"Dogma 95" controversy ... What do you think?

I too have mixed feelings on Dogme95

(I always make a lot of friends in these threads)

It comes across as pretentious crap like most avant-garde art does. They try so hard to be creative and purify the filmmaking but stifle the very creativity with absurd rules .

I don't know. I'm with Cheesesailor. It's not for me, but whatever you do to express yourself is your own thing.

It can be a beautiful thing, but why chastise me for using a grad filter ?
 
I enjoyed doing one. It was just an exercise and I really don't think I'll ever do one unless there's a prize for it but it was a nice learning experience to try it.
 
John_Hudson said:
I too have mixed feelings on Dogme95

(I always make a lot of friends in these threads)

It comes across as pretentious crap like most avant-garde art does. They try so hard to be creative and purify the filmmaking but stifle the very creativity with absurd rules .

I don't know. I'm with Cheesesailor. It's not for me, but whatever you do to express yourself is your own thing.

It can be a beautiful thing, but why chastise me for using a grad filter ?
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1) LVT (the mentor) is one of the best comtemporary filmmakers -- period (Did anyone see Europa -- Zentropa in US ?)

2) Dogme95 is an effective good marketing operation -- period

3) The question is calling for the attention concerning the content as more relevant than the form or the production conditions -- where it seems there is one sole cinema language because there is a large audience to satisfy... that is, the cinema would be more art than anything else including and specially: industry (behind and from its manufacturing where the "Brecht distance" rules...that will be the case of Dogville and Manderlay even if post-Dogme95)
 
It can be done with out being pretentious.
You can do it to sharpen your skills. Do to the rate of tech. some may not know what it is like to work with the basics.

I've worked on a few and I have to say, that it was a damn good feeling to pull in a shoot and have it look and sound good.

It makes your mind work.
 
Dogme is something every filmmaker should try at least once. It'll hone your ability to run-and-gun and free you from the constraints of conventional filmmaking (and there are constraints--I've found that I built them myself). Dogme forces you to be guerilla, and the films you make afterwards will be better for it. You learn something from every movie as a filmmaker, but taking away all the toys forces you to learn something as a storyteller. That's how it worked for me, anyway.
 
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Emanuel said:
1) LVT (the mentor) is one of the best comtemporary filmmakers -- period (Did anyone see Europa -- Zentropa in US ?)
Click to expand...

Somehow I missed the 'dogme' method in Europa... Then again, if he shot things in the former East Germany zone, just after the reunification, perhaps he could have found sets and backdrops which 'looked exactly as they had in 1946 or so... since many places had not been rebuild during the soviet period...

The fact that someone has produced great works, does not mean that subsequent works have the same elements... or alternatively, because someone has created great works, therefore all subsequent works are therefore great... or, even more alternatively, given someone has produced great works, may have more access to sets and situations which allow for a polished 'dogme' style, which if attempted by lesser lights, or even insignificant students, look like crap.
 
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