Overview

"Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg's searing film Festen (""The Celebration"") was the first film from the Dogme 95 stable. Adhering to Dogme's cinematic purity -- no artificial lighting, no superficial action, no credit for the director, and only handheld cameras for equipment -- Festen was a commercial and critical success, winning the Jury Prize at Cannes in 1998 and garnering world-wide attention. The film is set at the sixtieth birthday party of Helge, the wealthy patriarch of a large Danish family. The birthday festivities take a turn when Helge's son Christian raises a toast and denounces Helge for having raped and abused him as a child, along with his twin sister, who recently committed suicide. The film explores the escalating consequences of Christian's announcement, from the stunned dinner party's collective denial, to violence, to an unexpected catharsis. C Claire Thomson's study examines the history and context of the film, setting it within the Danish cultural and socio-political milieu. It examines the place of the film as a work of national cinema and examines its pioneering role as an experiment in digital cinema."

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C. Claire Thomsons Festen monograph explores the complex and often paradoxical allegories suffused within both Vinterbergs film and the wider Dogme movement. The book relays the significance of Festen as Dogmes inaugural production released in 1998.Thomsons writing also gives us a deeply personal account of Festens emotive resonance. The Dogme film so close to Thomsons heart is situated around the birthday gathering of a wealthy patriarch in Denmark. The event is marred, however, by the return of his youngest son Christian who arrives to deliver a candid speech detailing, for the first time, the depraved abuse he and his recently deceasedsister suffered at his hands as young children. The real merits of this book stem from these impassioned articulations of the author, surpassing the objective distance usually reserved for conversing within academic texts. It is this pathos that allows the film a greater degree of accessibility. She facilitates a discussion of Festen as a concept, one that has transposedinto many forms, including numer-ous stage adaptations. She also comprises a detailed account of the Dogme tenets, particularly in relation to the practicalities of its technological application. Thomson cements Dogmes relationship with spatial and temporal aspects of filmmaking. Vetoing thepost-productive engineering that defines most film texts, she discusses Festen in relation to Dogmes aspirations; to capture an unmanipulated truth. This extends into a dialogue that encompasses the nature of historyand story in addition to the complex tapestry of meaning the film builds around the notion of Danish national identity. - Kate Moffat, Cinema Scandinavia, Spring 2015

C. Claire Thomsons Festen monograph explores the complex and often paradoxical allegories suffused within both Vinterbergs film and the wider Dogme movement. The book relays the significance of Festen as Dogmes inaugural production released in 1998.Thomsons writing also gives us a deeply personal account of Festens emotive resonance. The Dogme film so close to Thomsons heart is situated around the birthday gathering of a wealthy patriarch in Denmark. The event is marred, however, by the return of his youngest son Christian who arrives to deliver a candid speech detailing, for the first time, the depraved abuse he and his recently deceasedsister suffered at his hands as young children. The real merits of this book stem from these impassioned articulations of the author, surpassing the objective distance usually reserved for conversing within academic texts. It is this pathos that allows the film a greater degree of accessibility.She facilitates a discussion of Festen as a concept, one that has transposedinto many forms, including numer-ous stage adaptations. She also comprises a detailed account of the Dogme tenets, particularly in relation to the practicalities of its technological application. Thomson cements Dogmes relationship with spatial and temporal aspects of filmmaking. Vetoing thepost-productive engineering that defines most film texts, she discusses Festen in relation to Dogmes aspirations; to capture an unmanipulated truth. This extends into a dialogue that encompasses the nature of historyand story in addition to the complex tapestry of meaning the film builds around the notion of Danish national identity. - Kate Moffat, Cinema Scandinavia, Spring 2015

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