The dramatic space creation of Dogville
*Author: Iris, a Year 3 student in English and Communication studies
Dogville is a classic film about human nature directed by Lars von Trier. It is also an avant-garde film whose greatest features are reflected in the dramatic space setting and transparent minimalist expression. So here the high angle shot that I chose from 00:00:33-00:01:48 of the film clearly confirms these characteristics to the audience.
This shot appears at the beginning of the film and lasts for more than a minute, giving the audience a panoramic view of dogville before the arrival of the heroine Grace. Accompanied by background music, a voice-over narrates the background of the story, introducing dogville as a closed town in the Rocky Mountains of the United States. As the storyline begins to take shape, the camera zooms in and finally focuses on the radio in Thomas Edison’s house. Here, the whole segment plays a role in constructing the social structure and background, and the motion of the camera leads the audience to gradually immerse in the story.
As Jovanovic (2017) indicated that the theatricality of Dogville is mainly manifested in the domains of setting, showing a minimalist reduction uncharacteristic of mainstream cinema. In the frame shown above, dogville looks like an unrolled map. There are houses without walls and doors which are arranged like shacks as mentioned in the narration; the furniture is very simple, only the necessities of life such as beds and tables and chairs; the walls and roads are delineated by white lines on the concrete floor, also the names of the house owners and streets are directly marked on the ground; even the currant trees, bushes and the dog are replaced by chalk sketches. Thus, the film is called “brackets the mise-en-scène as a spectacle that refuses authenticity” (Jovanovic, 2017). In fact, Dogville adopts dramatic stage and super-stylized setting to turns props other than characters into abstract lines or audible sounds (there are also simple props such as bells, door, benches, mines, etc.). Such a minimalist form is reminiscent of the film works of the German Expressionism period, which no longer regards nature as the primary purpose of art, but uses lines, shapes and colors to express emotions and feelings as the only purpose of art. Therefore, as Lübecker (2011) confirmed that one way to describe the effect of mise-en-scène is that von Trier wants his audience to do imagining throughout the whole film. Besides, it is also worth noting that due to the strong difference from the realistic settings that are well used in conventional films, the performance mode of the combination of drama stage and film chosen by Dogville has an appropriate effect of “alienation”. Such all-round disclosure of uniqueness at the beginning of the film not only stimulate the curiosity of the audience and also urge them to have the impulse to continue to watch.
Moreover, the setting mode of Dogville is both the extreme simplification and usage of space. It can be seen from the frame above that the location and characters of the story are confined in a single scene. The closed stage exactly echoes the isolation of the town. In such a limited space to tell a story, the creation of the story itself, audio-visual requirements, the performance of the actors and so on become more vital. Actually, Lars von Trier believes that this narrative way can strengthen the audience’s viewing experience, enlarge their perspective for shortening the distance, finally make the criticism and significance more unique, distinct and profound (Lübecker, 2011). Also the director’s choice apparently reflects one of the sequential stylistic traits of Dogma Films that is raw quality of acting.
In addition to the minimalist elements that have been defined, viewers can also find a bit of naturalistic style from the mise-en-scène, such as a reduced color palette, costumes and props with a sense of historical era, and merciless white lights (Jovanovic, 2017). The director constructs a symbolic small world in the studio, and makes no secret of its absurdity. At the same time, the use of such a narrow and closed space powerfully magnifies and alludes to the selfish and ugly side of human nature in the real society.
Notably, this aerial shot adopted by von Trier also compresses the dogville into a plane. In this space, the audience can see the movements of the characters in the room and the children skipping rope near the mine in the distance. Such transparent setting prompts the action and emotional change of each character to be traced in the stage with a great depth of field. Furthermore, this kind of cinematographic style allows the audience to have a comprehensive view of the social structure that constructs the background of the film. It emphasizes the entire village as the narrative focus, rather than individual characters (Jovanovic, 2017). Secondly, the transparent space processing, the line-type segmentation, and the high angle shot seem to shape the film into a game. Every resident on the screen is a pawn in the game about humanity, while viewer off-screen is a voyeur and judge of morality. Thus, the shot pushes the audience to the omniscient perspective of God, which also resonates with the film’s biblical overtones.
