The Celebration/Festen (1998, Thomas Vinterberg)

I had zero knowledge about Dogme 95 movement before watching this film, and quite intentionally I chose to stay unknowable, so to experience this film in a totally unfiltered consciousness, just like any average person would probably.

Now, first things first, this is hands down, Vinterberg's best work amongst the three films I watched of him. The supreme reason being my indisputable opinion of a small film industry belonging in any kind of film industry, and that's Indiewood. In utmost sincerity, a director always brings out his raw, vagrant energy when he's brimming with the newly introduced techniques that has influenced his intellect. Along with that, goes the extrinsic rules of Dogme 95 filmmaking, which makes this film a one-of-a-kind and a perfect starting point for it.

Coming to the film, right from the reunion, it made me remind of the popular drama show Succession, here and there, as the show is highly reminiscing of the blatantly awkward ambience Vinterberg has created in this film. Along with that, the extremely unsettling and unnerving tension the actors have pulled off with their screeches and silences is absolutely inflammatory and it somewhat starts to digress from being an anxiety-inducing drama to a vengeful holocaust of childhood trauma.

Thomas Bo Larsen, sorry to break this, has actually got a better chemistry with Vinterberg. Mads Mikkelsen maybe the screen darling whenever he appears, even doing nothing. But Bo Larsen takes away the cream of it everytime. Such a terrific actor he is.

All things aside, this film is more of an eye-opener to my rather prematurely embryo of the knowledge of cinematic movements, and more importantly, a beginner's guide to the art of establishing an equivocal story through an unequivocal method of filmmaking.