Review: Far From the Madding Crowd, 2015, dir. Thomas Vinterberg

“Try not to judge Thomas Vinterberg’s adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd as a product of Dogme. For one thing, that Dutch-born filmmaking movement (which Vinterberg co-founded with career bad-boy Lars von Trier in 1995) disbanded 10 years ago. For another, Vinterberg and von Trier built Dogme around strict rules, and we all know that rules are meant to be pooh-poohed at one’s personal discretion. A Victorian-age romance yarn about female independence that honors the law of Chekhov’s gun seems a poor fit for a philosophy created in the pursuit of cinematic purity.” (Via Paste Magazine.)

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