# Dogme 1 - Festen (1998)

### reviewed by
Ross Anthony

    Every Family has a Video Camera
    The Celebration

    By Ross Anthony

Gritty, grainy, shot with available light and a video camera -- so it looks like your family videos. Although, I do hope this isn't your family.

And no doubt, directed a heck of a lot better than your videos. Vinterberg (director) whips his little vid cam around like it's taped to the remote control toy car from a "Home Alone" film.

The story follows Christian, a full grown man with childhood issues yet to resolve, as he changes the tone of this family celebration.

"The Celebration" showcases excellent acting, a great screenplay, and new innovative cinematography that is exciting and exhausting at the same time.

Directed and co-written by: Thomas Vinterberg (Vinterberg is a member of a collective of film directors (Dogme 95) who oppose the auteur concept, make-up, illusions and dramaturgical predictability; letting 'the inner lives of the characters justify the plot.') In Danish with English subtitles.

Grade..........................A-

-- Copyright © 1999 Ross Anthony, currently based in Los Angeles, has scripted and shot documentaries, music videos, and shorts in 35 countries across North America, Europe, Africa and Asia. For more reviews visit: http://RossAnthony.com

The review above was posted to the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due to ASCII to HTML conversion.

Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews