Giving Hollywood Something to Celebrate: The Celebration (Thomas Vinterberg, 1998): Denmark | Sweden

Paper by Kevin Tran. Viewed on DVD.

Stories should be motivated by strong passions and inventive new ideas, and though Hollywood continues to make consistently good films every year, as whole, American cinema has become less controversial and more mainstream. Hollywood’s winning formula of elaborate sets, expensive special effects, and star power has not done little to progress the advancement of the medium. The fact that these movies have gotten bigger and more expensive makes it difficult for other kinds of films to get made and seen. Thomas Vinterberg’s  Festen (The Celebration), a Danish film released in 1998, is an inspiring example of how powerful a film can be without the use of Hollywood gimmicks. Vinterberg attempts to stand out from American Cinema, stripping down Hollywood’s standard of filmmaking, and in the process creates an unforgettable movie.

Titanic is a film that completely epitomizes what international cinema was facing in the1990s. The film cost 200 million dollars, utilizing the most cutting edge special effects and an elaborate set design. James Cameron’s film grossed over 1.2 billion dollars internationally, completely crippling the foreign film industry (Box Office Mojo). Vinterberg therefore created a campaign that set out to draw the film world’s attention toward the small country of Denmark, whose film industry had done poorly throughout the eighties. American movies had accounted for about 85 percent of total European box office revenues throughout the nineties (Eyman & Giannetti). Vinterberg, along with four other Danish filmmakers, compiled a list of rules, dubbed The Vow of Chastity, distinctly differentiating their films from the American style of filmmaking. Festen was the first and most successful of the Dogme films, winning the special jury prize at the 1998 Cannes International Film Festival.

The entire film was shot with consumer digital cameras then printed onto 35-millimeter film. The result is a very grainy, dry, desaturated image that gives Festen a distinct look. It’s a refreshing departure from traditional film aesthetics, which consist of lots of light, contrast and smoothness–the very opposite of Festen. But a more important aspect that the cinematography helps to convey is its contribution to the Festen’s realism, which is reinforced by the film’s use of diegetic sound and music. Vinterberg ultimately achieves this realism by borrowing the technique used by Italian Neorealists and French New Wave filmmakers of shooting on location with smaller, hand-held cameras. The effect creates a very personal atmosphere that generates a great environment for kitchen-sink type drama–and what brutal drama Festen has to offer.

Vinterberg then uses cinema’s oldest and most powerful tool, editing, in the most remarkable fashion. Splicing up and re-piecing together his “dirty” images, Vinterberg’s editing choices are strong and distinct. He inter-cuts between different personal storylines, as many as three at a time. Also, he rapidly cuts-away to overhead shots in different settings. Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader summarizes the editing, stating in a review, “[Vinterberg] counteracts the continuity of the plot with as much discontinuity as he can without losing the threads of the action” (Rosenbaum). Even though the invisible style of editing used in Hollywood creates verisimilitude, it is often unappreciated and overlooked because it does not provoke much emotion. Vinterberg’s edits, on the other hand, elicit a multitude of feelings that connect the contrasting emotions of the broken family in the film and create a vast array of different tones.

The look and style of Festen is so starkly different from what is  shown in today’s multiplexes that one might fail to notice how well-constructed the film is. Vinterberg and Mogen Rukov’s screenplay does not stray very far from the classical Hollywood narrative of storytelling, though their tales are somewhat more twisted and controversial than what most Hollywood screenwriters conjure up. Rosenbaum points out how the plot, look, and structure of the film are all based around the idea of “deceptive appearances.” What appears to be out-of-control behavior by the eldest brother, Christian, is actually a succession of carefully staged events, planned prior to the tumultuous dinner, where he reveals the family’s dark secret. Likewise, the style and narrative of the film is well thought out, but appears random and chaotic in order to achieve the realism that both Dogme and Vinterberg demand (Rosenbaum).

Technological advancements in film, such as computer animation, 3D technology, and CGI, all are becoming increasingly more popular. However, this does not mean that the quality of movies is improving. The amount of independent and foreign filmmakers telling smaller, more personal stories is dwindling. But against these odds, or perhaps in conjunction with them, directors still find ways to express originality. Festen may lack the innovation and inventiveness that a James Cameron film requires, but Vinterberg takes advantage of the tools that Eisenstien, Rossellini, and Godard all have mastered to tell his emotional story. Festen proves that a film’s meager budget (1.3 million) can be used to its advantage, forcing the filmmaker to rely on what truly makes a good story and to disregard Hollywood’s conventional ideas of what a film should look like.

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Published:
05.08.09 / 12am
Category:
Academic Papers, DVD