THE CELEBRATION A film review by David N. Butterworth Copyright 1998 David N. Butterworth
**** (out of ****)
In the spring of 1995, the 'Dogme 95,' a collective of Danish filmmakers, among them Lars von Trier ("Breaking the Waves") and Thomas Vinterberg, entered into a radical agreement that would henceforth dictate their style of filmmaking. This pledge, which they named "The Vow of Chastity," decreed "all shooting to be done on location with available props, stories to be contemporary, sound to be ambient, cameras hand-held, film in color, no artificial light," and that "the director must not be credited."
The inaugural product of this unusual contract is a brilliant piece of work by the 29-year-old Vinterberg entitled "The Celebration" ("Festen") and it is in large part successful due to the pact under which it was produced.
"The Celebration" is among one of the finest films ever made.
Shot in grainy, unsettling hand-held "video verité," "The Celebration" centers on the family reunion to end all family reunions. The action takes place at a lavish ancestral estate, where aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and grandchildren gather to commemorate the 60th birthday of Helge (Henning Moritzen), the family patriarch.
Among those present are Helge, his wife Else (Birthe Neumann), and their three grown children. Children who, in the eyes of their affluent parents, have never amounted to much.
There's Christian (played by Ulrich Thomsen with a permanent frown on his face): clean-cut, furtive, with a history of emotional problems. There's Michael (Thomas Bo Larsen), the youngest: a failed restaurateur with a fiery temper and an emotionally-abused wife, Mette (Helle Dolleris). And there's Helene (Paprika Steen), who was given up for lost when she joined the Young Socialists and pursued a career as a singer.
Not present is Linda, Christian's recently-deceased twin sister, about whom Christian is asked to say a few words by his father during dinner.
Christian's few words prove to be the first of several bombshells that turn the otherwise upbeat festivities into a boiling pot of parent-child emotions. As deep, dark family secrets go, the revelation is not entirely original, but the set-up, the delivery, and the slow unraveling of the truth are masterful.
Vinterberg's cinematic vision is beautifully realized by cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, whose jumpy, colorful, fuzzy-focused style gives "The Celebration" a documentary look and feel. Combined with top notch performances by the entire cast, the result is an uneasy feeling that we are eavesdropping on a real family gathering rather than a fictionalized account of one. This pushes the emotional content through the roof.
Although contrary to the tenets of the 'Dogme 95,' Thomas Vinterberg should be applauded for bringing this film to the screen. Powerful and emotionally disturbing while at the same time funny, fresh and moving, "The Celebration" has the uncanny ability to make you laugh out loud while tears still linger in your eyes. It left me shaken long after the end credits had rolled.
-- David N. Butterworth dnb@mail.med.upenn.edu
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