FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Thomas Vinterberg - Festen

A farce? A tragedy? Or simply too much for us spectators? That's how Thomas Vinterberg's parties work. Try a video evening: When one of your friends tortures out a short laugh that immediately suffocates again... Was that a joke now? But not. Festen is about a 60th birthday. During the celebration all the painful secrets of this corrupt and corrupt family are revealed. All (surviving) children are invited by Helge (Henning Moritzen) and his wife Elsa (Birthe Neuman) to their Danish estate. From other Scandinavian films we know: That doesn't mean anything good. Vorne weg arrives; the oldest son Christian (Ulrich Thomsen). Unfortunately, not everyone was able to accept the invitation. One of the twin sisters has just committed suicide. A family in turmoil. Sufficiency and anger and of course the wife is always to blame for everything. Nothing is packed, wife and children are thrown out of the car. Then there's rough sex. During the banquet Christian calmly raises his glass, beats it with his spoon. Then he accuses his father of raping him and his siblings earlier in a matter-of-fact, calm tone. People generally try to ignore the accusations. Christian continues that the father is responsible for his sister's suicide (while the waitresses steal everyone's keys so that nobody can leave the party). The father doesn't react at first; the mother tries an apology (but Christian accuses her of complicity). Then the African-American anthropologist arrives late and becomes the target of racist attacks. Oh yes, a servant also claims to have been raped and impregnated at the time. As in a good comedy, Vinterbeg picks up the pace. It comes to fights (alcoholized, because almost all are alcoholics) and Christian is tied to a tree in the woods. But partying is not a comedy! Everything is ugly and tragic and as with Sartre, the family has to stay together in one room. No one can escape. The background: The Danish Dogma Manifesto from 1995. Thomas Vinterberg was one of the signatories. He shot festivals on video, on location, with sounds of nature and completely without props. Hand camera instead of film music. No effects, of course. Fortunately, this kind of filmmaking never prevailed, because it would be annoying for our eyes (the Berliners are trying a similar style these days - even out of necessity). But in celebrations the dogma works. We can only shake our heads in disbelief when the family comes back for breakfast the next morning...