Nosferatu. Revista de cine (Donostia Kultura) Título: Abstracts Autor/es: Nosferatu Citar como: Nosferatu (2002). Abstracts. Nosferatu. Revista de cine. (39):90-92. Documento descargado de: http://hdl.handle.net/10251/41275 Copyright: Reserva de todos los derechos (NO CC) La digitalización de este artículo se enmarca dentro del proyecto "Estudio y análisis para el desarrollo de una red de conocimiento sobre estudios fílmicos a través de plataformas web 2.0", financiado por el Plan Nacional de I+D+i del Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad del Gobierno de España (código HAR2010-18648), con el apoyo de Biblioteca y Documentación Científica y del Área de Sistemas de Información y Comunicaciones (ASIC) del Vicerrectorado de las Tecnologías de la Información y de las Comunicaciones de la Universitat Politècnica de València. Entidades colaboradoras: LESS DOGMA THAN ONE WOULD CARETO from an aesthetic point of view. They also show the BE LlEVE strong visual influence in their making of Russian Nuria Vida/ director Andrei Tarkovski. The Dogma movement was bom at the 1998 Cmmes Festival with the screening of Festen (Thomas BREAKING TV, SHOOTING IN THE DARK Vinterberg) and Idioterne (Lars von Trier). These two Quim Casas directors had drawn up a document in 1995 known as the "Dogma 95 Manifesto" (to which Soren Kragh­ Lars von Trier's relationship with te levision, while not Jacobsen and Kristian Levring were later to add their particularly productive, is highly interesting. His first names), in which they defended a tmth-revealing experience dates back to \987, when he took another look cinema, with no tricks, no special or "cosmetic" e ffects, at the tragedy of Euripides in the shape of Medell, made filmed with a handheld camera, fa r removed from genre fo r television and based 011 a screenplay signed by movie conventions, and shot on locati on. Dogma fi lms Dreyer (together with Prebeu Thomsen) but which the are generally choral fi lms placing grealer importance on latter was unable to film. Von Trier te lis lhe tale of Medea the relationships (almost always problematic) between - whom, after being abandoned by Jason, killed her two the members of this human group (always from the children - with no concessions, underl i11 ing with quasi­ more-or-less middle classes, never marginal) than on cruelty the most tragic aspects, and particularly the death subjects like sex and lave which, while present, don'! of her children. His second work for television, Riget generally play a leading part. The "Dogma Certificate" (also know by its English title, The Kingdom), is a series has been earned to date by 25 films of widely varying comprising two parts, made in \994 and 1997. The nationali ties, including France, Argentina, Korea, ltaly, Kingdom is, in fact, a ghost story set in a big Danish Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, the USA and hospital standing on the mins of an ancient cemetery. even Spain. The Dogma phenomenon has yet lo This series reflects a certain amount of influence from demonstrate the extent of ils influence: whether it will and similarities with another two series likewise directed serve as the foundations for a revolution in the world of by famous filmmakers: 1\vin Pcllks, by David Lynch, and cinema or whether it will simply fade away into the Homicide, by Barry Levinson. lt moreover served to hi story of film as just another movement. bring von Trier closer to a bigger audiencc. I N PRIVATE: A PORTRAIT OF T H E DAN ISH THE E L E M ENT OF C RIME ARTIST Jesús Angula Carlos San/amarina Lars von Trier launched his commercial fil mography with Aping the game proposed by Lars von Trier in E uropa, The E leruent of Crime, a film defying classification with the author sets out on a step-by-step itinerary aimed al which he initiated bis trilogy on Europe, completed wilh offering a second person account of the fihnmaker's Epidemic and Europa. Its sophisticated production, personal and péofessional career. Thus begins a which obeyed the orig inal storyboard to the letter, conspiratorial itinerary tinged with the light of the free unfolds in a claustrophobic atmosphere, wi th disturbing education received by Lars von Trier as a child , showing sets and a highly unusual use of colour. Behind this his mother's intluence in the gestation of his artistic techn ical scaffolding is a process of personality transfer, vocation, or his fi rst works as a director. The biographical during which policeman Fisher finally vampirizes the very low-down moreover takes an in-depth look at the two criminal he has lo unmask, while von Trier proceeds with trilogies made by the