10 Insane Rules Movies Weren't Allowed To Break
1. The Rules Of The "Dogme 95" Manifesto - Festen
Thomas Vinterberg's acclaimed 1998 black comedy Festen was the first entry into the Danish Dogme 95 cinematic movement, started by Vinterberg and fellow Dane filmmaker Lars von Trier.
The pair created an artistic manifesto, effectively a checklist of 10 rules for films made under the Dogme 95 banner, in an attempt to create movies that deferred to story and character over special effects.
The rules were as follows: 1) location shooting only with no additional props, 2) no extra-diegetic sound, 3) handheld camerawork only, 4) shot in colour with no additional lighting, 5) no VFX or camera filters, 6) no "superficial action" such as murder, 7) no "temporal and geographical alienation," 8) no genre movies, 9) it must be projected in 35mm Academy format, and 10) the director goes uncredited.
Vinterberg's Festen was the first film produced under these constraints, and though the director later admitted to bringing in an outside prop for lighting purposes - in turn breaking two rules at once - for the most part he adhered rigidly to the agreed regulations.
And truly, Festen is a technically stripped-back film free of typical cinematic affectations: it was shot on a Sony Handycam with regular Mini-DV cassettes, and without any sort of post-produced sound.
Festen went on to receive rave reviews from critics and won the Jury Prize at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. Despite Vinterberg being uncredited, it also helped establish his fledgling international career as a filmmaker.