Mifune

A few months ago Marxism list subscriber Daniel O'Connell, who is now gallivanting somewhere in Europe, told me about the Denmark-based Dogma 95 film-making movement. Last night I saw "Mifune", an officially approved Dogma 95 movie. Before discussing this altogether enjoyable film, a few words about Dogma 95 is in order. If you go to their website at http://www.dogme95.dk, you will find a manifesto that states:

"In 1960 enough was enough! The movie was dead and called for resurrection. The goal was correct but the means were not! The new wave proved to be a ripple that washed ashore and turned to muck. Slogans of individualism and freedom created works for a while, but no changes. The wave was up for grabs, like the directors themselves. The wave was never stronger than the men behind it. The anti-bourgeois cinema itself became bourgeois, because the foundations upon which its theories were based was the bourgeois perception of art. The auteur concept was bourgeois romanticism from the very start and thereby ... false! "

Lars von Trier, one of the founders of the movement, is a red-diaper baby. His mother was a Communist, his father a Social Democrat, and both worked in Denmark's social-services ministry. According to a NY Times (Apr. 30, 2000) profile of von Trier and Dogma 95, they met during World War II in Sweden after fleeing the Nazi occupation of Denmark, "my father because he was Jewish and my mother because she was in the resistance." They were also dedicated nudists (although less so than another relative von Trier describes who kept his apartment warm and "was always completely naked, on principle"). His childhood included occasional holidays at nudist camps. "It was very strange," he says, "kind of charming."

In essence, the Dogma 95 school sought to achieve a kind of pristine authenticity in film-making that had been lost through the introduction of elaborate film-scores, cinematography, special effects, etc. It was no accident that they likened their movement to a kind of Protestant challenge to Catholic rococo excess. Denmark, after all, was one of the European centers of hair shirt Calvinism. Leaving no room for misinterpretation, the Dogmatists laid down strict rules about how to make a movie, which they called "The Vow of Chastity":

"I swear to submit to the following set of rules drawn up and confirmed by DOGME 95:

1. Shooting must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in (if a particular prop is necessary for the story, a location must be chosen where this prop is to be found). 2. The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. (Music must not be used unless it occurs where the scene is being shot). 3. The camera must be hand-held. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted. (The film must not take place where the camera is standing; shooting must take place where the film takes place). 4. The film must be in colour. Special lighting is not acceptable. (If there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera). 5. Optical work and filters are forbidden. 6. The film must not contain superficial action. (Murders, weapons, etc. must not occur.) 7. Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden. (That is to say that the film takes place here and now.) 8. Genre movies are not acceptable. 9. The film format must be Academy 35 mm. 10. The director must not be credited.

Furthermore I swear as a director to refrain from personal taste! I am no longer an artist. I swear to refrain from creating a "work", as I regard the instant as more important than the whole. My supreme goal is to force the truth out of my characters and settings. I swear to do so by all the means available and at the cost of any good taste and any aesthetic considerations. Thus I make my VOW OF CHASTITY."

Copenhagen, Monday 13 March 1995 On behalf of DOGME 95 Lars von Trier Thomas Vinterberg

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Turning now to "Mifune", directed by Soren Kragh-Jacobsen, you are essentially presented with a film that makes the most of a natural setting, namely a ramshackle farm in the Danish countryside. This is not a film set, but an old house that Jacobsen discovered. It was a perfect find since much of the film's magic is associated with the play of sunlight in the interiors of the house and on the surrounding fields, all of which evokes a Van Gogh painting.

The plot is a variation on "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" or "Queen of Hearts" as Kresten (Anders W. Berthelsen), a middle-class businessman from Copenhagen, is forced to cope with the care of his simple-minded and mentally ill brother Rud (Jesper Asholt) after the death of their father at the family farm.

The title of the film is drawn from a game Kresten plays to amuse his brother when he is agitated. He pretends to be Toshiro Mifune, a "Samovar" warrior. After putting a metal pot on his head and wrapping himself in a sheet, he stamps the ground while grimacing and growling in mock-Japanese.

While his original plans called for staying at the farm for no more than a day or so, Kresten finds himself drawn into the upkeep of the farm and the care of his long-forgotten brother. This is not an easy task since Rud marches to his own drummer. When he is not spinning out tales about the impending arrival of UFO's that are coming to the farm to take him away, he is stealing his Kresten's money to buy thousands of lottery tickets that he hides in his underwear.

To help him cope with all this, Kresten hires a housekeeper from the city named (Iben Hjejle), a prostitute fleeing a nasty pimp and a psychopathic telephone stalker. They are eventually joined by her foul-mouthed chain-smoking younger brother Bjarke (Emil Tarding), who has been thrown out of boarding school for bad behavior. Even though she is constantly being provoked to the point of distraction by Bjarke herself, she is deeply devoted to him. During a session with one of her johns, she discovers that the wealthy client has had a role in Bjarke being caned at the boarding school. Her response is to knock him to the floor and to pee on an expensive Persian rug he dotes on while he watches helplessly.

The two brothers, the woman and her brother interact with each other through the remainder of the film in the rooms and fields of the ramshackle farmhouse. Using natural light, hand-held cameras and a total absence of music, Soren Kragh-Jacobsen creates a magical world. The conflicts and harmony of the four characters can only be described as something out of a Mozart opera or Chekhov play, as the sharply defined characters evoke in each other responses that nobody--including the audience--could have predicted at the outset.

"Mifune" is now available in video. I strongly recommend it and any chance you get to see the following films, which have received the stamp of approved from Dogma 95 and are likely to be available at some point in video format or in art theater revivals:

1. Julien Donkey-Boy (USA, Directed by Harmony Korine

2. The Idiots (Denmark, Directed by Lars von Trier)

3. Breaking the Waves (Denmark, Directed by Lars von Trier)