VINTERBERG: Lars von Trier came up with the idea. He called me and said, ““Let’s make this commune. Let’s try to make some rules.’’ I was immediately attracted to the project and completely understood the irony of it. Dogme created the atmosphere of playing, like cowboys and Indians. At the same time, you are avoiding the mediocrity of conventional filmmaking. I had been raised to automatically set up lights and use makeup and music, because that’s what you do, and I felt quite trapped by it. It turned out that Lars did as well.
By setting limits we are able to stretch our imagination. When you are not allowed to add music, you make your actors sing. If you have to shoot in a completely dark room and there is no blue light through the curtains, you use a lighter, because that’s what you have in your pocket. It’s a kind of cleansing, like going back to scratch, and it’s a very inspiring game.
It was easy. We asked ourselves what we most hated about film today, and then we drew up a list banning it all. It took half an hour and was a great laugh. Then we called two other Danish filmmakers and asked them to join us.
It’s arrogant in the tone, and it’s arrogant because it looks down on the novel way of filmmaking. It’s arrogant because it defines itself as avant-garde.
I would be proud if it did, because that would mean it had to be big first. It’s a natural evolution to go from avant-garde to mainstream: there’s a reaction, [the reaction] becomes convention, everyone falls asleep and then there’s another new wave.
Because filmmaking there had become very claustrophobic–there were certain ways to do a film and you followed them. If you do that long enough there is going to be a reaction. That’s what happened in Denmark. Cinema there has exploded, with Bille August, Lars von Trier and youngsters like me.
There’s the belief that you must do what the audience wants. But really, success has nothing to do with what the audience wants. For example, ““The Celebration’’ is a very narrow film on videotape about child abuse, and in Scandinavia, it’s a blockbuster, right next to ““Titanic.’’ We shouldn’t try to follow the basic ideas of what the audience wants, because we don’t know. The audience doesn’t know.
The strength of American filmmaking is that it’s an industry. European filmmaking is trying to become one, but shouldn’t. If you start to make these Europudding things you’ll just kill it. To be a success, Europe must maintain the individualism and irrationality of its cinema. To compete in American terms is impossible. We shouldn’t even try.
Lars did Dogme #2, ““The Idiots,’’ which was also at Cannes. Dogme #3 is in the editing room, and Dogme #4 will start in London very soon, with a pretty Hollywoodish cast. We now have four Danes, a Swede, an American and a Frenchman in the commune. The goal of Dogme 95 is to expose differences, to see very well-dressed directors undress.
It would be interesting to see Francis Ford Coppola do a Dogme film. Or Scorsese. Lars sent out hundreds of letters last May, humbly inviting all these huge directors to join Dogme. We got no response. Nothing. They must be too busy setting up the lights.
