Dogville Confessions (2003)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Sami Saif

Release Date:

27 June 2003 (Denmark)

Genre:

Documentary

Tagline:

Dogs & Deer - Dogville Confessions

Plot:

This film depicts the intense drama that takes place during the making of Dogville. Lars von Trier and Nicole Kidman work through this creative process under very extreme conditions.

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Ben Gazzara	...	Himself
Nicole Kidman	...	Herself
Chloë Sevigny	...	Herself
Stellan Skarsgård	...	Himself
Lars von Trier	...	Himself

Directed by
Sami Saif		(as Sami Martin Saif)

Produced by
Signe Birket-Smith	....	line producer
Tomas Eskilsson	....	executive producer: Film i Väst
Carsten Holst	....	producer
Peter Aalbæk Jensen	....	executive producer
Gerald Morin	....	co-executive producer (as Gérald Morin)
Nina Munch Petersen	....	assistant producer
Vibeke Windeløv	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Søren Hyldgaard

Film Editing by
Steen Johannesen
Camilla Schyberg

Production Management
Anders Jacobsen	....	production manager

Art Department
Søren Jochumsen	....	carpenter
Søren Lundborg	....	carpenter

Sound Department
Per Dybdahl	....	sound assistant
Eddie Simonsen	....	sound designer

Visual Effects by
Søren Tomas	....	graphic designer

Camera and Electrical Department
Jakob Bonfils	....	director of photography: second unit

Editorial Department
Janus Billeskov Jansen	....	consultant: editing
Dorthe Brandt Bankwell	....	color grader: film (as Dorthe Bankwell)
Camilla Valentin Dahl	....	post-production coordinator (as Camilla Dal)
Carsten Dyhr	....	assistant editor: avid
Thomas Therchilsen	....	color grader

Other crew
Carsten Bramsen	....	logger
Majken Bramstrup	....	production assistant
Rasmus Christoffersen	....	production assistant
Lars Dela	....	technical backup
Carsten Dyhr	....	on-line operator
Anders Kjærhauge	....	legal department
Ann Køj	....	accounts department
Mikkel Maltha	....	legal department
Jordan Savel	....	production assistant
Peter Nikolaj Trnka	....	technical assistant (as Nicolaj Trnka)
Ann Vognsen	....	accounts department

Thanks
Daniel Ahlqvist	....	thanks
Harriet Andersson	....	thanks
Ulf Andersson	....	thanks
Lauren Bacall	....	thanks
Anders Barlebo	....	thanks
Jean-Marc Barr	....	thanks
Paul Bettany	....	thanks
Pascale Bouquière	....	thanks
Evelina Brinkemo	....	thanks
Anna Brobeck	....	thanks
Blair Brown	....	thanks
James Caan	....	thanks
Patricia Clarkson	....	thanks
Caroline Sascha Cogez	....	thanks (as Caroline S. Cogez)
Jan Coster	....	thanks
Anja Dahl	....	thanks
Jeremy Davies	....	thanks
Anthony Dod Mantle	....	thanks
Louise Drake	....	thanks
Siobhan Fallon	....	thanks (as Siobhan Fallon Hogan)
Asa Frankenberg	....	thanks
Mattias Fredriksson	....	thanks
Andreas Galle	....	thanks
Ben Gazzara	....	thanks
Barry Grant	....	thanks
Simone Grau	....	thanks
Patrik Gren	....	thanks
Laszlo Hago	....	thanks (as Lásló Hágó)
Philip Baker Hall	....	thanks
Niklas Henriksson	....	thanks
Elizabeth Himelstein	....	thanks (as Elisabeth Himmelstein)
Thom Hoffman	....	thanks
Marleen Holthuis	....	thanks
John Hurt	....	thanks
Zeljko Ivanek	....	thanks
Kirsten Jakobsen	....	thanks
Mikael Johansson	....	thanks
John Randolph Jones	....	thanks
Hans Karlsson	....	thanks
Nicole Kidman	....	thanks
Udo Kier	....	thanks
Cleo King	....	thanks
Lee R. King	....	thanks
Oskar Kirkbakk	....	thanks
Dennis Knudsen	....	thanks
Rolf Konow	....	thanks
Rikke Korfix	....	thanks
Tilde Lindgren	....	thanks
Evelina Lundqvist	....	thanks
Robert McCann	....	thanks
Shannon McCullough	....	thanks
Helga Olofsson	....	thanks
Ingvar Örner	....	thanks
Miles Purinton	....	thanks
Manon Rasmussen	....	thanks
Bill Raymond	....	thanks
Anders Refn	....	thanks
Claus Rosenløv Jensen	....	thanks
Thomas Schindel	....	thanks
Chloë Sevigny	....	thanks
Shauna Shim	....	thanks
Erich Silva	....	thanks
Stellan Skarsgård	....	thanks
Iben Snebang	....	thanks
Ad Stoop	....	thanks
Josefine Tengblad	....	thanks
Mari Vaalasranta	....	thanks
Kent Vikmo	....	thanks
Eric Voge	....	thanks
Lars von Trier	....	thanks
Kerry Warn	....	thanks
Ove Wolf	....	thanks

Production Companies

• Zentropa Real ApS
• Almaz Film Productions S.A. (in co-production with)

Distributors

• Trust Film Sales 2 ApS (2003) (worldwide) (theatrical) (sales)
• A-Film Distribution (2004) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• A-Film Home Entertainment (2004) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Frenetic Films (2003) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• GAGA Communications (2004) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Geneon Entertainment (2004) (Japan) (DVD)
• Nordisk Film Video (2003) (Denmark) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Apple  editing facilities financed by
• Gearless ApS  graphic design
• Hokus Bogus Rekorder ApS  digital transfer
• Klippegangen ApS  editing facilities
• Mainstream ApS  sound recording facilities
• Osterman Helicopter AB  hellicopter
• Ronnums Herregård  thanks
• Zentropa Music ApS  music consultant

Also Known As:

Dogs & Deer (Denmark) (working title)

Runtime:

Denmark:52 min

Country:

Denmark

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Denmark:A | Portugal:M/16 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud)

Company:

Zentropa Real ApS

Trivia:

The documentary is featured on the 2nd disc of the Dogville (2003) DVD, released in November of 2003.

Movie Connections:

References Dogville (2003)

Soundtrack:

Lunar Landings

Intrigueing, disturbing...

If you've seen Dogville, and were intrigued by it, then you can't miss this documentary. If anything, I felt even more disturbed after watching Dogville Confessions than watching the movie itself.

Dogville Confessions isn't your ordinary "making of" documentary. Rather, it focuses less on the technicalities of filming and more on the interactions between the director, the script and the actors, during their gruelling period of filming in an old warehouse in the frozen part of Sweden.

A "confession box" is placed on the set, with a video camera. It's available 24 hours a day, and strangely, the actors do end up in the box relating their experiences from time to time.

We discover that director Lars Von Trier doesn't get along with actors so well. And it really comes out in Confessions when we get to see first-hand how ineffectively he interacts with the actors, in particular with Nicole Kidman, Lauren Bacall, Paul Bettany and Stellan Skarsgard.

We see tempers flare on set. There are tears, arguments, confusion. But this is no soap opera - it's a weird disjointedness that seems to affect everyone involved in the filming. It's like Dogville temporarily overtook these people's lives for the duration of filming.