Universität Mannheim, Anglistisches Seminar
Hauptseminar: „First films at MA/HD film festival“
WS 2005/06

The implementing of the Vow of Chastity in Jan Dunn`s Gypo

by: Stefanie Krause

Contents

1. Introduction 3

2. Gypo 4

3. Dogme95 5

3.1 History of Dogme95 5
3.2. The religious aspect in Dogme95 6
3.3 Gypo and Dogme95 7

4. The “Vow of Chastity” in Gypo 7

4.1 Dogme-rule #1 8
4.2 Dogme-rule #2 9
4.3 Dogme-rule #3 11
4.4 Dogme-rule #4 12
4.5 Dogme-rule #5 13
4.6 Dogme-rule #6 13
4.7 Dogme-rule #7 13
4.8 Dogme-rule #8 14
4.9 Dogme-rule #9 15
4.10 Dogme-rule #10 15
4.11 Final declaration 16

5. Conclusion 17

6. Bibliography 18

1. Introduction

Gypo is the first UK Dogme95¹-film, placed on position 37 in the official Dogmefilm list². Being produced with a low budget of 250.000 pounds in thirteen days³, every scene filmed only once and some improvised dialogues without a script for the actors, its international success was a surprise not only for the writer and director Jan Dunn and producer Elaine Whickham. Being invited to numerous film festivals in Europe and the United States it has gained a lot of attention.

The following work will concentrate on the Dogme aspects of Gypo. After the introduction, a short overview about Gypo will be given in the second chapter. To make it easier to follow the upcoming main analysis in chapter four, this will include a brief summarise of the story. Chapter three concentrate on Dogme itself and its history: how the idea came up, how it developed and which role it has in today’s film business. Furthermore it will clarify the religious influences and point out the coherences between Gypo and the term Dogme. Chapter four will have the main part. Containing the explanation of the ten Dogme rules – also called the “Vow of Chastity” - it will analyse how they are implemented in Jan Dunn’s Gypo. These analyses will be added with explanations and comments taken from two different interviews, one by the “Father of Dogme” Lars von Trier⁴ to clarify the intentions to make up such rules, and one by Jan Dunn⁵ to point up her intention to follow them. In chapter five conclusions will be made concerning the question how Dunn managed to obey the Vow of Chastity. Due to the limited space of this term paper only a few scenes of Gypo will be taken out to be analysed more detailed; many scenes that are almost calling for interpretation have to be left aside.

2. Gypo

With three well known actors out of five main characters Gypo’s cast receives a lot of attention in Britain: Paul McGann as Paul, Pauline McLynn as Helen and Rula Lenska as Irina are all very popular actors or comedians in the UK. Chloe Sirene as Tasha has got several role-offers through her part and will surely make her way, as well as Tamzin Dunstone in the role of Kelly, who was detected at a local theatre. Like rule number 8 of the Dogme-rules⁶ says, Gypo does not fit into any kind of genre. It is not even a movie with a single story – it is a movie that tells three stories, depending on the characters perspective. The title is a bad swear word for Romany- Czechs. In short it is a film about a few days in the life of a working-class family living in Margate: Helen, her husband Paul, her daughter Kelly, her granddaughter Jordan, Kelly’s schoolmate Tasha and her mother Irina. The marriage of Helen and Paul is not very lucky, as is Helens relationship to her daughter. When her daughter brings in a new “friend” – Tasha, a Czech refugee waiting for her passport - everything changes. Gypo is told out of three different perspectives: Helen’s, Paul’s and Tasha’s. All three parts are introduced by a sequence at the beach, where the name of the narrating character is laid in the sand with stones and swept away by the waves as a hint that something will change - except Paul’s name, that stays static, which might be an allusion to his character being static as well as to his never changing prejudices. Even though Paul does not seem to be a main character as much as Kelly, his perspective is very important to show the view of a slightly racist person. Kelly’s view would be very interesting to help understanding how a person develops from a neutral to a right wing conviction, but as she is a teenage girl many of her actions could be blamed to the changing moods of a teenager. Depending on who is “telling” the story, details are left out or emphasized that are not in the other perspectives.

3. Dogme95

The third chapter will concentrate on “Dogme95”. 3.1 will give a short overview how the idea arised, developed and was dropped again. 3.2 will point out religious influences on Dogme. In 3.3 reasons why Gypo is a Dogme-film will be given.

3.1 History of Dogme95

[...]

1 In the following text this term will be shortened to “Dogme”, which is an official term as well.

2 No Author. (No date). “Dogme-films”. (No update date). http://www.dogme95.dk/menu/menuset.htm. (10.04.2006).

3 Wood, Sura. (2005). “Gypo.”. (2006). San Francisco: The Hollywood Reporter. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/reviews/review_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001021912. (12.04.2006).

4 Rundle, Peter. (1999). “We are all sinners. Excerpts from an interview given by Lars von Trier.” (No update date).http://www.dogme95.dk/news/interview/trier_interview2.htm. (08.04.2006).

5 Sims, Stella. (2005). “Back to basics. Stella Sims talks to director Elaine Dunn about the challenges involved in making her award-winning debut feature, Gypo, the first certified British Dogme movie.”. (No update date). http://www.showreel.org/memberarea/article.php?101. (10.04.2006).

6 See Chapter 4.