Compared with the traditional form of the scene, Dogville (2003) directed by Lars Von Trier is more like an experimental art film, putting characters in a surreal space and amplifying the actions of the characters without realistic scenes. The story is presented on a huge soundstage where streets and houses are merely demarcated with lines. The shot occurs in Dogville from 01:18:51 to 01:18:58 presents that ‘cinematic’ is submerged in a form of ‘in-between’ space so that brings the audience an experience of crossing the barrier rather than simply watching and appreciating in front of the screen.
This scene occurs in Chapter FIVE ‘Fourth of July after all’ of the nine chapters of Dogville’s story, which tells Grace (Nicole Kidman) follows Tom's (Paul Bettany) suggestion that she should pay more labor to compensate the residents to continue to live in the town after the police post a wanted poster for Grace. This plot serves as a turning point in the whole film, which indicates the relationship between Grace and the residents of the town Dogville has turned into a negative tendency. What attracts the audience is the visual composition of the shot. It presents the spatial motion of the residents in a day, and more specifically, it shows the track of Grace in a day. Due to the limited height of the studio, the scene could not be presented with a crane shot. To give the audience an overlook of the town, Trier computer-generates the scene from 156 individual shots (Rohan, 2006).
Here I will preliminarily analyze the composition from a statistical perspective. Overlook the scene, the whole stage is merely arranged by the most basic living props. No door or boundary can act as a divider between houses but the square grid with white paint to distinguish them. Trier tries to capture the full extent of the town Dogville in the shot by such a minimalist stage presentation (Laine, 2006). Viewed from the overall composition, the town is composed of squares of different sizes, and these rectangles with lines serve as a symbol of the solidified thoughts and spiritual constraints of the residents. When Grace is ordered by the residents and shuttling between the ‘matrices’, the solidified thought of the residents is presented in an externalized form. Further, the spatial isolation is broken in this theatrical presentation mode but the characters appear to have their vision blocked. The same scene also happened when Grace is raped by Chuck (Stellan Skarsgard). Although the rape occurs close to other residents, they remain blind to the evil around them. Trier creates such a strongly stylized visual representation of human indifference in an almost grotesque way.
From the GIF, you could find it is a shot in fast motion that presents Grace running around the town. With the rotation of the pointer on the right side of the picture, figures move at a high speed. In this overlooking shot, we cannot organize clearly what figures are doing except for Grace's busy body as the needle moves. The dial of the fictional clock is consists of the bell tower and Roman numerals. As the interior light moves, the shadow forms the hands and revolves on the axis —— the bell tower. Laine (2006) linked Grace's rushes to catch up with the schedule with Lewin’s hodological space theory. She illustrated that when the hands move, the non-diegetic ticking of the clock accompanied shows a hurried and busy atmosphere. The narrator (John Hurt) describes: ‘Busy minutes become busy hours, and busy hours become busy days.’ The rhythm of Dogville and the recurring figure of Grace indicates the linear orchestrates the cyclical. Due to the combination of the cyclical and the linear, the time cycles could be linked with the linearity of postures. Then the body sits in the middle of the interaction between these two realms. Therefore, the reciprocal movement between the self (Grace) and the other (the town Dogville) becomes possible. This shot also implies the result of the story—— Grace has to kill the residents to restore the self and the environment to the interactive movement.
Moreover, the lighting is used in the film to show changes in time and weather conditions. The town is set in the Rocky Mountains, but it is presented merely by a few rockery props to show off the natural scenery. The combination of simple props and lighting effects creates a stage effect that keeps the audience focused on the characters. The audience and the film are no longer isolated from each other in two dimensions. Space, where the film experience takes place, is in a middle zone, and the contact space between the world of the audience and the world in the film is characterized by fragility and proximity. Besides, the sound is also a significant factor that can bring the spectator into the ‘in-between’ space. Actors continue the action of closing or opening through non-physical performances. However, we can hear the corresponding sound clearly, even can hear the footsteps on the gravel road, the singing of birds, the sound of the engine, and the barking of the dog. The sound invites the audience to create the town Dogville in their mind through listening. The senses of the audience construct a space that they can blend in the context of the film. Such an interaction between the bodies and the scene draws the spectator into a cinematic space.
Therefore, the spectator is impacted by the image of the film through such a relationship. In the dynamic graphic, we could find the hands formed by the moving lighting moves from light to darkness. It implies the dark side of human nature is gradually magnified and hints at the negative change of the residents’ psyche.
Both Grace and the residents exist as the carrier of conflicts, which can be regarded as dramatic symbols to show human nature. Trier tries to blend the stage play and the film, combining special shooting techniques: narrator and lightning movement to create an ‘in-between’ space for the audience. Through this space, the audience ultimately could construct their cinematic perception within the self and the outside world.
by Maoyu
Reference
Laine, T. (2006), Lars von Trier, Dogville and the hodological space of cinema, Studies in European Cinema. 3(2), pp. 129–141, doi: 10.1386/seci.3.2.129/1
Rohan, R. (2006), ‘The Herald, Dogville and the Problem of the Gift’, Anti-Podean Journal: A Contribution to the Critique of Politics, Culture and the Media. Retrieved from: http://antipodeanjournal.blogspot.com/2004/01/herald-dogville-and-problem- of-gift.html.
Simonsen, K. (2005), Bodies, Sensations, Space and Time: The Contribution from Henri Lefebvre, Geography Annual, 87, pp. 1–14.