In conclusion, the shot at the beginning of Dogville presents the audience with a theatrical and minimalist mise-en-scène by using the transparent processing. While weakening the sense of reality in the visual effect, it focuses on the story itself to dissect the bloody humanity, and enable the audience to have a deeper comprehending from the point of view of God.
Reference list
Jovanovic, N. (2017) Brechtian Cinemas: Montage and Theatricality in Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, Peter Watkins, and Lars Von Trier. State University of New York Press.
Lübecker, N. (2011). Lars von Trier’s Dogville: A Feel-Bad Film. In Horeck, T. and Kendall, T. (Eds.). The New Extremism in Cinema: From France to Europe (pp.157-168). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
A new interpretation of Ostalgia in Good Bye, Lenin
*Author: Iris, a Year 3 student in English and Communication studies
“Ostalgia” is derived from the German word “Ostalgie”, meaning nostalgia for all aspects of social life in East Germany (the GDR). With the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the social problems gradually emerged by the reunification made East Germans realize the gap between reality and ideal, and began to miss the GDR past. Finally, Ostalgia has evolved into a socio-cultural symptom, which is a critical reflection on the violence and deprivation in the rapid capitalist process of countries after the upheaval in Eastern Europe, and also plays a vital role in new identity construction. While in the movie Good Bye, Lenin! directed by Wolfgang Becker, the functions of Ostalgia are mourning the past time and the lost potential of the GDR, representing a way to accept the changes taken by the current reunification, and providing an alternative future for new Germany (Godeanu-Kenworth, 2011).
Good Bye, Lenin! chooses an ordinary East German family as the starting point to evoke collective memory. It reveals the historical allegory by turning the individual into a political metaphor and making family becomes the epitome of historical changes. First, as a model of socialism, Alex’s mother Christiane had to be separated from her husband who fled to West Germany. The breakdown of perfect family reflects the polarization of German society. Secondly, the two collapses that Christiane suffered fully proved that the GDR was not idyllic (Uecker, 2007). One was that her husband’s escape made her descend into clinical depression, and the other was that she fell into a prolonged coma after witnessing Alex being arrested by the police. The film uses Christiane’s trauma to recall the painful memories of East Germans, meanwhile implicitly expresses the introspection on the GDR past. Moreover, the complex mentality of the East Germans after the reunification is reflected in several typical characters. With the demise of the GDR, the East Germans began to lose their original lives, finally the lack of identity led to collective confusion. In the film, the unemployed neighbor who complained about capitalism, the drunken and degenerate school principal, and the first East German astronaut who became a driver later, are all true portraits of most East Germans at that time. They are in the dilemma between socialism and capitalism, clinging to the past and unable to move on. Thus, the film explains the motive of Ostalgia through the portrayal of these characters and further emphasizes the role of the past as a tool for preparing for the future (Uecker, 2007).
The nostalgic climax of the film centers on Alex’s reconstruction of GDR in a 79-square-meter space to protect his mother’s faith. From clothing style to apartment furnishings, from cuisine choices to fake socialist identity, every aspect was accurate to the details to achieve the real effect of simulation. Among them, the labeling of material represents the cultural symbols of a specific period. After the reunification of Germany, the invasion of western capitalism is symbolically embodied in the film: trucks with Coca Cola Brand pass by and cover up the scene of the guard changing of the Berlin War Memorial, the striking Coca Cola advertisement hanging on the building instead of socialist propaganda slogans. As Godeanu-Kenworth (2011) pointed out that this new form of consumption led to the rapid disappearance of local GDR products without demand, but in the long run, it also promoted the Ostalgia valorization in East Germany past. Because of the invariance and limited choice of GDR goods in style and packaging, East Germans forms a higher loyalty to their local brands which are regarded as “transgenerational markers of East German culture and identity” (Cook, 2007, p.213). In the film, Christiane’s fondness for ‘Spreewald’ gherkins and ‘Mocca fix’ coffee obviously reflects such dependence. But actually, all Alex needed to disguise a ‘Spreewald’ gherkins was a bottle of Dutch gherkins and an empty jar marked ‘Spreewald’. This grafting method not only satirizes the manner of West consume the GDR past, but also implies the success of Ostalgia is the common product of East German mourning and Western capitalist marketing strategy (Kapczynski, 2007).
