Isn’t Dogme95 just a sleek, superficial, commercial gimmick ?
Most definitely not. While the ideas behind the Dogme95 Manifesto was born out of honest analysis it is true that the enormous international and local success of the first 3 dogme films has to a degree turned ’dogme’ into a commerical gimmick – a pr stunt. But that is fine with us. After all we are missionaries for the message. There is an implicit duplicity in The Dogme95 Manifesto. On one hand it contains a deep irony and on the other it is most serious meant. Irony and seriousness is interlinked in inseparable. What we have concerned ourselves with is the making of a set of rule. In this sense it is a kind of play, a game called ’rule-making’. Seriousness and play goes hand in hand. A clear example of this is that the very strict and serious Dogme95 Manifesto was actually written in only 25 minutes and under continuous bursts of merry laughter… Still, we maintain that we are in earnest. Dogme is not for fun. It is, however, both liberating, merry and almost fun to work under such a
