No plain Danish

>> Mifune director takes Dogme '95 to bizarre new heights

By MATTHEW HAYS

Dogme '95 has struck again. The manifesto, signed by a group of Danish film types in an effort to revitalize and reinvigorate the state of contemporary cinema, included a list of dos and don'ts. Don't use artificial lighting, or give your actors props. Avoid guns. No makeup or special effects.

The results have been pretty astounding, to say the least. Lars Von Trier's The Idiots and Thomas Vinterberg's Celebration were the first two entries, garnering critical raves for the cinematic "vow of chastity." (julien donkey-boy, Harmony Korine's second feature and the first American Dogme entry, will go straight to video after a lukewarm response from critics and the public during a brief New York run.)

Now Soren Kragh-Jacobsen has created a fourth entry, Mifune, applying his own signature to the bare-bones style of filmmaking. The film has a self-involved man (Anders Berthelsen) returning to his rural family homestead after learning that his father has died. Though recently wed, Berthelsen hasn't told his new wife any news of his family. He returns secretly, apparently embarrassed by his mentally damaged savant brother, who requires a good deal of attention (the title of the film comes from the fact that brother savant is calmed when Berthelsen dresses up as the Japanese actor Mifune in a Samurai role).

Distressed at what exactly he should do about his fraternal situation, Ber-thelsen hires a housekeeper to take care of the family home and his brother. The res-ponse to his ad surprises him; Iben Hjejle enters the picture, and Berthelsen finds himself falling for this gorgeous housemate, who has family secrets of her own.

It becomes a strange tale of an odd and dysfunctional little family taking form, and, for a Dogme film, it's also surprisingly sentimental, evoking comparisons to Barry Levinson's Oscar-winning Rain Man. "Yes, it is quite sentimental," admits Kragh-Jacobsen. "And by Danish standards, especially so. But we're all a bit sentimental, and I don't think this is at odds with the tenets of Dogme '95 at all. The main idea was to be totally free. To write a script free of script doctors, test audiences or interfering producers."

Kragh-Jacobsen concedes, however, that he did have some arguments with Von Trier and Vinterberg when they were laying down the original Dogme commandments. "I objected to the part about not having taste, about avoiding a specific style or personality. Why bring me into Dogme then? Why not have your secretary make the movie? If we have to follow these rules too closely than we have lost our freedom. All of these films have our stamps on them. To argue that they have no style would be foolish."

Kragh-Jacobsen argues that Dogme films should entertain, but also jar audiences into thinking differently about cinema. "We filmmakers should shake them, not just lick them." :

Mifune opens Friday, March 24 at the Cinema du Parc. See repertory listings for showtimes