) крик; give a yell вскрикивать, -нуть; закричать (pf.). v.t. & i. вопить, за-; кричать, -икнуть; he yelled abuse at me он обрушил на меня поток брани.

[7] Crucial adj. (decisive) решающий.

[8] Caught p.p. of catch v.

[9] Perplexity n. (bewilderment) озадаченность, недоумение; (cause of bewilderment) запутанность.

[10] Mass₁ n. (relig.) месса, литургия; (in Orthodox church) обедня; high mass торжественная месса; low mass месса без пения; masses were said for his soul за упокой его души служили обедни.

[11] Bubble up бить (impf.) ключом; булькать (impf.); bubble (over) with laughter заливаться (impf.) смехом;

[12] Related adj. 1. (logically connected) (взаимно) связанный (с+i.). 2. (by blood or marriage): he is related to the royal family он в родстве с королевской семьёй; he and I are related мы с ним родственники; we are distantly related мы в дальнем родстве.

[13] Porridge n. овсяная каша; save your breath to cool your porridge ? сиди и помалкивай; держи язык за зубами.

[14] Oat n. (in pl.) овёс; feel one's oats (coll.) быть оживлённым; чувствовать (impf.) свою силу; he is off his oats (coll.) он потерял аппетит; wild oats овсюг; sow one's wild oats (fig.) прожигать, -ечь молодость; he has sown his wild oats он уже перебесился/остепенился. adj. овсяный.

[15] Allow v.t. 1. (permit) позволять, -олить; разрешать, -ить; allow me! разрешите!; as far as circumstances allow насколько позволяют обстоятельства; he was allowed to smoke ему позволили курить; I will not allow you to be deceived я не допущу, чтобы вас обманули; allow no discussion запрещать, -тить всякое обсуждение; smoking is not allowed курить воспрещается; no dogs allowed вход с собаками воспрещён. 2. (grant, provide) давать, -ть; предоставлять, -авить; допускать, -тить; he allows his son ?500 a year он даёт сыну 500 фунтов в год; I allowed him a free hand я предоставил ему свободу действий; at the end of the 6 months allowed в конце предоставленных шести месяцев; allow discount предоставлять, -авить скидку; allow 10p in the pound делать, с- скидку в десять пенсов с каждого фунта. 3. (admit) допускать, -тить; (recognize) признавать, -ать; his claim was allowed его требование было принято; allow an appeal (leg.) удовлетворять, -ить апелляцию. v.i. 1. allow for (take into account) учитывать, -есть; allowing for casualties учитывая возможные потери; not allowing for expenses не принимая в расчёт издержек; allow ?50 for emergencies выделять, выделить 50 фунтов на чрезвычайный случай; allow for his being ill принять (pf.) во внимание то, что он болен; allow for wind брать, взять поправку на ветер; allow for shrinkage делать, с- допуск на усадку. 2. allow of: his tone allowed of no reply его тон не допускал возражений.

[16] Disgusting adj. отвратительный.

[17] Intension n. сила, интенсивность, глубина.

[18] Jarr₂ n. 1. (harsh sound) неприятный звук. 2. (shock, vibration) сотрясение; (on nerves or feelings) неприятный эффект; the news gave him a jar известие неприятно поразило его. 3. (disagreement) несогласие; (quarrel) ссора. v.t. (shake) сотрясать, -ти; (fig., shock) потрясать, -ти. v.i. 1. (emit harsh sound) издавать, -ать резкий звук; (sound discordantly) дисгармонировать (impf.). 2.: jaron, against (strike with grating sound) скрежетать (impf.) по+d.; jar on (irritate, annoy) раздражать, -ить. 3. (disagree) сталкиваться, -олкнуться; (fig.): these colours jar эти цвета не сочетаются.

[19]Peculiar adj. 1. (exclusive, distinctive) особенный, своеобразный; this custom is peculiar to the English это чисто английский обычай. 2. (particular) особенный; a building of peculiar interest здание, представляющее особый интерес. 3. (strange) странный; his behaviour was rather peculiar он вёл себя довольно странно.

[20] Heave n. (lifting effort) подъём; (throw) бросок; (act of retching) рвота. v.t. (lift) поднимать, -ять; (throw) бросать, -осить; heave a sigh (тяжело) вздохнуть (pf.). v.i. 1. (pull): they heaved on the rope они выбрали канат; heave ho! раз-два взяли!; эй, ухнем! 2. (retch) тужиться (impf.) (при рвоте). 3. (rise and fall) вздыматься (impf.); her bosom was heaving её грудь вздымалась; heaving billows вздымающиеся волны. 4.: heave to (naut.) ложиться в дрейф. 5.: heave in sight показываться, -аться на горизонте.

[21] Mob n. 1. (rabble, crowd) толпа. 2.: the mob (common people) толпа; чернь; mob rule самосуд; суд Линча. v.t. нападать, -асть на+a.; the singer was mobbed by his fans певца осаждали поклонники.

