Lars Von Trier

Lars Von Trier is one of the world's leading directors who has been known to over the years divide opinions of critics and the public audience alike.

Von Trier takes his work extremely seriously and even has a set list of rules to abide by when it comes down to his craft. As part of the Dogme 95, which was a movement of avant-garde film-making founded by Lars and fellow film-maker Thomas Vinterberg in 1995 that prided itself on being able to create accessible films that were of great quality without the need to of a huge budget or "Hollywood" sets, Lars prided himself on this and kept within the strict rules and regulations of the "Dogme 95 Manifesto", which consisted of the following ten conditions...

These rules, referred to as the "Vow of Chastity," are as follows:

1. Filming 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 within the scene being filmed, i.e., diegetic.
3. The camera must be a hand-held camera. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted. The film must not take place where the camera is standing; filming must take place where the action 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.

Cover of "Antichrist" (2009)

Since the collaboration ended, Von Trier has gone on to create multiple multi-award winning films including "Dancer in the Dark (2000), "Dogville" (2003) and the erotic horror "Antichrist" (2009).

Out of Von Trier's films I am ashamed to say I have seen just one, "Antichrist" starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg, which is a brilliant film and I consider it to be one of my most recent favourites. An extremely dark and disturbing supernatural tale which is full of clever camera work, intense and brutal narrative and all in all the makings of a definite future classic of the horror movie genre.

I believe that Lars Von Trier is an extremely talented filmmaker and although he doesn't closely relate to my specialist field, I feel motivated to watch other films he has made thanks to my research.

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