Comic Rules: Kierkegaard, "The Idiots," and the Politics of Dogma 95

TY - JOUR

T1 - Comic Rules

T2 - Kierkegaard, "The Idiots," and the Politics of Dogma 95

AU - Tønder, Lars

PY - 2015/4

Y1 - 2015/4

N2 - This essay attends to key questions about the lived experiences embedded in The Idiots, which unlike many of von Trier’s other movies is unusually place specific, targeting the Danish welfare state and the national culture underpinning it. To appreciate this dimension of the film, the essay stages an encounter between von Trier and another passionate auteur—the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. Combining von Trier’s cinematic vision with Kierkegaard’s philosophical existentialism is helpful because it allows us to foreground the techniques of filmmaking while also specifying the lived experiences enabled by these techniques. Even if we accept that The Idiots highlights the meta-diegetic level of filmmaking, and even if we accept that this tension points to a different politics, we still have to specify the embodiment of this opening as well as clarify how it contributes to democracy and society. The dialogue between Kierkegaard and von Trier is an important step in this direction.

AB - This essay attends to key questions about the lived experiences embedded in The Idiots, which unlike many of von Trier’s other movies is unusually place specific, targeting the Danish welfare state and the national culture underpinning it. To appreciate this dimension of the film, the essay stages an encounter between von Trier and another passionate auteur—the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. Combining von Trier’s cinematic vision with Kierkegaard’s philosophical existentialism is helpful because it allows us to foreground the techniques of filmmaking while also specifying the lived experiences enabled by these techniques. Even if we accept that The Idiots highlights the meta-diegetic level of filmmaking, and even if we accept that this tension points to a different politics, we still have to specify the embodiment of this opening as well as clarify how it contributes to democracy and society. The dialogue between Kierkegaard and von Trier is an important step in this direction.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - Lars von Trier

KW - Kierkegaard, Søren

KW - Comedy

KW - Democracy

KW - Rule following

KW - Dogma 95

KW - Political agonisms

M3 - Journal article

SN - 2572-6633

VL - 18

JO - Theory & Event

JF - Theory & Event

IS - 2

ER -