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The Vows of Chastity

It's interesting to start to read different capsules on Gemini and stumble upon ongoing philosophical arguments about the Gemini form. I've been reading discussions that center around item 2.5 of the Gemini FAQ - which attempts to answer "Why not just use a subset of HTTP and HTML?"

Specifically, the argument is that one could personally agree to uphold a simple setup but because the web is by definition interlinked you can't make any assumptions about what is going to be on the other side of a link. The idea of making a personal commitment to - let's say - HTML minimalism really calls to mind the Vow of Chastity of Dogme 95.

I'm not sure if anyone here is aware of it (or reading my posts, which is maybe why I'm giving this one a sexy name) but Dogme 95 was a film movement started by Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg in an attempt to "purify" filmmaking. Filmmakers who wanted to be part of the movement had to take the "Vow of Chastity" and films that were determined to uphold these vows were given a certificate that was displayed at the start of the film. According to Wikipedia there were 35 Dogme films, starting with Vinterberg's FESTEN (The Celebration) which uh if you haven't seen it I would check it out.

The entire point of the manifesto and vows was an attempt to get away from big-budget Hollywood-style filmmaking, and I reproduce the Vow of Chastity below in its entirety.

I swear to submit to the following set of rules drawn up and confirmed by DOGMA 95

Shooting must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in (if a particular prop is necessary for the story, a location must be chosen where this prop is to be found).

The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. (Music must not be used unless it occurs where the scene is being shot.) The camera must be hand-held. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted.

The film must be in color. Special lighting is not acceptable. (If there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera.)

Optical work and filters are forbidden.

The film must not contain superficial action. (Murders, weapons, etc. must not occur.)

Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden. (That is to say that the film takes place here and now.

Genre movies are not acceptable.

The film format must be Academy 35 mm.

The director must not be credited.

Furthermore I swear as a director to refrain from personal taste! I am no longer an artist. I swear to refrain from creating a “work”, as I regard the instant as more important than the whole. My supreme goal is to force the truth out of my characters and settings. I swear to do so by all the means available and at the cost of any good taste and any aesthetic considerations. Thus I make my VOW OF CHASTITY.

Copenhagen, Monday 13 March 1995

On behalf of DOGMA 95

Lars von Trier

Thomas Vinterberg

Part of why this makes me think a lot about Dogme 95 films is: they don't exist anymore. The first people to make them didn't stick with those constraintsfor very long (although constraints continued to be a theme for Von Trier, including in his 2003 documentary/challenge THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS), there are a number of films that started as Dogme 95 films but the directors decided the constraints were too great during filming, and I don't really think anyone has tried to make a Dogme film in the past decade or so, in part because the 8th item (Academy 35mm) is now prohibitively expensive. I don't see this as a criticism of the Gemini project as much as an illustration of how an HTML Vow of Chastity would fail. Or maybe, more poetically, Gemini can be an echo of Dogme.