Feb. 02, 2005 - 4:18 pm

cover
Festen (1998)

a.k.a. The Celebration. this is a film that i used to notice a lot on the IMDb's Top 250 Movies page. i think at one point a couple of years ago it was in the top 100, but now it's down to 173. as with most of the foreign films i've been watching lately, i didn't watch it earlier because it was too difficult to find. Netflix had it though.

it's about a birthday party for a 60 year old businessman at his huge estate. his jerkoff children (adults now) come to celebrate, along with a lot of the father's old friends and family members. the main crisis arises when Christian, one of the sons, decides that he is going to use this occasion to point out something horrible that his father did to his family earlier in their lives. and he decides to do it during a toast to his father, while everyone listens intently.

i've never heard of the "dogme" style of filmmaking before, but apparently that's what was going on in this film. all of the cameras must be handheld and all of the sound must be natural...no post-production can be done. it was a little disorienting at first, but you get used to it and i think it did help in making the film feel more raw and realistic.

the plot for this film was also quite well put forward. if i were to explain it to you and tell you the dreaded "family secret," i don't think you would be nearly as impressed as if you were actually watching the film and saw the events unfold. Festen is definitely worth a look.

on a side note... now that the Oscar nominees have been announced, i'm going to go ahead and be sure that i see the remaining Best Picture nominees. luckily they've all finally shown up in Colorado Springs. Jill has refused to watch one of the 5, so i'm going to see it tonight while she's at work. if you'd like to check out the nominees, please take a look at them here.