Susanne Bier

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I am very interested in the dogma films of Denmark.Most specifically in the work of Susanne Bier. I have been watching her films for several years without realising that she was part of the Dogma tradition that came out of Denmark and is led by Lars Von Trier (who incidentally I do not admire).

Bier's early films were slightly more experimental(Open Hearts). She has become more mainstream in her last few projects(The night manager, BBC). 

Dogma films make no presumption of what an audience will like.It needs only the basics: a camera,a cast and a script.It is a stripped down approach to making cinematic movies.

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The rules of Dogma are:

-Shooting should be done on location

-The sound should never be produced separately from the images

-The film should be shot with a hand held camera

-shooting should take place where the film takes place

-must be made in 35mm format

-No flasbacks

-no props or make up

-no director credited

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Susanne Bier has shaken off some of these rather extreme rules some time ago. When interviewed it is clear she does not want to be pidgeonholed and is now slightly frustrated with the limitations of Dogma.

Actively refusing the description sometimes.All 3 of the films pictured here use various combinations of the rules above but not all of them. 

I would agree with this also. When shooting my film, I too, found, that I needed to do what was right for the meaning of the film. This isnt always possible if you follow strict rules.

I am not good at rules. Although, I really like the authentic feel of handheld filming. It is like life. Not perfect and a little shakey.

Another 2 aspects of this work that I aim to experiment with are: 

 - filming in sequence

- encouraged improvisation 

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