Actually, one of the unwanted side effects of Dogma manifesto was creating a
genre with its own rules and aspects such as examining ethics and mores of
the society and the individuals.
(That "birth of a genre" later provided an excuse for closing the Dogma
secretariate.)
Possibly, in the rigid framework defined by von Trier and Vinterberg, that
was the most probable interpretation of the phrase "forcing the truth out of
the actors" in the Manifesto.
Whatever the case should be, I have never seen (and find it difficult to
imagine) a Dogma film which does not cope with ethics.
In addition, Lars von Trier non-Dogmas (but too close) are worth
mentioning - the told "Breaking the Waves", certainly, and its follow-up
"Dancer in the Dark"... much earlier "Zentropa" etc.
Sincerely,
Alexey
-----Original Message-----
From: Film-Philosophy Salon [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Damon Stanek
Sent: Wed, July 30, 2003 2:03 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Ethics and Film
Dan,
I find the ethical dilemmas of everyday life far more interesting than
archetypical good/evil struggles, and I think that Susanne Bier's Open
Hearts (2002) offers a wonderfully knotty ethical situation. A
physician is asked to hold together the emotional lives of a pair of
accident participants. While neither is physically injured the
physician attempts to both aide his wife, the driver, devastated by her
inability to bring any relief to herself or the situation, and the
victim's lover who is lost and helpless in offering her lover support
in his recovery. Although I am offering a vulgar reduction of Levinas'
ethics, this narrative presents the physician with a pair of unpayable
debts to the other which triangulates the asymmetrical (and normally
binary) relation between the I and other. Although I have never seen
it, I believe Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves (1996) may also yield
a similar knot.
Damon Stanek
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Art History
CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10016
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