By – Gareth Jones

For fans of family drama, Dogme 95, Danish films

On March 13, 1995, at a celebratory conference honoring 100 years of cinema, Lars Von Trier revealed the Dogme Manifesto.  Four Danish directors were part of this original group that developed the manifesto that included the Vows of Chastity.  The ten rules that must be followed included that the film be shot hand-held, no genre films, location shooting only, and the director must not receive any credit.  Of course, all of the Dogme filmmakers were already rulebreakers themselves so this was a “cleansing” challenge.

The youngest of this group was Thomas Vinterberg who had only made one feature length film before but was the first to get a Dogme film released.  In 1998, The Celebration played at the Cannes Film Festival (along with Von Trier’s challenging The Idiots, Dogme film #2) and it took the festival by storm winning the jury prize and as intended it caused quite a stir in the film world.  The Dogme movement officially stopped in 2005, but its influence continues to this day and The Celebration is one of the best.  It still holds a tremendous power and still can shock an audience to this day. He has gone on to have a fantastic career with his most recent film Another Round along with previous work, The Hunt has continued to receive praise.

Vinterberg, along with co-screenwriter Mogens Rukov, found the perfect structure for their film, the family gathering. Here, the story unfolds as a Danish family is gathering at the family estate/resort to celebrate the 60th birthday of Helge, the patriarch of the family.  We first see prodigal son, Christian (powerfully played by Ulrich Thomsen) walking along a country road peacefully.  This is immediately destroyed as younger brother, Micheal (played masterfully by Thomas Bo Larsen) recklessly drives past his brother. His flustered wife Mette points out that they have passed Christian, and Micheal screeches the car to a stop, reverses, kicks out his wife and two three children out of the car as he wants to give his prodigal brother a proper ride to the gathering.  Thus, we are introduced to the dynamic of the film. There is just a slight moment of peace before the film descends into a tense, ever-increasing level of family arguments, and revelations at the party.  I won’t give away too much but be fair warned, it deals with some extremely dark areas including sexual abuse and suicide.

The tension that is built is greatly enhanced by the rules of Dogme.  The hand-held camera puts us right in the faces of the characters as they go through so many intense emotions and feelings.  The documentary-style with the placement of the camera often like security cameras give the film additional levels of authenticity and fly on the wall discomfort.  Ultimately, the film is an incredible dissection of the rot and disease of the Danish state.  Definitely playing with one of the most famous Danes, Hamlet and his relationship to his family.  Something is still rotten in Denmark and must be exposed to the world.  That idea is not limited to this one Dogme film but pervades throughout the Danish films that followed.  By peeling away the artifice of the medium, these artists were able to reveal inner truths.  Vinterberg’s film may still be the best of the whole movement and is just as succinct in its critique of the world today as it was 30 years ago.