Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Writers: Thomas Vinterberg, Mogens Rukov
Photography: Anthony Dod Mantle
Music: Lars Bo Jensen
Editor: Valdis Oskarsdottir
Cast: Ulrich Thomsen, Henning Moritzen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Paprika Steen, Birthe Neumann, Trine Dyrholm, Helle Dolleris, Therese Glahn, Klaus Bondam, Bjarne Henriksen, Gbatokai Dakinah
The Celebration may (or may not) be known best as the first so-called Dogme 95 picture, a filmmaking aesthetic created in 1995 by director and cowriter Thomas Vinterberg with bad-boy director Lars von Trier. Based on 10 rules they called the “Vow of Chastity,” it attempts to refocus movies away from special effects, commercial considerations, and general bombast, and more toward “traditional values of story, acting, and theme.” Rule number 8, for example (yes, they are numbered), specifies no genre work. Number 3 requires the camera to be handheld. “Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted.” There are strict limits as well on visuals and music. As far as I know, no Dogme 95 picture has ever been made that doesn’t break at least one of the rules even in small ways. The Celebration violates number 1, which precludes use of props, and number 4, which prohibits special lighting. Dogme 95 pictures include The Celebration, The Idiots (directed by von Trier), Julien Donkey-Boy (directed by Harmony Korine), and some 32 others. Original inspiration for the rules came from von Trier’s Breaking the Waves (which also breaks many of them).
The Dogme 95 aesthetic produces an interesting effect, certainly in The Celebration, but I can’t help feeling it’s mostly some kind of big joke somehow, athwart the point of the narrative. Maybe that’s something to do with how I take von Trier generally. Still, The Celebration, for all its disheveled shambolics, has a real power, drawing us into its rancid family dynamics in spite of a jittery feel of improv, a sense that it is formally maintaining its distance from human naturalism. I’m not sure how improv fits with the Dogme 95 rules but a lot of the action here feels impromptu, executed by inspiration in the moment. The story is also a curious one, half deadly serious, half darkly comic, and “based on real events,” except not really.
The Celebration may (or may not) be known best as the first so-called Dogme 95 picture, a filmmaking aesthetic created in 1995 by director and cowriter Thomas Vinterberg with bad-boy director Lars von Trier. Based on 10 rules they called the “Vow of Chastity,” it attempts to refocus movies away from special effects, commercial considerations, and general bombast, and more toward “traditional values of story, acting, and theme.” Rule number 8, for example (yes, they are numbered), specifies no genre work. Number 3 requires the camera to be handheld. “Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted.” There are strict limits as well on visuals and music. As far as I know, no Dogme 95 picture has ever been made that doesn’t break at least one of the rules even in small ways. The Celebration violates number 1, which precludes use of props, and number 4, which prohibits special lighting. Dogme 95 pictures include The Celebration, The Idiots (directed by von Trier), Julien Donkey-Boy (directed by Harmony Korine), and some 32 others. Original inspiration for the rules came from von Trier’s Breaking the Waves (which also breaks many of them).
The Dogme 95 aesthetic produces an interesting effect, certainly in The Celebration, but I can’t help feeling it’s mostly some kind of big joke somehow, athwart the point of the narrative. Maybe that’s something to do with how I take von Trier generally. Still, The Celebration, for all its disheveled shambolics, has a real power, drawing us into its rancid family dynamics in spite of a jittery feel of improv, a sense that it is formally maintaining its distance from human naturalism. I’m not sure how improv fits with the Dogme 95 rules but a lot of the action here feels impromptu, executed by inspiration in the moment. The story is also a curious one, half deadly serious, half darkly comic, and “based on real events,” except not really.
There was a real event that inspired Vinterberg but later its veracity turned out to be questionable, it was a very different event, and a lot of narrative filters have since been applied. Helge (Henning Moritzen) is celebrating his 60th birthday with his family. It’s a big occasion. After the banquet—and before the music, dancing, and coffee in the parlor—people stand up and give speeches lauding or perhaps lovingly roasting Helge. But when his eldest son Christian (Ulrich Thomsen) speaks, things go awry. Christian maintains a deceptively amiable tone as he goes into detail about the sexual abuse he and one of his sisters suffered from Helge. The sister has since committed suicide. The sexual abuse is of course news, and unpleasant news at that, to many of those in attendance.
Christian actually gets the opportunity for multiple speeches. The first leaves people so shocked they’re not even sure he means it and they think (or hope) it may be some kind of sardonic joke. They are paralyzed socially with shock and don’t know what to do. They start to take action the second time he speaks but they still don’t know what to do. Telling him to shut up isn’t working. Threatening him physically, throwing him out of the mansion and locking the door behind him, stops him for a while. But he returns and speaks again.
Everything from the first speech on is dreamed up by Vinterberg and/or cowriter Mogens Rukov and/or the cast. In the original event, which turned out to be fictional but was loosely based on still another real event (of questionable provenance we have to believe at this point), everyone leaves in disgust after the revelations in the first speech. But these folks are not as quick, or Vinterberg doesn’t let them be. Their stupefaction—which extends to Helge and most of his immediate family—has a humorous edge. But it is serious enough about the allegations and the potential crimes that content warnings may be in order. If sexual abuse is triggering to anyone they are advised to approach The Celebration with caution. Other themes such as racism apply as well.
I think it’s a pretty good movie, unique, original, and absorbing, but it’s playing with fire. Much of the implicit humor won’t be funny at all to some people. It’s reminiscent in some ways now of the TV series Succession, with its powerful patriarch and all the damaged but well-coiffed progeny. It’s also interesting as the first and perhaps the best specimen of Dogme 95. Those interested in further such formal experiments might like The Five Obstructions, a 2003 documentary made by von Trier with Jorgen Leth, director of the cult film short The Perfect Human. Von Trier has Leth remake that picture five times, each time with a different “obstruction,” e.g., set in Cuba, made as a cartoon, etc. You start to wonder what the long winters might be doing to these Nordics.
Christian actually gets the opportunity for multiple speeches. The first leaves people so shocked they’re not even sure he means it and they think (or hope) it may be some kind of sardonic joke. They are paralyzed socially with shock and don’t know what to do. They start to take action the second time he speaks but they still don’t know what to do. Telling him to shut up isn’t working. Threatening him physically, throwing him out of the mansion and locking the door behind him, stops him for a while. But he returns and speaks again.
Everything from the first speech on is dreamed up by Vinterberg and/or cowriter Mogens Rukov and/or the cast. In the original event, which turned out to be fictional but was loosely based on still another real event (of questionable provenance we have to believe at this point), everyone leaves in disgust after the revelations in the first speech. But these folks are not as quick, or Vinterberg doesn’t let them be. Their stupefaction—which extends to Helge and most of his immediate family—has a humorous edge. But it is serious enough about the allegations and the potential crimes that content warnings may be in order. If sexual abuse is triggering to anyone they are advised to approach The Celebration with caution. Other themes such as racism apply as well.
I think it’s a pretty good movie, unique, original, and absorbing, but it’s playing with fire. Much of the implicit humor won’t be funny at all to some people. It’s reminiscent in some ways now of the TV series Succession, with its powerful patriarch and all the damaged but well-coiffed progeny. It’s also interesting as the first and perhaps the best specimen of Dogme 95. Those interested in further such formal experiments might like The Five Obstructions, a 2003 documentary made by von Trier with Jorgen Leth, director of the cult film short The Perfect Human. Von Trier has Leth remake that picture five times, each time with a different “obstruction,” e.g., set in Cuba, made as a cartoon, etc. You start to wonder what the long winters might be doing to these Nordics.
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