- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: Faber and Faber; illustrated edition edition (20 Nov 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0571203329
- ISBN-13: 978-0571203321
- Product Dimensions: 21.5 x 13.5 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 705,478 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Amazon.co.uk Review
In March 1995, Danish director Lars von Trier--world famous after the success of Breaking The Waves--took part in a discussion on the centenary of cinema. He used the occasion to introduce the public to Dogme95, a manifesto for a new wave of film making. The leaflets which von Trier threw to the audience outlined the 10-point Vow of Chastity which the four-strong Dogme Brotherhood were required to sign. Influenced by the French New Wave, Dogme promised "a rescue action" for cinema, dispensing with studio lighting, insisting on hand-held cameras, and removing directors' names from the credits.
But was it all an elaborate joke, or a clever marketing ploy? After all, this was not von Trier's first published manifesto, and he later admitted that writing the 10 rules "took half an hour and was a great laugh". However, from the moment the first two Dogme films--von Trier's The Idiots and Thomas Vinterberg's Festen--were screened to great acclaim at Cannes, critics were forced to pay attention. Since then, the Dogme rules have not only been invoked by other Danish directors, but by film-makers around the world, most notably American director Harmony Korine in Julien Donkey Boy.
In The Name of this Book, Richard Kelly reports on the making of a television documentary on the Dogme95 phenomenon. He interviews all the key figures of the movement, including directors, producers and actors. The result is impressive--a book which refutes the charge that Dogme is simply a prank aimed at increasing box-office revenue. While von Trier certainly has a penchant for irony, his insistence that "it's not interesting if you don't take it seriously" seems genuine. The Brothers are not suggesting that all films should follow the Dogme rules--they merely wished to try making one or more films each under the restrictions. Many of the interviewees see Dogme in a political light, as a reaction against the dominance of Hollywood and its slick visual style; all of them agree with the producer of Festen and Mifune that "the idea is simply to gain creativity through self-imposition". Offering a glimpse of this creative ferment, Kelly's book is both informative and amusing, weighing up the success of Dogme95 and considering its potential as an international avant garde. --John Oates
Total Film
Extremely illuminating... Often hilarious... If you want to know more about Dogme then this is the best place yet.
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The late comedian Bill Hicks had an impish routine about the hellish cul-de-sac into which Hollywood movies had been driven by 'special effects'. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
The late comedian Bill Hicks had an impish routine about the hellish cul-de-sac into which Hollywood movies had been driven by 'special effects'. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Name of This Book Is Dogme95 is the first book I have found about the Dogme 95 movement. It is not a classical film book, but more a reportage and compilation of interviews that author Richard Kelly did with the people involved in the movement. In the book you'll find interviews with the four 'Dogme Brothers', cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, some of the actors in the films, some producers, as well as Jean-Marc Barr and Harmony Korine. The book is also a journey following Dogme 95 from when the danish Dogme films Festen and the Idiots took the 1998 Cannes festival with storm, up until today when Dogme films are being made all over the world. As a film student writing on a dissertation about Dogme 95 I found the book very useful. In the interviews you find everything from the technical facts, to the thoughts behind it all, and what they gained by making films following the rules of the Dogme 95 manifesto.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Quite simply tells you all you need to know about Dogme95
10 Jan 2005
Format:Paperback
I disagree with the reviewer below who criticises the book for not exploring more thoroughly the impact of Dogme95 on digital film-making - while Dogme production so far proves that DV is a perfectly viable way to make films, that's not what it set out to do. The authors of Dogme95 themselves have repeatedly said that this wasn't about digital video at all. The book clarifies that Trier's and Vinterberg's initial motivation for the Manifesto was to prohibit all those things that make Hollywood untruthful, unrealistic and annoying. It also confirms that the Dogme rules were set to be broken, to encourage other filmmakers to create rules of their own, and to generally revive what Hollywood has turned into a technology-led industry where the director and writer hardly have a say any more. The fact that the Dogme rules require a greater immediacy in the approach to making a film naturally led the directors to use DV, to 'shoot from the hip', but that was a side-effect of the movemenet and not its objective.
I actually like the simple, interview-style approach Kelly has to the material. There's been so much hype around this movement, so much misunderstanding, that the best way to explain it is not to try to explain it, but to let its authors say it in their own words.
Kelly maintains respect for his subject while not taking himself too seriously: the book is a quick and easy read, sprinkled with self-deprecating Brit humour.
I would just encourage readers to see the movies first as there are necessarily quite a few spoilers in the book.
I actually like the simple, interview-style approach Kelly has to the material. There's been so much hype around this movement, so much misunderstanding, that the best way to explain it is not to try to explain it, but to let its authors say it in their own words.
Kelly maintains respect for his subject while not taking himself too seriously: the book is a quick and easy read, sprinkled with self-deprecating Brit humour.
I would just encourage readers to see the movies first as there are necessarily quite a few spoilers in the book.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
The results of Richard Kelly's journalistic inquiry
9 Aug 2001
Format:Paperback
Richard Kelly decided to research the Dogme95 movement launched in March 1995 by Danish director Lars von Trier and three of his friends as part of a "new wave" of avant-garde film of simpler, more truthful, and less boring movies. But with the emergence of such Dogme95 films as Festen, The Idiots, Mifune, and The King is Alive, Danish cinema was galvanized, energized and engaged in a show of solidarity against the Hollywood mainstream. The results of Richard Kelly's journalistic inquiry is now published, available, and highly recommended to film students, movie critics, cultural historians, film school reference libraries, and the non-specialist general reader as The Name Of This Book Is Dogme95.
0 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Not well researched
14 Dec 2001
Format:Paperback
There doesn't seem to be any voice to the author. This book is like a college term paper on DOGME--I give it a C. The book reads like a collection of magazine articles or an unauthorized biography. We have seen most of this material covered in indie filmmaker magazines countless times before. Dogme is a niche component of a larger digital film movement that is sweeping cinema and threatening celluloid. I would have appreciated more discussion of the impact and influence of dogme on the current mavericks of digital filmmakers that are arising and gaining respect. Digital filmmaking has greatly impacted the short film industry. Where does dogme and short film co-exist
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