Dogme 95 & The Minnesota Declaration

Dogme 95

"My supreme goal is to force the truth out of my characters and settings."

What interests me about the Dogme 95 manifesto (the films it produced, and the people that produced it) is the reactive response it tends to provoke. There was lots of literature out there on the web about Dogme 95, a stark contrast to my research into Valentine de Saint-Point. Dogme 95 was a response to the CGI-blockbusters that (may have lacked artistic integrity) had huge budgets out of reach of independent filmmakers. But even saying this makes me feel uncomfortable - it feels like a too text book way to describe anything that provokes von Treir.

I think people resent the manifesto, and von Trier because he makes people anxious. He makes people anxious because you never know how seriously to take him; Dogme 95 is no different. After reading out the ‘Vow of Chastity’ and manifesto in the Paris Odeon, von Trier threw red leaflets containing the manuscript into the crowd, declared he could say no more on the matter at that moment, and then immediately proceeded to leave the theatre. Vinterberg stated, “Dogme is in the area between a very solemn thing and deep irony.” When submitting a film for consideration, the director was required to ‘confess’ the ways in which they have failed to comply with their vows. For example, when submitting Julien Donkey-Boy, Harmony Korine noted a series of rule-bending during the film’s production. This ranged from faking Chloë Sevigny’s pregnant belly to buying a batch of raw cranberries. A ten minute interview with a young, bemused and quite unlikeable von Trier (so different to his recent interviews in which he seems very frail scared, which inspires quite a great sympathy) about the manifesto explains its more sincere efforts, 'If you have some limitations for your work...then you are forced to use your imagination'.  Von Trier had his own theories on why his manifesto had been so controversial. He thought it challenged the widely held belief of the artists freedom to make anything. It didn't really matter what the rules were, or how many, just that there were rules to be followed.  

"But the more accessible the media becomes, the more important the avant-garde. It is no accident that the phrase “avant-garde” has military connotations. Discipline is the answer… we must put our films into uniform, because the individual film will be decadent by definition!"

There were other, unspoken rules - commonalities between Dogme films. Dogme films favour ensembles, black humour, and chaotic energy.  Screaming matches, uncomfortable outbursts, destructive secrets - to prove that to make a compelling film, all you need is a camera and a group of people.

Dogme 95 films aren't made anymore (Vinterberg only ever made one Dogme film!!) the last one released in 2004. This is levied on the directors as if a sort of criticism. It's always entertaining to watch artists hold each other to contradictory standards. I am sure if von Trier and Vinterberg were still producing Dogme films they would be being criticised for not moving on. To me, it is commendable that they have changed as artists - not to mention that the spirit of Dogme has never really left. The discussion around whether made a lasting impact on film isn't interesting to me.

I'm a really big fan of the manifesto, Festen, the first of all the Dogme films (and the only one I've actually seen sshhhh) happens to be one of my all time favourites. What is most appealing to me about the manifesto is its... I don't know what the word is. It is rough and ready, that's what I like about it. As a filmmaker and an artist I must say I like restrictions. And as a young filmmaker particularly, I like the idea of not bringing props, using natural light etc etc because it makes the process so much quicker and simpler. I like simple. What I also like about this manifesto is that it's very easy to understand. It is grounding - issue with young artists get carried away with ideas they can't actually produce and end up making nothing. 

 Dogme has influenced my practise directly - a rule I hold myself to (inspired by Dogme) is to only create within my means, to work with the most basic materials. I hold myself to that a) out of rebellion and b) out of necessity. With now, as then, I resonate with Dogme because the democratisation of film via social media, funding pots, and increased access to technology has lead to an really high, sleek expectation of quality coming to the mixing of different classes, ages, and backgrounds. It feels like you have to be a fully realised artist by the time your sixteen so you can sell yourself to a funding pot or young writers course. I want my films to look like student films, because they are student films. I want my films and my art to reflect the imperfection of the artist that created them. That's my rebellion.  I really like the idea of creating obstructions for yourself as an artist - this is something I want to carry on to the manifesto for my art foundation.

