not as good as all the hype

Best movie ever!

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

It is Helge 60th birthday and a lavish celebration is being held, with a host of guests. His three children - Christian, Helene and Michael - come from afar for the occasion but it is soon obvious that the family is hardly a harmonious, happy one. Hanging over the occasion is the recent suicide of Christian's twin sister, Linda. Then, during the toasts at the dinner, Christian drops a bombshell.Brilliant drama from Danish director Thomas Vinterberg. Immediately engrossing, with well-developed characters, each with their own unique peculiarities, and a high level of engagement. Very interesting plot, with Christian's revelation kicking the intrigue up several notches. It doesn't let up from then on out.Clever camerawork from Vinterberg. Many of the shots give a home-movie feel, heightening the candid, family atmosphere, and providing a touch of irony, considering how the plot develops.The ending may feel anti-climactic but anything more would have been unnecessary and would just have diluted the brilliance of the movie.Solid performances all round, with Ulrich Thomsen, as Christian, the pick of the lot.Thomas Vinterberg went on to direct two more masterpieces: Submarino (in 2010) and The Hunt (in 2012). However, the first indication of his genius was here, Festen.

The very first feature from Dogma 95 movement, Thomas Vinterberg's audacious family exposé sets its narrative entirely within a one-day spell, Christian (Thomsen), a seemingly-decorous man comes from Paris to celebrate his father Helge's (Mortizen) 60-year-old birthday at their family-run hotel in a rural Denmark, other family members and friends are also invited, including Christian's younger sister and brother, Helene (Steen) and Michael (Bo Larsen).Frenetically embracing itself to the Dogma 95 doctrines and its trimmings, the film plays out like a horror movie that anticipates the low-budget found-footage creepiness, natural lighting counterpointing its formal grandeur of the event, hand-held camera slithering around like an insidious creature from all possible approaches to observe the impending drama. Vinterberg pulls no punches from Michael's horrendous excesses, insolent, finicky and randy, a male chauvinist pig (with the plot thickening, violence and racism would in no time join up), he is egregiously obnoxious, which trenchantly conveys the impression that he might be the black sheep in the family, who could cause some riot and embarrassment to his holier-than-thou parents, that's a splendid trick to set the premise. On the other hand, a more haunting undertow trickles in concerning about Christian's twin sister Linda, who committed suicide of late in one of the hotel room's bathtub. Through a jumpy montages of actions occurring in each sibling's rooms (boosted by a brilliant idea of peeping from an angle of surveillance), Helene discovers a note Linda left in the latter's room, its context would give the final word about the dirty secrets concealed in this family.The main event of the day is the birthday banquet, Helge, a quintessential upper-crust patriarch, having a stable marriage with Else (Neumann) over 30 years, is well positioned to enjoy that particular day, before all the congratulatory mirth would uncomfortably dissipate after Christian's bomb-dropping toast, not one, not two, but three, vitriolically aiming to his parents. He is relentlessly charged, to seek out justice in his own term (also on behalf of Linda), and the guests' much subdued reaction has been palatably teased out to an almost implausibly farcical sphere, hypocrisy and self-denial run rampant whilst the celebration must go on, at least on its face value (aided by a ludicrous car-keys hiding scheme conceived by the chef). Suddenly, it reminisces of Luis Buñuel's surreal allegory THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL (1962), no one can leave the party, where moral corruption and sickening frailties are perturbingly disclosed. Vinterberg displays a shrewd discernment of the socio-psychology among his subjects, and the ensuing pay-off is uncompromisingly gripping, until the finale sets its ambiguous tone on the aftershock. What happens happens, the surviving damaged goods have to carry their bloodline no matter what, a human tragedy stems deep from the vein of human nature's vice and cruelty .The Danish cast illuminate with affecting performances galore, Thomsen as the silently-fuming Christian, Steen as the unstably nervy Helene, Moritzen as the unfazed Helge all leave indelible marks in their conflicting narrative arcs; yet, it is Neumann, who kills in the scene of her double- edged speech, such an atrociously refined poise achingly testifies that her Else, should be condemned with no less culpability than her children-molesting husband, and in her final shots, she still vainly attempts to come clean out of it, that is a truly extraordinary scene-stealer. Finally, a disconcerting gripe falls on to Bo Larsen's Michael, a shifty-looking youngest son, he is the bad seed who inherits all the deflects from his parents, and the fact that Vinterberg chooses him to stand in a moral high-ground over them does contribute to some ill-feeling of this otherwise groundbreaking feature film, a liberation from machine-bound unwieldiness and trimming down all the usual accessories, puts the thorny narrative in the centre with raw fierceness and closeness, ultimately, it hits like a sledgehammer, take that? Lars von Trier!

The family dinner party. Personally I like to avoid them. What is intended to be a celebration, people sitting down eating together, catching up with each other, gossiping, exchanging banter always tends to quickly descend into pettiness, bitterness and ultimately anger.Festen also known as The Celebration is an example why the dinner party is such fertile ground for dramatists. Especially the way it can highlight class conventions and differing mores.The directorial debut of Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg, it was part of the Dogme 95 movement, a film made with a low budget, a documentary style, natural lighting, on location and no music score.The film undercuts tragedy with farce. It is a raw film, maybe because the director was a novice but it is also raw because of the content of the screenplay.There is a get together in a mansion of the 60th birthday of Helge Klingenfeldt-Hansen. His eldest son Christian has returned for the party. His twin sister recently committed suicide. His brother Micheal we quickly discover has temper and drink issues. We see him being cruel to his wife, a domestic servant and later to his sister's boyfriend. Helene their other sister is an anthropologist and she has brought her black boyfriend with her. Micheal despises him and is openly racist.During the course of the dinner, Christian stands to give a toast and tells everybody that his father abused him. The rest of the guests are unsure how to react. Christian repeats the accusation, he is forcibly thrown out by his brother Micheal, his mother wants him to apologise. The below stairs staff sensing something, even maybe knowing these accusations are true, make sure no one can escape as they get rid off the car keys.Tragedy, farce, black comedy. The dinner party increasingly becomes toxic, violent and the skeletons from the past are unearthed.

"The Celebration" is a drama movie in which we watch a family gathering in order to celebrate the 60th birthday party of the father. In this celebration everything is going very well but after some time everything change and some unpleasant family truths are revealed. These truths change or ruin the relationships between many people and also give a different perspective on how we see many of those people.I liked this movie because it was very unpredictable and I could not even think what will come up next and that was something that kept me in tense in the whole duration of this movie. I also liked this movie because of the plot that had many swifts and I could not predict anything as I said before. The direction was equally good and made by Thomas Vinterberg. About the interpretations I have to mention the great interpretation which made by Ulrich Thomsen who played as Christian. Another good interpretation made by Thomas Bo Larsen who played as Michael.Finally I have to say that "The Celebration" is a classic drama movie which represents many families which have many secrets between its members. If these secrets come up then change everything and of course in many occasions hurt people.