The Celebration

Brilliant, devastating potrait of a family
"The Celebration" was made under the rules of Dogma 95, a pact about how a movie is to be made. It was signed by several Danish filmmakers including Thomas Vintenberger, the director of "Celebration". The rules include using only hand held cameras, no artificial lighting, no props except those found on location. Dogma 95 is an attempt to get away from the artificiality of Hollywood-style movie making, but, in its own way, it's artificial itself because it works only with certain kinds of movies. "The Celebration", though, happens to fit perfectly into its rules. The hand held camera work, for example, only adds to the tension of this powerful and devastating film.

A large family gathers to celebrate the 60th birthday of its patriarch. Among the celebrants are the man's grown children, a daughter and two sons. A fourth child, a twin of one son, recently killed herself in the family's country inn where the party takes place. One son, Michael [Thomas Bo Larson], is a loud and pushy...

Danish dysfunctionality
I hadn't seen any Dogme 95 films until quite recently. I did have a passing familiarity with the tenets of the group--which got a fair amount of press due to the emergence of Lars von Trier as a director of note--but hadn't actually gotten around to viewing any of the releases available in this country until just a few months ago.

A lot of what I had read was pretty negative. Many reviewers found that the strictures under which Dogme 95 filmmakers operate were more limiting than liberating--and that even when the script and the acting were good, those strictures (particularly the grainy cinematography and lack of edits) often undermined the films' effectiveness.

Since the first Dogme film I actually saw was ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS, I found myself in tentative agreement with the critics. That film, a comedy-drama, seemed to beg for better lighting, better sound and an overall more professional look. I remember thinking that the film's generally washed-out look...

ONE OF THE BEST FILMS OF 1998
After I saw this brilliant film, I was totally blown away by it. (I was also blown away by the fact that the obtuse Academy Awards did not nominate it for Best Foreign Language Film. The Celebration was ten times better than Life is Beautiful.) I would compare The Celebration to another brilliant film of its time: The 400 Blows by Francois Truffaut. Both films make excellent use of their cameras, and deal with the theme of child abuse by the adults. The freeze frame shot of the twin son at the end of The Celebration reminded me of Antoine at the end of The 400 Blows. THERE SHOULD BE MORE FILMS LIKE THE CELEBRATION AND THE 400 BLOWS MADE AND RELEASED IN THE U.S.

Click to Editorial Reviews