question about Dogville's set up.

dvpixl

dvpixl

Veteran
I'm sure this movie's been discussed to pieces already down the forum somewhere but....


why did Lars use a studio to tell his story? I can't figure it out.

is it to show that beneath and under the covers of reality, we actually all see through each other but we pretend like we dont? or is it that we all live in together in a sense that we put up fake walls and human beings dwell so arrogantly that we wonder if we really know that we are alone in the universe or if there is a God watching, and if there is, do we purposefully ignore him because we are so pretentious?

why digital? because Lars said,"A film can't be too good looking" to that effect and it looked a terrible of a 24p. maybe he wasn't even trying.

but i got lost in the story. he could tell his stories.

loved the ending. it was so deep. so clearly interpreted based on how humans tend to think.

I hate the editing. it's so arrogant!!! who does he think he is? to cut the same scene together in the middle of DIALOGUE!!!!???? I'm not impressed... but i do get the idea.

he just wants attention. that dog.
 
Re: question about Dogville's set up.

At first I thought the studio setup was an extension of Von Trier's connection to Dogme 95. Maybe.

You can also obviously view the movie as a morality play, and the studio setting is much closer to an actual theatrical stage. Some critics use this reading and have called the film an exercise in Von Trier's misanthropy. And yet other critics have called the film unamerican. I think they totally miss the point.

I actually really like the ending, even with its old testament punishment. And the credits were hilarious.
 
Re: question about Dogville's set up.

And I thought Nicole Kidman was a saint for what she went through in this film.
 
Re: question about Dogville's set up.

There ´s an extra in the dogville dvd release. The dogville confessions, where a lot is explain. Not all. Better not.
The whole idea of the movie is based, or influenced on Bertold Brecht theater so i guess that´s one of the reasons but there´s more...
Lars is always looking for new ways to break the rules. This one i think was brilliant.
I watch it two times. Second time i pay a lot of attention to the sound. It´s incredible how free can be. I mean sometimes it is real some other is so quiet... Of course it couldn´t work in a natural location.
Another guess. he wants to scape from his dogma monster. So avoiding natural locations is something you couldn´t do in a dogma movie. In dogma the place has to be real and Dogville doesn´t exist. Well, now it does for me.

By the way was filmed in 35mm. Not digital.
In Dogville Confessions there´s a lot of footage where you see Lars holding a heavy (seems) 35 camera.
 
Re: question about Dogville's set up.

Dogville was filmed in HD, that Sony F900 I believe. I saw stills with it mounted on him like a horrendous technological attachment to his spine. Pretty strange.

The studio setup of the film was an aesthetic choice first and foremost. He could create his own "America" as what it is, an idea more than anything to him, as someone who never travelled here. It's his interpretation of America relocated to a studio (an old car factory, strangely enough), stripped of its filmic vices (trees, mountains, old homes, dirt roads, etc), and filtered through Brecht and Thornton Wilder. The set (which changes throughout the film) is essential to every inch of this film (obviously).

Forget Dogma, he's finished with that stunt (as are most).

I'm not going to defend this film's ending right now (as it isn't fresh in my mind), but I thought this was the best film I saw last year.
 
Re: question about Dogville's set up.

[quote author=travis link=board=movies;num=1094701433;start=0#4 date=09/10/04 at 15:07:26]
By the way was filmed in 35mm. Not digital.
In Dogville Confessions there´s a lot of footage where you see Lars holding a heavy (seems) 35 camera.
[/quote]

well, i guess the camera was heavily dressed. I already knew it was shot on HD- I didn't mean mini-dv when I asked why it was shot in digital. the fact is, it looked terrible of a video. it looked like video and it was badly 24ped. Coudln't you tell? there's no way 35mm could look like that.

anyway, not all of it looked bad. it took up on it's own form of theatrical feel. I'm not saying lars is ignorant. I just think he's a messy film guy. even his thinking and personality seems messy. that's saying it in an artistic sense.
 
Re: question about Dogville's set up.

Did you watch the film on DVD or in a theater? I saw it in NY at the film festival and it looked really nice. The Danish DVD is also good.
 
Re: question about Dogville's set up.

lars von trier is just plainly artsy and pretentious. anything wierd or obtuse for the sake of 'art' is his thing. he likes to be wierd for the very sake of being wierd. some critics often mistake this for 'creativity' or 'vision'. i see it as a huge distraction from the story. the point of a film is to 'willingly suspend disbelief" of the audience to bring them into the story and make them emotionally connected to it, so the film happens with them, not just on the screen. anything that detracts from that is unwarranted and lessens the impact of the film. being wierd cause he can lessens that.
 
Re: question about Dogville's set up.

well i enjoyed the film thoroughly on DVD NTSC.
at one point, I just sorta forgot that it was a studio...
 
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