Ten Years of vow of Chasity

We are now a few days ahead of the Cannes International film festival opening. The European film industry is finalizing its marketing campaigns with emails and newsletter among other means.

Great days where direct marketing is to remind us that for distributors, each viewer counts.

It was two weeks ago, during this exiting period of intense web promotion that an information announced the selection for the Cannes competition of Lars Von Trier last production – MANDERLAY.

Jennifer who forwarded us the news added also this little note: “The Danish director of the Manifesto is coming back”.

Not surprisingly, Cannes artistic director Thierry Fremaux reminds about Lars von Trier that the Cannes International Film Festival invites “ filmmakers who continue their aesthetic exploration and try to extend narrative and directional forms: Lars von Trier who, with Manderlay, explicitly places himself in direct continuation of Dogville, which was presented in 2003.

Lars von Trier was confirmed several years before Dogville. But the world discovered him as he co-signed the famous “DOGME 95” manifesto together with Thomas Vinterberg on March the 13^th 1995.

The 10^th Anniversary of the Manifesto was on the focus of many European newspapers. Did the Danish director succeeded to keep the dogmatic rules that he swear to follow in his “Vow of Chastity”? This last point was differently appreciated. The director went eventually under the fire of film reporters who pointed out that both Lars and Thomas have publicly announced the dead of the Dogme.

So, love it or hate it, the Danish Dogme international dimension is not dead. The Dogme in Asia may even be a New Promise Land for the “Vow of Chastity“ – the filmmakers 10 Commandments.

How can these dogmatic filmmaking rules of the Manifesto be attractive? How do the rules correspond to young filmmakers aspiration in Asia in the digital era? Let’s see what some Asian websites have to report about the DOGME influence.

The DOGME is a label; it is not a licence

The Chinese website “China.org” remarks that DOGME was prompt to embrace the DV format. The website then recalls the DV's development in China during the last 10 years. These developments followed three stages.” From 1996-2000, DV came to China, boosting the development of Chinese individual filmmaking. Early works were mainly documentaries --Yang Tianyi's Old Men, Wu Wenguang's Jiang Hu, Ju Anqi's. There's a Strong Wind in Beijing and Zhu Chuanming's Beijing Cotton Fluffing Artisan.

The second stage, from 2001-2002, brought the participation of major media; DV started to get a lot of attention, and a competitive system was established”. (Read more)

More close to the content is this message posted on the Hong Kong Film Forum

“DOGME offers an inspiring artistic mean of expressing cinematic view worldwide. And everyone can follow the rules”. People who make a Dogme film can share a sense of community of style.

The University of Copenhagen Department of Film addresses a call to filmmakers and advises them to send a copy of their film made according to the DOGME 95 rules - for archive and scientific uses.

A Dogme for the multimedia industry?

Although Lars von Trier production companies Zentropa invites the visitors of its website to play tennis (and always to lose) against him, there is no significant correspondent of The Dogme 95 Vow in the other digital media. New media where filmmakers can also operate, such as the video games, have seen only few initiatives to establish a parallel with the DOGME rules.

In the game industry, Ernst Adams a developer from GAMASUTRA says that he modelled a new set of laws “Dogma 2001” to try to bring game “as an art form to launch aesthetic movements”. (http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20010129/adams_01.htm) He also added that inspiring results might come soon.

Well, if you consider the massive changes in term of production and distribution in this segment of the movie industry, a DOGME production for the multimedia may indeed come soon.

For the moment, let us congratulate the “World Food Programme” and its brilliant launch in Italy on April the 15 of the “First Children Video Game produced by an International organization”. “This is the virtual world of the Food Force video game. It represents our real world. Play the Food Force game, learn about food aid, and help WFP work towards a world without hunger”. “FOOD FORCE” is a 200 Mb free software.

RELATED:

The DOGME 95 Official website: http://www.dogme95.dk/

Read the 10 Commandments of the VOW OF CHASTITY

No Vow but tennis with Zentropa (You will lose anyway but it is at the bottom of the page > Tennis anyone?)