Anthony Dod Mantle: Profile

Anthony Dod Mantle? Who? Well, he’s a British cinematographer living in Denmark, and had a big hand in creating the visual style of the Dogme 95 school of cinema. This is important, because Dogme 95 went on to influence cinema in all walks of life, and the efficacy of its techniques is probably the single biggest reason that almost all big budget action films now use handheld cameras.

Dod Mantle left behind the most extreme aspects of Dogme 95 after completing work on Harmony Korine‘s phenomenal Julien Donkey-Boy (1999), but still kept some stylistic traits – off-kilter camera angles, unexpected camera movement – in his later work.

He has worked on some of the best films of the last ten years – 28 Days Later (2002), Dogville (2003), Dear Wendy (2005), Manderlay (2005), The Last King of Scotland (2006), and his biggest success Slumdog Millionaire (2008). He developed a tactic for sticking by directors early-on in his career that would go on to huge things – he handled camera duties for Danny Boyle on the aforementioned 28 Days Later, but also for his little-known comedy-drama Millions (2004), as well as coming into contact with Lars von Trier through his involvement with Thomas Vinterberg‘s Festen (1998), probably the first true Dogme 95 film, which led to his shooting Dogville (also mentioned previously). He has continued these associations by working on Boyle’s 127 Hours (2010) and his upcoming Trance (2012), and with von Trier with his work on Antichrist (2009).

His current work outside of these two directors’ pantheon also stretches to include the just-released Dredd (2012), something of a departure for Dod Mantle, but nothing for someone of his talent. He’s also shooting Trance (2012) for Ron Howard; his schedule is pretty full, so he may not be available for your wedding video, unfortunately, unless you’ve got von Trier officiating the ceremony.