The Celebration (1998)

Very well executed

hyped garbage

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This is not the most disturbing film I've ever seen but it ranks right up there, both for the subject matter and the filming style of the cinematographer. I think the point of the jarring jumps and distorted filming angles lends credence to the emotional story of a dysfunctional family coming to terms with events in the past that threaten to bring it down disgracefully. What surprised me was how none of the extended family seemed to be upset by the purported abuse revealed by Christian (Ulrich Thomsen) at his father's sixtieth birthday celebration. You would think some of them would be repulsed, if not by the revelations, then by the sheer insanity of the immediate family in dealing with each other. I mean really, how do you recover from Christian's opening remarks to the gathered guests - "Here's to the man who killed my sister..., a murderer." Talk about being a party pooper.A couple of curiosities in the story. First, Christian's request to his father to select the green or the yellow note. Since it seemed Christian was resolved to deliver the shocking news in any event, my own reaction is that he would have given the same speech either way. Then there was the mysterious posture of the head kitchen chef Kim (Bjarne Henriksen). I felt he was in league with Christian to some extent, but nothing he personally did in the story really bore that out, unless you want to consider his involvement in hiding everyone's keys so they couldn't beat a hasty retreat. To a certain degree, I also thought the waitress staff knew about the Klingenfeldt dirty laundry, and wouldn't be too upset if the truth came out.Aside from the father Helge (Henning Moritzen), the most despicable character here was Christian's brother Michael (Thomas Bo Larsen), who seemed to treat anyone in his orbit with equal disdain and contempt. His forced relations with wife Mette (Helle Dolleris) bordered on violent rape, and in that regard, I had to consider that even if he had been away at college during his father's abusive period with Christian and sister Linda, the suicide victim, his aggression appeared to mask his own abusive past by a father who didn't give much of a damn. It's no wonder that sister Helene (Paprika Steen) gave voice to all of those fears and resentments by stating at one point - "They've always been ghosts in this house."

What an intense movie. Already in the first scene with the younger brother throwing his own wife and kids out of the car in a rather rude way, it becomes obvious that this movie will not meet the usual standards of etiquette.As the movie sticks to the rules of the Dogma 95 manifesto, the whole shooting was done by hand-held cameras. The hence somewhat shaky pictures may be a bit irritating in the beginning but at the same time, they make one feel being very close to the action and the unusual visual angles that become possible by using this technique, draw into the movie. Also, be aware that the movie does not use any background music, which is another concession to the Dogma 95 rules.The most shocking element of the movie probably is not the unadorned disclosure of the committed pedophilia itself but the fact that the whole pretending of being a family with respect for each other is an utter lie and has been for a very long time. It is only conventions of behavior that helped to keep up appearances. Especially the mother is living in her own world of negating the undeniable facts that once were presented to her very own eyes.Then, while some hard-boiled spectator may still shrug his shoulders thinking, that every family has its black sheep and maybe also its obnoxious Boor like the younger brother Michael, the whole evening party starts singing a racist song which is directed towards the black boyfriend of the daughter. Although this happens under the influence of alcohol, one could reply that alcohol only reveals the real character of people, ending in the conclusion that great parts of society are corrupted in a certain way. Some spectator may be able to relate to similar events in his own family background and start feeling uncomfortable about it. Still the movie is not all negative since there are also some pleasant characters like the waitress Pia (plaid by a young Trine Dyrholm) who is in love with the elder son of the family. At the end of the movie her affection is being answered and there is even hope that they both will live a happy life in Paris.For all those, who are looking for a feel-good movie, please go a long way round this one but for all those who fancy exposures of a complacent bourgeoisie, this is a must see.

A dysfunctional upper-class family gathers for the father's 60th birthday. Secrets are revealed and chaos ensues.I understand the attraction of rebelling against Hollywood style blockbusters. Filming in a Blair Witch style doesn't make it good, let alone a masterpiece. The kindest thing I can say about the look of the movie is that the filmmakers are trying to do something different. It's not particularly interesting to me and rather tiresome.The other problem is mostly my fault. I don't know any of the actors. There is character chaos. I can follow most of the leads but it's hard to get involved. It's funny that Michael throws his wife and kids to the side of the road. I lose interest in any of them fairly quickly after that. I don't care about the family or its secrets.

'Festen' was the first film made under the 'Dogme 95' manifesto, which called on film-makers to abandon trickery and simply record what the actors did in front of the camera. The merits of the manifesto lie less in the fact that such trickery is bad (indeed, there are always new tricks available to the clever artist, and the wholly naturalistic film would be wholly dull), but in that it encouraged directors to think about what they were doing, and not fall back on clichéd short-cuts to induce certain responses in the audience. But a great film is a great film, whatever the rules under which it is made; and 'Festen' reminded me of Robert Altman's 'The Wedding', which begins with a long zoom shot from a static camera, the complete antithesis of the hand-held style that 'Dogme 95' dictates.'Festen' starts as a black comedy, the tale of the re-union of a highly dysfunctional family. But it soon becomes clear there's a reason for this dysfunction, and the story soon becomes truly horrifying, yet utterly convincing in its depiction of how a bully can remain unchallenged. Perhaps the take-home message it that crimes that can never be forgiven can never be acknowledged, either. Although the darkness gradually overwhelms the humour, it's a superbly executed movie, ultimately sympathetic but completely unsentimental, and with an immediacy that is the benefit of the chosen method.