JA: “Lars has always made rules for his films. These have always been rules for himself, so this time he thought it could be fun to write down these rules and ask others to make films under the same conditions. The Idiots was a piece of fiction that fit the rules but it’s equally true to say that the Dogma-rules fit this piece of fiction; fiction and rules come into existence simultaneously in all Lars’ films. Form and content are two sides of the same coin.”
“So your acting wasn't addressed to the camera?
JA: No! And I think that is of crucial importance in terms of acting and Dogma films. As to camera work it’s a rule-of-thumb that it’s no good to deliver something to the camera. It’s a general rule behind many American acting methods that you should be and not act. For example, if you say something that hurts me, I know I shouldn’t produce tears for the sake of the camera.”
JA: “It’s also got something to do with the function of the camera in Dogma. The camera is much more than a window or a gateway for the audience; in Dogma the camera is a participant that has a temperament and an emotional life of its own. Sometimes the camera is a little inquisitive; sometimes it is a little inattentive. Sometimes the camera is there, sometimes it isn’t but it is very much about creating landscapes that the camera can investigate.” (Oxholm interview)
LH: “Then Lars said: “Oh, just try and forget that and tell me something about yourself.’ You can say that it works, I guess. I mean, the result is good, but I wouldn’t like to work like that forever. It’s hard and I think to be an actress is just as much about creating a character who is not you....
... but Lars von Trier mixed character and the person behind; the boundaries blurred?
LH: Yes, and that was also his intention.”
“But there is something about the whole project that relates to control and non-control because that is closely connected to Lars’ personality. He is a control freak who constantly tries to sabotage his own control measures, and really, Dogma is ridiculous, it’s fun, it’s comical, it’s a parody. It’s absolutely grotesque to create Dogma 95 which is this law that cannot be broken, and then having it consist of rules that are all meant to sabotage traditional filmmaking. Dogma is a paradox, the whole project of The Idiots is paradoxical but there’s yet another paradox in wanting to control your own loss of control.”
“Did the actors select the locations for the shoots?
LH: Hmm, both yes and no.
So the rule about the camera seeking out the action isn’t a hundred per cent viable?
LH: Nah, yeah, I think it was.
JA: Well yes, you could say that a lot of situations took form as a collective thing.”
JA: “On a normal set you can sort of lean back and there are thirteen people who, aside from carrying out a specific function, also bring some energy to the set. . . In The Idiots we were totally stripped of that!”
LH: “It’s gradually becoming clear to me that being an actress is about…not acting but being, but what’s really becoming clear to me is that just being is damn hard work.”
JA: “Even though Dogma acting might look like method acting, it is something else. You cannot prepare yourself for the part; the fiction can only take shape here and now.”
JA: “I've tried to discuss this with Lars, but he really doesn't think in those terms because Lars follows his instincts when it comes to actors. As a professional this is something I have devoted my time to for many years and thereby I've obtained a certain language. This is not the case with Lars. He is extremely conscious, professional and always goal-directed...but not with actors.”
JA: “I think the energy of the film walks on a razor's edge between improvisation and direction. Does the film look like the one Lars imagined? Or doesn't it? Well, if there's an unambiguous answer to that, there wouldn't be a film. This is exactly what's interesting... it is about freedom: freedom on different levels, in the fiction and also in the way the film was made.”
That is to say that for the actors as well as the project The Idiots it has been a matter of placing yourself on the razor’s edge between control and non-control?
LH: “Yes, yes, yes!”
JA: “Yes, I think that's precisely the point.”
“In connection with the technique of the film, Trier once said that the minimal technique in Dogma with no lighting, for instance, must be like a dream for actors...
JA: Lars loves to put things like that, but it doesn't work this way. Yes! There is more freedom, and no! There’s less.
Another paradox?
JA: Yes, that's the way I experienced it.
A critic once said that the real strength of The Idiots is the acting...
JA: “This is rarely true, and definitely not in a film like The Idiots, where everything is interconnected, especially because this method or style of working was a constant inspiration to the film’s content and vice versa.”
JA: “And I believe that both the camera man and the sound engineer think: "Why did you choose the scenes where I appear in the picture...?"
No comments:
Post a Comment