Festen & Little Dieter Needs to Fly & Gardens in Autumn
Combining Tuvan throat
singing with stock footage of a slow-motion napalm bombing of rural Vietnamese
dwellings, as in Little Dieter Needs to Fly, would probably not be something that
could be done in accordance with the principles of Dogme
95. However, it’s one of the most memorable and effective passages from Werner
Herzog’s documentary about Dieter Dengler, US navy
pilot and ex-POW. Otar Iosseliani,
although avowedly principled in his filmmaking, might permit Herzog’s unusual
juxtaposition, particularly because the non-dialogue approach is something he
believes in. In Gardens in Autumn, he has tried to
create a film whose message is not lost to those who don’t understand the
language used in the script. He more or less succeeds, but we certainly gain a
greater understanding of the movie and his own motivation by listening to him
speaking about it. Although it was the first movie made in accordance with the Dogme 95
principles, Festen is at heart a straightforward story about an
abusive father’s chickens coming home to roost, in the form of his son’s outing
of the father’s misdeeds at the latter’s birthday celebrations. Under the Dogme rules, the camera should be handheld, and there are
indeed some interesting angles on display here, including from the inside of a
cigar tube as someone inserts a rolled note in it. Festen
is in turns energetic and wistful and the adherence to the Dogme principles in this domestic setting
give the effect of a most embarrassing home movie.
It’s not simply about style though, because the screenplay sees the villain
receiving his comeuppance and the black sheep receiving some elevation in
standing in an entertaining fashion.
Dogme 95’s rules are enumerated in the Vow of Chastity. The
vow’s gist is that the important thing is that the truth of the moment, at an
actual time and place, should be what is captured on film (35mm only, by the
way). This moment should appear in natural light and unembellished by
incidental music, only diegetic music being permitted.
The director of a Dogme 95 film should not receive a
credit. For their movies, Herzog and Iosseliani not
only receive credits but variously perform narrative and interviewing duties
(Herzog), and appear as an actor (Iosseliani). In
respect of this last fact, Iosseliani explains his
casting with a hint of false modesty, saying that the role called for one who
could draw and play music while still giving the impression of being an insignificant
individual. No amount of explanation would help Herzog’s cause; Dogme 95’s rules are categorical :
“Genre movies are not acceptable.”
While Dogme 95 takes the
rule-setting approach to filmmaking, Iosseliani has intentions
on society at large, which Gardens in Autumn pretends
to communicate, non-verbally. “One can change nothing in this world” is the
requisite starting point, he argues. It follows naturally that we become
drinkers and smokers. We love to think about things and spend time in groups
for whom true communication is performed with the exchange of a brief look.
Civil servants, the lead role in Gardens in Autumn is
one, are beyond the pale. In their quest for personal advancement they have
turned away from the true life of friendship with the world’s
genuine and honest.
If ever someone embarked on a quest for personal
advancement it was Dieter Dengler, the entertaining
subject of Little Dieter Needs to Fly. The day that he completed his gruelling apprenticeship
as a blacksmith in the Black Forest, he hitchhiked to the port of Hamburg and
arrived in New York with the intention of fulfilling his dream of becoming a
pilot. After some false starts (he lived in a VW carabiner
for two years) he eventually graduated from college, and ultimately found
himself performing bombing missions from an air craft carrier in the Vietnam war. At the time that LDNtF was made,
he was living in the house he built in Mount Tamalpais,
Marin County. Under the floorboards of the house are several tens of gallons of
honey and many kilos of rice and wheat. That’s what six months living in terror
as a prisoner of the Viet Cong will do to you, one supposes. Herzog tells the
story well, using unusual montages (see above), recreations in situ in Laos,
interviews and artistic renderings of what the POW camp was like. Dengler himself is a godsend for the filmmaker also.
Three movies, three directors (one unnamed), and three motivations. We sometimes forget that there is a context to the movies we watch. Performing this comparison has made me more aware of this. The bigger context, as a ‘pataphysician might say, is that we would gain most by taking the best from each of the three viewpoints. On this basis, we might say that principles are useful, and so is a happy life of reflection in the company of friends. However, we should nonetheless be resourceful and resilient so as to overcome the threat of enemy soldiers in war time. Or civil servants.