Reconsidering The Idiots: Dogme95, Lars von Trier, and the Cinema of Subversion?

Abstract

Using Lars von Trier's controversial The Idiots (1998) as a starting point, I intend to examine the compelling ways in which the infamous Dogme95 manifesto aims to address and correct the failings of contemporary film. The Idiots is a remarkable and provocative materialist critique of modern culture in its own right, but its meaning is significantly complicated by its centrality to the otherwise celebrated output of the Dogme95 movement. It received virtually none of the critical acclaim, financial success, or festival awards garnered by the other major Dogme films such as Mifune (1999) and The Celebration (1998) and is generally regarded as a disturbing and tasteless failure even by those who admire von Trier's more accessible outings such as Breaking the Waves (1994) and Dancer in the Dark (2000). However, precisely because of its many imperfections and discomforting subject matter, The Idiots may be the most fully developed and compelling expression of Dogme ideology. The meaningfully artless form and content of The Idiots are intertwined in particularly unique and revolutionary ways, enabling the film to critique contemporary film and contemporary culture. The dual target of this assault is precisely what I think has been either overlooked or insufficiently explored in existing accounts of the film, and I hope to demonstrate the extent to which The Idiots is only really comprehensible when viewed in light of its counter-hegemonic aspirations.