Dogme

I have to admit even though I am a self-confessed film junkie, I have only seen two Dogme95 films in its ten year history. One was Festen, the first Dogme film made, which I caught in a film festival a long time ago and the almost pornographic Idioterne, shown this month on Channel 4's Banned Season (I believe it was the first time penetration was shown on terrestrial British TV).

The Dogme manifesto was originally structured to counter the auteur theory. Rules pertaining to vow of 'chasity' was released and includes such the barring of trivial things such as the use of props.

The irony of it all it seems was one of the reason the rules were created was to release the director of any credits to the authorship of a Dogme film, when in actual reality directorship is often credited and even more so on their website!

However I really did enjoy the two films I saw and not because it was a Dogme film - but because the plot was good - which some would argue is the result of such rules.

If you are interested in Dogme film-making, Ten Years of Danish Dogme 1995-2005 is being held at the Curzon arthouse cinema in Soho this whole April.

Read The Guardian's article on Dogme.