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discussion

Dogville

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Adam
Oct 31 2003
02:34 am

Holy Crap. Who has seen this? Talk to me.

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Jasonvb
Oct 31 2003
04:44 am

I was scared to see it because the other films I’ve seen of Lars Von Trier (Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark) have been so emotionally devastating. Excellent, but extremely hard to watch. And there really hasn’t been a time in the last few months that I’ve been too open to emotional devastation. Would you recommend it, Adam?

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dan
Oct 31 2003
06:10 am

It’s not scheduled for North American release until March 2004. Whet our appetites Adam.

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Adam
Nov 01 2003
10:40 am

Wow. I don’t get this continent-movie-release stuff. Amsterdam won’t see Kill Bill for another couple of weeks (Britain was 2 weeks ago), yet apparently it gets Dogville 5 months before North America?

Hm. I don’t really think I wanna give anything away. Definitely see it, but be prepared for some emotional stirring. I actually have yet to see Dancer in the Dark, so I can’t compare it. Jason, I’d say wait for a day when you’re up for it.

I will say this: almost everything about the film moves deliberately, subtlely and pointedly. The set slowly shows its pertinance to the film, the actors all earn their paychecks. This is one of those films that will probably be some sort of benchmark—of what, I don’t know yet. My head is still kind of trying to get around it.

Okay. I’ll shut up. When your town gets the film and you see it, let me know.

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JabirdV
Nov 01 2003
10:49 am

I am estatic to see it. My wife and I just worked through part 1 of The Kingdom (a Danish mini-series) which kept us captivated for about 5 hours and left us hanging for the 2nd part. Can’t wait to get part 2, but will have to think hard about shelling out the 25 bucks for the DVD since it is only available on Ebay.

I’ll keep my eye out for it. Who was the distribution company…do you know?

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JabirdV
Nov 01 2003
10:54 am

I just added Dancer and Breaking to my Netflix list (an online DVD rental subscription service). Can’t wait to see them!

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JabirdV
Nov 01 2003
10:58 am

Never mind…it is a Lions Gate Film. I will have to ask if it will be a DTS release or not so as to know when I will be seeing it. I will definitely be asking for this job.

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grant
Nov 02 2003
07:37 am

“Breaking the Waves” is a must see, but a must see only-once. It’s one of the best Joan of Arc movies I’ve seen, and I’ve seen a few bad ones.

I have one question for Adam. Is Dogville done according to the Dogma rules? I hope not. von Trier is supposed to have a great film from the nineties that’s pre-Dogma and I think I’d like to see that too. I don’t care for the look of Dogma films.

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Adam
Nov 02 2003
10:33 am

Sorry, I’m not sure what you mean. I’m not familiar with Dogma. I probably can’t answer your question. If you’d care to elaborate, I’ll take a stab, but . . .

I will admit that the photography isn’t always my favorite. The lo-fi look is interesting, but in my mind it only helps the film in a small handful of places—that’s only having seen the film once. I’m very much in favor of the overall style, though, because anything that’s anti-Hollywood is good in my book.

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grant
Nov 03 2003
06:22 am

The Dogma films are made without added special effects or sound effects. A true-blue Dogma film will use only natural lighting and will try to capture genuine emotion in one take, if possible. It will not have extra music usually. The Dogma was a set of theses that a few Danish film directors came up with to make film-making more about good stories and creativity, than effects and shortcuts. One of the best of the Dogma films is “Celebration”. There’s a scene where an actor tells the crowd in a wedding scene a piece of shocking info that the actors were not expecting. As you can imagine, the look of shock and confusion about what to do next feels very real. Because much of it IS real. If you see any Dogma film, I would suggest that one. I also enjoyed “The King is Alive”, which is about a group of tourists who put on a production of Shakespeare’s “King Lear” in the Sahara desert when their bus breaks down.

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Adam
Nov 06 2003
11:56 am

Oh, that. I’ve heard it called something else, but the name eludes me. Something with a 5 in it. I’d also recommend Italian for Beginners in that genre. The difference between these films and Dogville is that, while the “Dogma” films I’ve seen use only natural light and handheld cameras, Dogville uses spare theatrical lighting and on occasion throws in a stationary or moving shot where the camera is obviously mounted, with the rest apparently on handheld.
Thanks for the recommendations.