CONTEXTS OF ADAPTATION: European Avant-garde Film
                                                                                                        The Independent Film Movement
                                                                                                        The History of Danish Cinema

Lars von Trier's Medea (1988) opens with words suggesting that von Trier's primary motivation in making the film was to pay tribute to an important influence on him: the famous modernist director (and fellow Dane) Carl Theodor-Dreyer.

                        "This film is based on a script by Carl T. Dreyer
                            and Preben Thomsen-- after Euripides' drama MEDEA.                                              Carl T. Dreyer never realized his script.  This is not an                                                         attempt to make a "Dreyer" film, but with due reverence                                         for the material-- a personal interpretation and homage to                             the master."    -- Lars von Trier



Picture
A scene from Dreyer's 1932 film Vampyr. Here you can see the way that Dreyer's eerie style of filming landscapes influenced von Trier.
Picture
A still from Dreyer's most famous film, The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928). Here, you can see Dreyer's interest in depictions of women in extremity, a theme that also lay behind his selection of Medea as a story to adapt for the screen.
PictureCarl Theodor-Dreyer (1889-1968)
PictureLars von Trier (1956-present)
The final moments of von Trier's film. We discussed this moment of Medea "letting her hair down" as a metaphor for the tragic plot's unwinding: a moment of desis/lusis (binding and unbinding).  We thought that the scene represented "a strange kind of katharsis" because the mood is one of relief, but the ethics of the scene (the knowledge that she has just killed her children) make us wonder HOW such a thing can be a relief. Von Trier is both shocking conventional morality/ideas of womanhood here, and upending our notion as katharsis as something that should come about only after suffering brings wisdom (as in Oedipus and Antigone).




Dogme 95
Below are the filming precepts developed by Lars von Trier and his circle in 1995.  They are referred to as "The Vow of Chastity."
Picture
  1. Shooting 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 where the scene is being shot).
  3. The camera must be hand-held. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted. (The film must not take place where the camera is standing; shooting must take place where the film 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 35mm film.
  10. The director must not be credited.