[22] Grid n. 1. (grating) решётка; luggage grid багажный стеллаж; багажная сетка. 2. (gridiron) рашпер. 3. (map reference squares) координатная сетка; grid reference координаты (f. pl.). 4. (elec.) сеть электропередач. 5. (power supply system) энергосистема.

[23] Confession n. 1. (avowal) признание, сознание. 2. (profession of faith) исповедание. 3. (denomination) вероисповедание. 4. (to a priest) исповедь.

[24] Rigid adj. жёсткий, негнущийся; (fig.) косный, негибкий; rigid discipline/economy строгая дисциплина/экономия.

[25] Peculiar adj. 1. (exclusive, distinctive) особенный, своеобразный; this custom is peculiar to the English это чисто английский обычай. 2. (particular) особенный; a building of peculiar interest здание, представляющее особый интерес. 3. (strange) странный; his behaviour was rather peculiar он вёл себя довольно странно.

[26] Conspicuous adj. заметный; бросающийся в глаза; выдающийся; he was conspicuous by his absence его отсутствие бросалось в глаза.

[27] Levity n. легкомыслие.

[28] Slut n. неряха; (trollop) потаскуха.

[29] Flout v.t. попирать, -рать; (mock) насмехаться (impf.) над+i.; глумиться (impf.) над+i.

[30] Ingenious adj. изобретательный; остроумный; an ingenious solution остроумное/гениальное решение; (of a device, machine etc.) искусный; замысловатый.

[31] Obtuse adj. (lit., fig.) тупой.

[32] Restrict v.t. ограничивать, -ть; free travel is restricted to pensioners бесплатный проезд распространяется только на пенсионеров; speed is restricted to 30 mph скорость ограничена до тридцати миль в час; his vision was restricted by trees ему было плохо видно из-за деревьев; restricted area район ограниченной скорости движения; (US mil.) район, закрытый для военнослужащих.

[33] Misinterpret v.t. неправильно понимать, -ять; неправильно истолковывать, -ать. n. неправильное понимание/толкование.

[34] Impregnate v.t. (fertilize) оплодотворять, -ить; (saturate) пропитывать, -ать; насыщать, -ытить; impregnated wood ипрегнированная древесина.

[35] Cynical adj. циничный.

[36] Insist v.t. & i. настаивать, -оять на+p.; требовать, по- +g.; упорствовать (impf.); he insisted on his rights он настаивал на своих правах; he insisted on his innocence он настаивал на своей невиновности; he insisted on my accompanying him он настоял на том, чтобы я его сопровождал; very well, if you insist! ну ладно, коли вы настаиваете!

[37] Ploy n. (manoeuvre) уловка.

[38] Flog v.t. 1. (beat) стегать, от-; пороть, вы-; сечь, вы-; he is flogging a dead horse (fig.) он пытается возродить то, что безнадёжно устарело. 2. (sell) загонять, -нать; толкать, -нуть; (both coll.).

[39] Craze n. мания, помешательство; повальная мода. v.t. сводить, -ести с ума.

[40] Hinder adj. задний.

[41] Hijack n. угон, похищение. v.t. угонять, -нать; похищать, -итить.

[42] Keen adj. (lit., fig.: sharp, acute) острый; keen eyesight острое зрение; a keen intellect острый/проницательный ум; (piercing) пронзительный; a keen glance пронзительный/острый взгляд; a keen wind резкий/пронизывающий ветер; keen frost сильный мороз; (strong, intense) сильный; keen desire сильное/острое желание; keen interest живой интерес; (eager; energetic) ревностный; энергичный; a keen businessman энергичный делец; a keen pupil усердный/прилежный ученик; keen competition трудное соревнование; ожесточённая конкуренция; a keen demand for sth. большой спрос на что-н.; (enthusiastic) страстный; a keen sportsman страстный спортсмен; энтузиаст/любитель (m.) спорта; be keen on сильно/страстно увлекаться, -ечься +i.; I am not keen on chess я не особенно увлекаюсь шахматами; he is keen on your coming ему очень хочется, чтобы вы пришли; they are keen on getting (or to get) the work done они стремятся окончить дело; им не терпится закончить работу.

[43] Buck 4. (coll., dollar) доллар; big bucks куча денег. Fast Buck.

[44] Loose 6. (imprecise): a loose statement неопределённое/расплывчатое заявление; a loose translation приблизительный/вольный перевод; a loose style небрежный стиль; loose thinking нечёткость мысли.

[45] Offspring n. потомок, отпрыск; (pl.) потомство; (fig.) плод.

[46] Tarnish n. тусклость, тусклая поверхность. v.t.: tarnished by damp потускневший от влаги; (fig.) пятнать, за-; he has a tarnished reputation он запятнал свою репутацию. v.i. тускнеть, по-; окисляться, -иться.