The Vow Of Chastity: Film Analysis

The “Vow of Chastity” clearly reveals Dogme movement’s significances as a resistance force against Hollywood domination in film market from three aspects: rejecting the Hollywood tradition of illusions created by high-technology and further suggesting “zero aesthetic” in the technical aspects; the realism in narrative, which could be seen as a reaction against Hollywood superficial stories; auther film and individualism which are big selling points in Hollywood are restricted. Technically, from rule 1-5 and rule 9, it is obvious that high technology and special effects in shooting are forbidden and all the technical aids are not allowed in Dogme films to increase purity and authenticity. This could be seen as a reaction to the fascinating artificial

new technologies that most Hollywood film makers use to create magnificent scenes in order to impress audiences. Narratively, Dogme 95 group rejects unrealistic themes and stories and further asserts that films should reveal “human fact”, which could be noticed from rule 6-8. These indicate that the film should base on real time and location, aiming to reach unification of time and space. Besides, it intends to reveal people’s real life instead of fabricating fantasy unrealistic stories. Moreover, it refuses the Hollywood films’ cause and effect structure and claims to have more authorial expressions. Finally in tenth rule, the Dogme 95 manifesto significantly rebuts against director as an auteur and the Dogme brothers agree that directors are only recorders, which rebels against director as a marketing strategy in Hollywood. The following part will illustrate the three significances made by Dogme 95 movement, engaging with the analysis of two Dogme films: The Celebration, and The Idiots.
Technically, to increase the level of realism the Dogme directors try to eliminate the use of special effects, which have been applied by most of the Hollywood highly sophisticated films as a normal selling point. Dogme films are required to get rid of all the technical aids to create purity and authenticity. Additionally, the Dogme brothers believe that the reality is revealed by acting but not special effects. Only hand-held camera, natural lightning and direct sound are allowed. No filters nor extra light could appear in the dogme films. In this way, the dogme group reject the influence of Hollywood dominance from a technological point of view. The restriction of using special effects also lead to the possibility of making film with low budget. The movement suggests the idea that films could be beneficial as well as meaningful without a huge budget and technical special effects, which gives a new point of view of making successful films. Significantly, the idea of “originality and creativity as supreme achievements” (Rombes, 2005) in the era when filmmakers too much rely on special effects and post-production provides a new alternative differs from Hollywood mainstream and opens a door for young individual directors.
The Idiots offers supportive examples in illustrating the Dogme movement as a resistance against Hollywood domination from technical aspect.

Compared to the sophisticated shots of the Hollywood film, the Idiots shows a sign of low budget because the quality of image in The Idiots makes it look like an amateur’s work. The poor quality largely results from the use of hand-held camera. The Idiots does not strive to emphasise the beauty, which is shown clearly by excluding aesthetics that are supposed to attract the viewers. Shots are frequently out of focus especially when the camera chases the running actors or follows the actors’s fast movement. Besides, the images wobble throughout the film due to hand-held camera and the editing is comparatively abrupt. In the last scene when Karen goes back home, where every family member gathers together in the living room for afternoon tea, the camera moves around to give each character a close-up on their facial expressions, the hand-held camera pans dizzyingly, producing a poor quality scene. The camera shakes constantly as it zooms in when Karen tries to spass in front of her family and spilt a bit cake out of her mouth. On the whole, the poor quality of the film contrasts with the sophisticated, delicate Hollywood film that might be seen as a rejection towards Hollywood and provides another possible way to reduce technology involvement to pursue

realism.