You gotta hand it to the Upstate Film Society for taking chances. We should thank them for bringing in what will undoubtedly be the only opportunity to see a Dogma 95 production on a big screen in the Upstate, even if such gratitude is not much different from when a character in a movie taking place at military academy gets hit in the face with the 10-volume Oxford Unabridged English Dictionary (including magnifier) and then says "Thank you, may I have another."
The Dogma 95 Manifesto was a document signed by some directors in Copenhagen five years ago promising to make simpler movies, i.e., no effects, no overdubbed soundtrack, no artificial lighting, no extraneous props, and no superficial action (gunplay, etc.), using one hand-held camera and comprising mostly improvised dialog -- like a German wedding, but with less excitement. The Idiots follows the credo faithfully in telling the story of a group of people living in an empty house who spend their time pretending to be retarded. Really. They go to restaurants, invade swimming pools, take factory tours, park in handicapped spots, and sell Christmas decorations door-to-door while drooling, stumbling, and making unintelligible outbursts. They call it "spassing." They're "searching for the inner idiot." Because "what's the idea of a society that gets richer and richer but it doesn't make anyone happier" and "idiots are the people of the future." Having driven through Charlotte at rush hour, I might be inclined to agree. And I'd rather pay seven bucks and see the point illustrated in the safety of a theater than put my life on the line in a I-85 acceleration lane.
Unfortunately, by trying to make a point with both low-technique and high concept, The Idiots, directed by Breaking the Waves auteur Lars von Trier (although the Manifesto states that no credit is given to directors, so you'd have to do your homework or read this column to know that), is so anti-bourgeois it's bourgeois. It's little more than a twisted Al Gore home video. Plus, given the setting (or lack thereof), its flagrant exploitation of the fabled Scandinavian casualness with nudity and sex is more tedious than you might believe possible. Simplified filmmaking is a noble goal; any medium must be willing to gamble on failed experiments if it is to evolve. But in case there are any Dogmaniacs reading, take note: we've done that over here too, only we called it The Blair Witch Project. It made millions. C-