Dogma was a cinematic rescue operation, Mr Vinterberg said. We wanted to purge film so that once again the inner lives of the characters justified the plot. Dogma films make no presumption of what an audience will like. The audience itself, Mr Vinterberg pointed out, does not know what it wants. The entire philosophy brings to mind a comment Aki Kaurismaki, the great Finnish film director, once made.
Dogma offers fiscal hope for a more diverse and independent cinema.
Instead of expensive pyrotechnics and special effects, a Dogma production needs only a video camera, a cast, and a script. But it is risky. To succeed at all a Dogma film has to be exquisitely crafted. The many are no more justified in silencing the one, John Stuart Mill reminded us, than the one is in silencing the many. The justice meted out in Festen by Christian's clumsy, courageous revelation, is brutal.