filmmaker in lhe 80s and 90s, while a complicated retlection 011 the hypnotic power of placing emphasis on the iutluences that can be detected cinema. in his work or, from another point of view, the part played by the Danish director in creating the "Dogma 95 Manifeslo". The itincrary comes to an end with a last EPIDEMIC note on the work currently in the making by von Trier. Angel Sala Lars von Trier 's second feature, Epidemic, a deliberate LARS VON TRJER AND HIS SHORT F ILMS exercise in denying the manneri sm of his first work, The Zigor Etxebeste E lcmcnt of C r ime, is likewise a movie fa r removed from narrative conventiona lism, whic h encouragcs a Becoming a filmmakcr was young Lars von Trier's .fantastique reflecti on on artisti c creation a nd employs drcam 011 attempting lo enter the Danish Fi lm School fo r gentle irony regarding the generic aspect of cinema. the fi rst time at the age o f 17. Despite initial rejection Epidemic is therefore closer to the director's latest from thc institution, he decided lo go ahead and makc stage than first impressions would seem to imply, fil ms by himself. He made his earliest movics with his although its enthusiastic approach a llCI a certain mother's super-8 mm camera, although his first real naivcty in the elements comprising it s thcsis save it works are Orchidégartnere11 ( 1977) and Menthe-la from the irritating self-sati sfa ction of films like ldioterne bienheureuse ( 1979). Hi s second artcmpt at entering o Dllnccr in the Dark, the pretentiousness of which film school was a succcss. He fil med three more shorts has been intlated by those who have mistakenl y read bctwecn 1979 and 1982 with the help of his usual them as radical and theoreticall y aggressive works, coll aborators at thal time, lhe c inemalographer Tom when they are in fact part of the immense parodie Elling and thc editor Thomas Gislaso11. Two of those catalogue put together by a kamikaze author capable of works served ns stepping-stones on the way lo his first shooting himself down in flames in arder to achieve a featme fi lm , Forbrydelsens element (1984). Thcse two provocati ve and defi nitively destruc tive e ffect around movies, Nocturne and Befriclscsbillcdcr, are analysed the very concept a11d conception of tracli tional c inema. NOSFERATU 391liJ···· EUROPA does respect some of the precepts to be found in the Antonio ll'einrichter "Vote of Chastity" taken by Dogma movies, certain aspccts (the melodrama, the use of a computer to colour Von Trier brings his "Europa Trilogy" to a close with a certain shots, etc.) de!initively deny Breal<i ng !he \Vaves fil m simply namcd like the tri logy itself: Europa. The the right of belonging to this same movement. Having Danish director's most affccted movie, Europa places turncd thc film with a hand-held camera, von Trier places greater emphasis on the way the images are form ed greater stress on the sincerity of expression than he does (wi th frequent transparenci es, colour changes, a on the grammatical side of the languagc, so lending the combination of colour and black and wh ite, etc.), than performance a naturalistic tone plac ing even greater on what actually happens in the screenplay and to the emphasis on direct communication with the spectator. heroes of the film. The hypnotic tone of his two earli er The fi lm principally revolves arou nd the figure of Bess works (The Element of Crime ancl Epidemic) is even (Emily Watson), a half- demen ted, half-sa intly more strongly pronounced, thanks not a little lo the transgressor who confronts the Ca lvinist severity of hcr deep voice of the film 's narrator, Max von Sydow. The community (ancl, hence, of society in general) with her movie takes pl ace on a train shortly at-ler WWII , mixing pristine innocence by mcans of an erotic sacrifice which traces of Hitchcock with the German cinema fin ally fl ourishes into a miracle. transplanted into America by directors like Lang or Sirk. More than a journey by train or through Europe, this film is a voyage lo the imaginary side of cinema. Europa DANCER IN THE DARK marked a radical about-turn in the way von Trier makes Carlos Losilla cinema, ending in the "simplicity" of Dogma. Dancer in tbc Dark is a basic film on Lars von Trier's lilmography for a number of reasons. In the fi rst IDIOTERNE place, because it constitutes th e peak of hi s strange Antonio José Navarro and unusual relationshi p wi th the Dogma movement, of which he has been an active though ambiguous The storyline of ldioteme is set around a gronp of and questioning membcr in hi s own productions as a alleged middle-elass non-conformists whom, in an act o[ filmmaker.