Dogville (Lars von Trier, Denmark | Sweden | UK | France | Germany | Netherlands | Norway | Finland | Italy, 2003)

‘This is the sad tale of the township of Dogville’ – so intones the gnarled mellifluous voice of the narrator, over the first shot of the film: a god’s eye view of Elm Street, and the shacks that border it. Prior to this we have been presented with two intertitles...

Director Lars von Trier ensures we are always aware of the storytelling function. This is a movie – this is a story. Intertitles, the black/white and chalk environment, the soundscape of the narrator’s voice and invisible objects are the aspects of the mise-en-scène that forefront such a process... These are the noosigns of Dogville: a cinema of the brain, where the brain becomes the screen, and the storytelling function of cinema is made visible...

To read the full exploration of Dogville through the Deleuze's sign of 'cinema of the brain,' see Deleuze's Cinema Books: Three Introductions to the Taxonomy of Images...