Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Screenplay: Thomas Vinterberg and Mogens Rukov
Starring: Ulrich Thomsen, Henning Moritzen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Paprika Steen, Birthe Neumann, Trine Dyrholm
Running Time: 105 minutes
Genre: Drama
Wealthy patriarch Helge (Moritzen) celebrates his sixtieth birthday with a large gathering of family and friends at an isolated palatial hotel. During Helge's birthday dinner, his eldest son Christian (Thomsen) makes a speech during which he reveals horrific family secrets.
This film is notable as being the first film made under the auspices of the "Dogme 95" movement which was started in 1995 by Thomas Vinterberg and fellow Danish director Lars von Trier. Dogme 95 was intended to create films in a stripped down back to basics way abandoning special effects and technical gimmicks, in an attempt to concentrate on the story and the performances. Festen (which translates to The Celebration) was shot on location with a handheld digital video camera which today makes it look like a found-footage film. The film mixes tragedy and dark comedy in a way that becomes almost surreal, as the guests are trapped in the hotel when the staff steal their car keys, so they don't miss any of Christian's accusations, and during the long night they get progressively drunker, and laugh and dance between bouts of devastating emotional confrontations. While the film does drag occasionally, and the style is sometimes distracting, it is a gripping and powerful film, with some great performances. However I would say that it comes with a big trigger warning.
Henning Moritzen in Festen
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