Thomas Vinterberg
Festen - Dogme #1

"Festen - Dogme 1" (The Celebration), a film dating back to 1998, besides being the remarkable and unsettling and intriguing debut work of the young Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg, is to all effects the first concrete and real cinematic chapter spawned by the uncompromising film movement called "Dogma95" (also known as the ‘Vow of Chastity' due to an unyielding yet curious decalogue * that charted its daring theoretical-creative coordinates), signed by the talented filmmaker Lars Von Trier, in collaboration with a handful of independent and courageous/visionary cine-creators from the mid-'90s.

Of this interesting experience, often not only imaginatively radical (just think of the following and quite controversial, disturbing "Idiots" by the same Von Trier), concluded about ten years later by the will of the same creators, there remain today about forty often intriguing films.

"Festen", as one might logically expect, is a cantankerous, disorienting piece, endowed with a delightful anarchic, irreverent profile at times caustically hilarious; all unfolds quickly on the occasion of a "joyful" reunion of a purely friendly-family character (the Family Head's birthday): in the brief span of a frantic day, the unexpected opportunity for the re-emergence of a not better-specified and apparently removed shimmering past arises. The feature, not so much and/or only for the preceptual ‘technical-structural nature' [which still holds a significant weight in the mise-en-scene] of the footage, attracts and surprises for its effectiveness and lucid sobriety in highlighting, also through a noticeable dose of unhealthy irony, the poorly concealed and destabilizing grim baseness potentially inherent in the human soul and the related unbearable and miserable hypocrisies that make for its abominable corollary.

En passant, should you happen upon it by eyesight: (have a)god syn.

* The shooting must be done on location. Sets and props must not be brought in (If there are specific needs for the story, an appropriate location must be chosen to meet those needs).

Sound must never be produced apart from the images and vice versa. (Music must not be used unless it occurs where the film is being shot).

The camera must be handheld. Any movement or immobility obtainable in the hand is permitted. (The film must not take place where the camera is; shooting must take place where the film occurs).

The film must be in color. Special lighting is not acceptable. (If there is too little light for exposure, the scene must be cut or a single light can be attached to the camera).

Optical work and filters are forbidden.

The film must not contain superficial action. (Murders, weapons, etc., must not occur).

Temporal and geographical alienation is forbidden. (In other words, the film takes place here and now).

Genre movies are not acceptable.

The final work must be transferred to Academy 35mm film, with a 4:3 format, not widescreen. (Originally, it was required to shoot directly in Academy 35mm, but the rule was changed to facilitate low-cost productions).

The director must not be credited.