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The Celebration (1998)
a.k.a Festen
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Plot Synopsis[]
At Helge (Henning Moritzen)'s 60th birthday party, some unpleasant family truths are revealed.
Male Deaths[]
- None
Female Deaths[]
- Lene Laub Oksen [Linda/Søsteren]
Trivia[]
- Since this is a Dogme-film, there cannot be any non diegetic (artificial) sounds added, no post-production. The camera also needs to be hand-held. So when Christian falls to the floor in the reception and sees his sister, Christian himself had to hold the camera when falling. To achieve the "dizzy" sound, the original cameraman swung the microphone around in the air.
- On March 28th, 1996 the Danish National Radio (DR) broadcast "Koplevs Krydsfelt" when an anonymous caller, "Allan", told his story about an unusual speech he held at his step-fathers 60th birthday. One of the many listeners to this strange story was director Thomas Vinterberg, who was inspired to make his first Dogme movie.
- Thomas Vinterberg "confessed" to having covered a window during the shooting of one scene, which is a breaking of two Dogme rules - no bringing props onto the set, and no use of special lighting.
- On 23 November 2002 Danish Radio found 'Allan' again. Allan met with director Thomas Vinterberg. During the interview it was revealed that Allan's entire story was pure fantasy. However, Allan had adopted the story from a true life experience of a Danish nurse. She held her speech on Christmas eve.
- During the dinner with the speech, it was hard for the cameramen to fulfill the Dogme-rule about the cameras being handheld. The solution was to let some of the guests at the table hold the cameras themselves.
- Although the film has been labelled by many critics as a "black comedy", according to Thomas Vinterberg, it was never meant to be a comedy at all, but people laugh at the cruelty of this film. He also dislikes the label himself, saying "it's a drama and there are some laughs."
- Famously known as the first movie of the Dogme 95 movement.
- Actor Thomas Bo Larsen coordinated and performed stunts for this film, given that "superficial action" isn't allowed in Dogma pictures.
- The film was declared to be the worst-dubbed movie released in 1999, in Germany.
- Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.
- This film is part of the Criterion Collection, spine #1108.
- Thomas Vinterberg: The taxi driver dropping off Helene's boyfriend, Gbatokai
Gallery[]
Lene Laub Oksen (hallucination)
Posters[]