It wasn't just me who was inspired by the Dogme manifesto, many parts of the Danish art scene embraced it, from food to architecture. Claus Meyer, co-founder of food company Noma, said, ' I was very inspired by the Dogme brothers. I thought if they could do it, we could do it'. Dogme called for using basic equipment and props found on location. Local techniques and local seasonal produce were used. There was also a manifesto for food 'the purity, freshness, simplicity and ethics we wish to associate with our region'. 

The Minnesota Declaration *Under Construction*

'We ought to be grateful that the universe knows no smile'

 Lessons of Darkness

1. By dint of declaration the so-called Cinema Verité is devoid of verité. It reaches a merely superficial truth, the truth of accountants.

2. One well-known representative of Cinema Verité declared publicly that truth can be easily found by taking a camera and trying to be honest. He resembles the night watchman at the Supreme Court who resents the amount of written law and legal procedures. “For me,” he says, “there should be only one single law; the bad guys should go to jail.” 

Unfortunately, he is part right, for most of the many, much of the time.

3. Cinema Verité confounds fact and truth, and thus plows only stones. And yet, facts sometimes have a strange and bizarre power that makes their inherent truth seem unbelievable.

4. Fact creates norms, and truth illumination.

5. There are deeper strata of truth in cinema, and there is such a thing as poetic, ecstatic truth. It is mysterious and elusive, and can be reached only through fabrication and imagination and stylization.

6. Filmmakers of Cinema Verité resemble tourists who take pictures of ancient ruins of facts.

7. Tourism is sin, and travel on foot virtue.

8. Each year at springtime scores of people on snowmobiles crash through the melting ice on the lakes of Minnesota and drown. Pressure is mounting on the new governor to pass a protective law. He, the former wrestler and bodyguard, has the only sage answer to this: “You can’t legislate stupidity.”

9.The gauntlet is herby thrown down.

10. The moon is dull. Mother Nature doesn’t call, doesn’t speak to you, although a glacier eventually farts. And don’t you listen to the Song of Life.

11. We ought to be grateful that the Universe out there knows no smile.

12. Life in the oceans must be sheer hell. A vast, merciless hell of permanent and immediate danger. So much of hell that during evolution some species—including man—crawled, fled onto some small continents of solid land, where the Lessons of Darkness continue.

First of all, what is Cinema Verité ? Cinema Verité (sometimes known as Direct Cinema) is a style of documentary making that combines the use of naturalistic techniques with stylized cinematic techniques, there a stage set ups and camera angles designed to provoke subjects. From the very beginning of my research into the Minnesota Declaration and Werner Herzog  I found it very difficult to understand. Werner Herzog has a way of communicating that is at once impossibly confusing and incredibly resonant. 

It took me a while to understand what Herzog's problem with Cinema Verité was. It seems like a pretty reasonable method of filmmaking. But what I think Herzog is saying is that, Cinema Vertié is perhaps missing nuance and becoming stifled with the literal.  Herzog explains this himself when describing a scene from his film Bells From The Deep, 

“as there were no pilgrims around I hired two drunks from the next town and put them on the ice. One of them has his face right on the ice and looks like he is in very deep meditation. The accountant’s truth: he was completely drunk and fell asleep, and we had to wake him at the end of the take.”

The Minnesota Declaration, I'm finding it slightly more difficult to have an opinion on. I am a little apathetic to it - it makes me shrug my shoulders and say, 'I guess'. It's strange for me really, I agree with Herzog as much as I agree with Cinema Verité.

https://www.fandor.com/posts/op-ed-herzog-s-ecstatic-truthiness

https://www.bu.edu/arion/on-the-absolute-the-sublime-and-ecstatic-truth/

https://www.indiewire.com/2015/04/watch-lars-von-trier-explains-the-rules-of-dogme-95-187806/

https://blog.uclfilm.com/2020/11/11/was-dogme-95-a-successful-manifesto-was-it-a-manifesto-at-all/

https://www.movementsinfilm.com/dogme-95

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/nov/25/how-dogme-built-denmark

https://nofilmschool.com/what-is-cinema-verite