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18 Sept 2004 Dogme # 1: Festen (The Celebration) Directed by Thomas Vinterberg Produced by Nimbus Film Productions  Here is an account of the film from the Danish Film Institute: 'A grandiose party to celebrate a sixtieth birthday unleashes a family drama with all the lies that conceal horrendous secrets. The eldest son, Christian, stages a showdown with the popular pater familias; his provocative, moving after-dinner speech dislodges all the masks, which finally fall completely as the father-son conflict intensifies as the bewildered guests look on. Thomas Vinterberg's The Celebration is the greatest Danish film success since Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves. The Special Prize of the Jury at Cannes in 1998 was the start of an international career for the film which has yet to abate, not least in the USA where The Celebration has been acclaimed by critics and audiences alike. Like von Trier's The Idiots, The Celebration was made in accordance with the self-inflicted Dogma rules for primitive cinematography. But there is nothing ascetic about the film's pyrotechnic display of intense drama, sure-fire satire, blistering irony and exhilarating farce, all carried off in an unforced, musical visual rhythm with searingly spontaneous acting. The ambiguous tone of gravity and comedy is achieved with artistic mastery by a young director who knows his classics, from Renoir via Bunuel to Bergman.' A thoughtful review of Festen by Peter Mathews is in the March 1999 issue of Sight and Sound, the monthly publication of the British Film Institute. |
Festen
