The implementing of the 'Vow of Chastity' in Jan Dunn's "Gypo" (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Other, grade: 1,7, University of Mannheim, course: First Films at Mannheim/Heidelberg Film Festival, language: English, abstract: Gypo is the first UK Dogme95 -film, placed on position 37 in the official Dogme-film list. Being produced with a low budget of 250.000 pounds in thirteen days, 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 Trier to clarify the intentions to make up such rules, and one by Jan Dunn 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.