Dogme 95
Also known as Dogma 95
The Danish film movement launched in 1995 by Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, whose ten rules banned sets, added music, artificial light and genre plots.
In practice
Dogme 95 was a Danish film movement founded in Copenhagen in 1995 by the directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg. Its manifesto attacked the expensive illusions of mainstream cinema and set out ten rules, called the Vow of Chastity, that a film had to obey to be certified as a Dogme film.
The rules required shooting on location with whatever props were found there, recording sound with the image and never adding music, holding the camera by hand, and using no special lighting, optical effects or filters. Films had to take place here and now, could not belong to a genre and could not contain superficial action such as murders or weapons. The director was not to be credited.
The first certified film, Vinterberg's The Celebration (Festen, 1998), was a critical success, and von Trier's The Idiots (1998) followed. Dozens of films around the world were certified before the founders closed the movement's secretariat in 2002. Its handheld, natural-light look shaped independent film and television for years.
A Dogme-style scene in screenplay form
INT. HOTEL DINING ROOM - NIGHT
Real candles, a real room, forty guests. The camera is handheld and slightly late to everything. The bride's brother, ANDERS (35), taps his glass and stands.
ANDERS
I wrote this speech three times. This is the honest one.
At the head table, the GROOM stops smiling.
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Everything in the scene could be shot in a real hotel with no added light or music, as Dogme required. The drama lives entirely in performance and situation: one line that the audience senses will change the evening.
The Dogme 95 rules
The Vow of Chastity had ten rules. Shoot on location, with no sets or props brought in. Never produce sound apart from the image, so no music unless it plays in the scene. Hold the camera by hand. Shoot in color with no special lighting. Use no optical work or filters.
The remaining rules were about content and credit. No superficial action such as murders or weapons. No displacement in time or place, so the film happens here and now. No genre films. The format had to be Academy 35 mm, and the director could not be credited.
The founders admitted the rules were often bent, and directors published confessions listing their own breaches. The point was less purity than a discipline that forced attention onto story and acting.
Dogme 95 films
The Celebration (Festen, 1998): at a father's sixtieth birthday dinner, his eldest son stands to make a speech and reveals a family secret. It was Dogme film number one.
The Idiots (1998): Lars von Trier's film about a group of young people who pretend to be mentally disabled in public to provoke the people around them.
Mifune (1999): Søren Kragh-Jacobsen's comedy about a Copenhagen businessman who returns to his family's run-down farm after his father's death.
Julien Donkey-Boy (1999): the American director Harmony Korine's portrait of a young man with schizophrenia and his family, the first American Dogme film.
Italian for Beginners (2000): Lone Scherfig's gentle ensemble comedy about lonely people who meet in an evening language class.
Writing a script under Dogme rules
Write for places you can actually use. With no sets allowed, every scene heading should name a real location and every prop should be one that would already be there.
Let drama come from people, not events. Without action set pieces or genre machinery, the plot moves through confrontations, confessions and choices, often in one long gathering like a dinner or a weekend.
Remove music and effects from the page. Any song must be sung or played in the scene, so write it into the action. That constraint pushes emotion back into the dialogue.
In Plot, the scene list shows every location at a glance, which makes it easy to check that the whole script could be shot in the places you have.
Common questions
What is Dogme 95?
Dogme 95 was a Danish film movement founded in 1995 by Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, whose ten rules required real locations, handheld cameras, natural light and no added music.
What are the Dogme 95 rules?
The ten rules required real locations, direct sound, a handheld camera, color film without special lighting, no filters or effects, no superficial action, no genre and no director credit.
What was the first Dogme 95 film?
Thomas Vinterberg's The Celebration (Festen, 1998), about a family dinner where a son exposes his father, was certified as Dogme film number one.
Does Dogme 95 still exist?
Not as a movement. The founders closed the secretariat that certified films in 2002 and handed the rules over to filmmakers, though directors still borrow its style and constraints.
Why did Dogme 95 ban music?
The rule that sound must be produced with the image was meant to remove artificial emotion. Any music had to be heard in the scene itself, so feeling came from performance.