Thomas Winterberg's Danish Experiments

Abstract

The article is devoted to the work of the Danish film director T. Winterberg. The aim of the article is to study the plot originality of the stories told by T. Winterberg by methods of cinema, to understand the genre specificity of his films, highlighting the experiment as the most significant component of their artistic and mental originality. Descriptive, hermeneutic, diachronic, historical-genetic, comparative, analytical and biographical methods, used in a complex manner, allow one to come to certain conclusions. These conclusions are that T. Winterberg's cinematography relies on experiment as a way of plotting, which determines the genre character of the director's films. This is confirmed by the luck that accompanied exactly those films of T. Winterberg, which are built on Danish material, and the much less success of films created on plots that are associated with other toposes (Soviet, American, British). T. Winterberg became world famous after the release of the film "Family Celebration", made within the framework of such originally Danish phenomenon as «Dogma-95». Collation of the author's manner of T. Winterberg with the master of Danish (and world) cinema and originator of «Dogma» L. von Trier allows us to compare the ways of organizing the narrative of two famous film directors: if L. von Trier's films are based on provocation, then T. Winterberg – exactly on experiment. Being rooted on national soil, this experiment transcends ethnic narrow-mindedness itself, acquiring a universal, between-national character.

Keywords

• Danish cinema
• Dogma 95
• Lars von Trier
• Thomas Winterberg
• existential experiment
• film narration