Here are the rules you can read on the official Dogme95 website:
VOW OF CHASTITY:
"I swear to submit to the following set of rules drawn up and confirmed by DOGME 95:
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 35 mm.
10. The director must not be credited.
Furthermore I swear as a director to refrain from personal taste! I am no longer an artist. I swear to refrain from creating a "work", as I regard the instant as more important than the whole. My supreme goal is to force the truth out of my characters and settings. I swear to do so by all the means available and at the cost of any good taste and any aesthetic considerations.
Thus I make my VOW OF CHASTITY."
Copenhagen, Monday 13 March 1995
It's interesting to see that Julien Donkey-Boy clearly didn't respect all of the rules above, for exemple:
SPOILERS
1°) A prop is used (Chloë Sevigny's fake pregnant belly).
2°) Sound is produced apart from the images (the music you heard in the soundtrack is not played on the stage but added in postproduction).
3°) Optical work was done (I think about a scene where you see Werner Herzog's face added over another image).
4°) A murder occurs (the little boy at the begining of the movie).
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Vivre, c'est s'obstiner à achever un souvenir.
René Char
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jtaboada
16 years ago
I disagree in a way with the applicability of the rules to Julien Donkey-Boy. I would say:
SPOILERS
1)The fake belly is reported to be on the "Confession", sort of instituted since "The Celebration"
2)The sound is diegetic, which could be an interpretation of rule 2
3)This is a violation. I should -I hope- be as well in the "Confession"
4)I also tought that was a murder, but it is not completely explicit, I believe
This is one of the firsts dogme 95 films, the first outside Europe. Probably in the most recent ones, you might find further and grosser violations and nobody will know (since there's no "Dogme police").
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SimonCage
16 years ago
3 is not a Violation cause the editing was done on the Camera with dual recording over the same Tape. Its like with the whole Slowdown and color effects that are used in the film. They are done on the camera. Because of this they are not a break of the rules, cause it was how the camera recorded the reality. Of course one could argue, that they are against the Idea beyond the Dogmerules, which which they are I think myself.
4 is not clear either. The murder is not for shure and it is not seen on screen. So I guess u can argue it is not a break of the rules.
Nonetheless I think Julien Donkey Boy is followed by Idioterne the Movie which followed the Spirit beyond Dogme and the rules the best. And I've seen about 20 of the 32 first Dogmefilms.
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