“You have an incredible amount of control, which is interesting and very exciting.”
DoP Anthony Dod Mantle finished filming on Dogville, Lars von Trier’s latest movie, earlier this year. An intriguing plot line around a 1930s mining town in the Rocky Mountains and concerns the interplay between a cast of characters that includes Hollywood big hitters Nicole Kidman, Lauren Bacall, Chlöe Sevigny and James Caan, as well as emerging talents such as Siobhan Fallon and Philip Baker Hall.
Von Trier, who wrote the script, is said to be exploring the concept of goodness and the style is likened to ‘Seventies TV theatre’. Mantle laughs at this description; “It’s like a mixture of Brecht, Hieronymus Bosch and The Clangers. Lots of small figures struggling with their lives.”
Dogville was shot entirely on a massive set in an old Swedish tank factory. The town set was actually mapped out on the factory floor and much of the shooting takes place from above, giving a god-like perspective. Props were kept to a minimum and, as usual with von Trier, much was improvised.
“There will be shots from above which will come together layer upon layer like a cake,” says Mantle. “You will gradually see their world in its entirety. We will take sections from different cameras and put together a wider perspective.”
“It is very ambitious,” says Mantle. “There is a lot of close work and Lars registers the faces all the time. There are very few lines that disturb the background and no apparent horizon.”
The final cut will make great use of multiple overlays of shots for startling effects. This was an idea von Trier was eager to develop from Dancer in the Dark. “Lars had a residue of ideas from Dancer and was interested in putting cameras together, from eight to 100,” says Mantle. In fact, some of the song and dance scenes used 100 DVCAM cameras to capture the whole scene in just one take.
In control
Filming used a mixture of DSR-PD150P DVCAM camcorders, as used on Dancer, and the HDW-F900 CineAlta camera for the people shots.
The entire shoot took about six weeks, with another week on top for reshooting using doubles. “Lars loves to get moving in the morning and he straps the camera on and starts shooting the rehearsals,” says Mantle. “Often scenes from rehearsals are used. He will work with great intensity until about four in the afternoon, and there were days when we finished early. He has a very strong inner vision.”
According to Mantle, it is in von Trier’s nature to lead from the front, and although he would not describe Dogville as Dogme, there are aspects inspired by it. Also, digital technology opened up the opportunity to shoot in a new way and creates a new language for image makers. Mantle praises the flexibility the camera settings give filmmakers. “The CineAlta camera has sophisticated menus and you can adjust the sensitivity and contrast to what you want,” he says. “You have an incredible amount of control, which is interesting and very exciting.”
Von Trier is also said to be enjoying Dogville, however with a huge amount of footage, the editing process will be lengthy and there will be a lot of sound work to be added. The final cut will be 120 minutes. “We took an immense amount of footage every day,” he says. Moreover, little use was made of the playback facility as von Trier doesn’t want to see any rushes.
Brutal contrast
Scenes were shot against black or white backdrops, which Mantle describes as sparse. “The focus is very much on the faces of the actors. There are a lot of long shots on their faces and there isn’t much going on in the background to distract you.”
This proved challenging for the DoP. “The difficulty for me as an image maker is that you get such brutal contrasts with video on a white background. With the black you can do much more with lighting.”
Von Trier rationalised shooting against black and white backdrops saying that this would give a much sharper contrast between scenes and provide a paradox. Mantle did not work on Dancer, but was cinematographer on von Trier’s most acclaimed Dogme film, Festen (Celebration). The director and his colleague Thomas Winterberg came up with ten principles of live cinema in 1995. Festen is one of the most complete examples of the technique, which preaches that film makers should eschew props, music, make up and lighting.
Although with a $10m budget, Dogville could hardly be described as a Dogme film, the reliance on improvisation, the lack of props and focus on the actors seems to pay homage to the approach, even though it makes great use of lighting, music, and post production effects.
The actors loved the freedom that von Trier’s working methods gave them, says Mantle and resulted in some magnificent performances. “Coming from the Hollywood system, they loved the opportunity.”
Renegades
Mantle says Dogville can be viewed as a reaction against the complexity of Dancer which was judged a qualified success by von Trier and critics.
“After Celebration I sat on panels with my Hollywood idols talking about digital photography and they’ve seen me as some sort of renegade, but I don’t think it has to be either/or.”
Mantle believes the project should dictate the format and recently used digital video for a project shooting in a monastery in France, which has opened its doors to cameras for the first time.
“I’m not a conservative who says it’s celluloid or nothing,” he says. “HD is great for those sort of low light situations. Very atmospheric.”
Indeed Mantle has already used CineAlta again, on an upcoming feature by Danny Boyle, 28 Days Later (pictured above) which was scripted by Alex Garland, writer of The Beach. He has also filmed von Trier’s colleague, Thomas Winterberg’s All About Love, which should be out in the new year.
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