In addition, Good Bye, Lenin! greater emphasis on the goal of building the future through nostalgia and reflection on the past. Firstly, the fake news forged by Alex and his colleagues deduces a myth of West Germany being peacefully recovered by the East, portraying an ideal socialist utopia. The news describe Coca Cola as a socialist beverage developed in the GDR laboratory in the 1950s, and even show West Germans taking drugs, losing their jobs and fleeing across Berlin Wall to the East. These elaborate white lies add absurd comic effect, and also carry clear Ostalgia. According to Godeanu-Kenworth (2011), the ingenious reversal of the historical situation expresses a complex form of Eastern longing, which integrates the dark side of life in the GDR into a subtle criticism of globalization and imperialism to against the unquestionable celebration of Western liberalism. The news programs produced by Alex later gradually began to invent a “middle way” GDR that united the diversity offered by Western capitalism without sacrificing the East German experience (Kapczynski, 2007). Notably, it exposes an attempts to find something worth salvaging from the old socialist projects, such as a possible and beneficial correction of western consumer culture, the potential elements of reconciliation or a starting point of common German identity (Godeanu-Kenworth, 2011). In fact, the trend of these fake news also represents Alex’s expectation for the real integration of East and West Germany, and his exploration of national belonging.
The film also used the image of Lenin statue and rocket to show the rise and fall of the GDR, expressing both nostalgia for the past and hope for the future. Undoubtedly, the most classic scene of the film is Christiane watching the helicopter hanging the statue of Lenin away in the sunset. The statue holding out his hand seems to say goodbye to Christiane. This moment is not only a kickback to the film title, but also a symbol of the end of the socialist era represented by Lenin. So far, the GDR became a collective memory cherished by the East Germans, forever existing in the past and future. Furthermore, the rocket is regarded as the spiritual sustenance of the East Germans throughout the film. Most of Alex’s childhood shots are related to rocket: the rocket on shirt, dressing in rocket shape to welcome mother, and launching rockets with his friends. But later, when Alex encountered a former East German astronaut and asked him how he felt in space, the answer is: “it used to be very beautiful, but it was too far from home.” The meaning behind the rocket is bound up with the ultimate socialist ideal, but the Utopia is so dreamy that cannot fit the actual situation of the country. At the end of the film, Christiane, a symbol of the socialist motherland dies peacefully and her ashes are sent to the night sky by rocket model. The scene is a farewell to the era and belief that accompanied Christiane’s whole life, and also a mark that the young generation of East Germany represented by Alex is ready to welcome a new future.
In summary, Good Bye, Lenin! is a classic work of “productive” identity formation rooted in the reflective nostalgia. Its retro color technology, flashback sequence and “found footage” immerse audience in the faded memory of the GDR. And constantly remind that this is not only a nostalgia, a farewell, but also a new beginning.
Reference list
Cook, R. F. (2007). Goodbye, Lenin!: Free-Market Nostalgia for Socialist Consumerism. Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies 43 (2), pp.206-219.
Godeanu-Kenworthy, O. (2011). Deconstructing Ostalgia: The national past between commodity and simulacrum in Wolfgang Becker’s Good Bye Lenin! (2003). Journal of European Studies 41(2), pp. 161-177.
Kapczynski, J. M. (2007). Negotiating nostalgia: the GDR past in Berlin is in Germany and Good Bye, Lenin! The Germanic Review, 82(1), 78.
Uecker, M. (2007). Fractured families united countries? Family, nostalgia and nation-building in Das Wunder von Bern and Goodbye Lenin! New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film, 5(3), 189–200. https://doi.org/10.1386/ncin.5.3.189_1