From Dogme to Dogville.
The Films of Lars von Trier
Among the most influential filmmakers of the past decade, Danish director Lars von Trier became a cinematic Martin Luther in 1995, the year of the medium’s centenary, when he issued a radical denunciation of film’s bad faith and decadence. His Dogme 95 contained eleven commandments (including prohibitions against genre films, artificial lighting, and the widescreen format) and invited artists of good faith to accept a “vow of chastity.” While ostensibly an attack on overblown commercial productions, the manifesto was effectively deployed in the promotion of a highly original series of low-budget films by von Trier and fellow directors associated with the Dogme movement. While some dismissed the revolutionary claims of von Trier and company, the critical success of their work vividly demonstrated what critic John Rockwell saw as the need “to strip away spectacle and technical frippery and concentrate on character and raw image.” Now entering the second decade of the Dogme era, von Trier remains one of the most celebrated, hotly debated, and artistically challenging figures in contemporary cinema. This retrospective offers examples of von Trier’s pre- and post-Dogme work as well as documentary portraits of the maker and the movement.