Top 250 Challenge: 239

Dogme #1 Festen (1998)
Number 221 on IMDb's Top 250

A darkly comic journey into forbidden family territory. No one can ignore a person like Danish patriarch Helge Klingenfeldt. So on his sixtieth birthday, a celebration is required. Friends and relatives scurry to the country estate/hotel. Eventually, every family's secrets will come out. And since his twin sister's death two months ago, prodigal son Christian is more haunted than usual. The time has come for the darkest family skeleton to be revealed, and it must be done in their father's style - with flair, and malice. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Since this is a Dogme-film, there cannot be any artificial sounds added, no post-production. The camera also needs to be hand-held. So when Christian falls to the floor in the reception and sees his sister, Christian himself had to hold the camera when falling. To achieve the "dizzy" sound, the original cameraman swung the microphone around in the air. During the dinner with the speech, it was hard for the cameramen to fulfill the Dogme-rule about the cameras being handheld. The solution was to let some of the guests at the table hold the cameras themselves.

Okay, I guess you are wondering what the heck is Dogme? Actually it is call Dogme95. It is a style of film making that is totally anti Hollywood Special Effects Blockbusters. It is a minimalist approach and has very strict rules to be consider a Dogme film.

The goal of the Dogme collective is to purify filmmaking by refusing expensive and spectacular special effects, postproduction modifications and other gimmicks. The emphasis on purity forces the filmmakers to focus on the actual story and on the actors' performances. The audience may also be more engaged as they do not have overproduction to alienate them from the narrative, themes and mood. To this end, Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg produced ten rules that any Dogme film must conform to. These rules, referred to as the Vow of Chastity, are as follows:

• Filming must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in (if a particular prop is necessary for the story, a location must be chosen where this prop is to be found).
  
• The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. (Music must not be used unless it occurs where the scene is being filmed).
  
• The camera must be hand-held. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted. (The film must not take place where the camera is standing; filming must take place where the action takes place.)
  
• 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 lamp 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 are forbidden. (That is to say that the film takes place here and now.)
  
• Genre movies are not acceptable.
  
• The final picture must be transferred to the Academy 35mm film, with an aspect ratio of 4:3, that is, not widescreen. (Originally, the requirement was that the film had to be filmed on Academy 35mm film, but the rule was relaxed to allow low-budget productions.)
  
• The director must not be credited.
  

These rules have been both circumvented and broken, from the first Dogme film. For instance, Thomas Vinterberg "confessed" to having covered a window during the shooting of one scene in The Celebration (Festen), which is both bringing a prop onto the set and using special lighting. There is no verification process to make a film a Dogme 95 film. Filmmakers submit a form online and check a box which states they "truly believe that the film ... has obeyed all Dogme95 rules as stated in the Vow of Chastity". As mentioned on the Dogme 95 website, it's up to the director of the movie to interpret the rules. [Source] All Dogme films are given a number, currently there are 124 Dogme films listed on the official Dogme websight.

The whole Dogme technique lent a kind of home video touch to the movie at times, like during the dinner, but otherwise was just fine, although the darker scene were sometimes hard to make out. But I still like the special effect extravaganzas. As for the story, it was pretty well done. It showed the awkwardness of being in a party situation when son stands up and (Warning: Spoilers ahead) accuses his 60 year old father of sexually abusing him and his sister (who had recently committed suicide) when they were children. The guests are stunned and at first don't believe him, and he almost runs out and leaves, but ultimately decides to stay and see it out. His brother doesn't believe him and ends up fighting with him. Then the daughter reads a letter she found earlier that day from the dead sister. It seams the sister committed suicide because the father was beginning to start up the abuse again. (Spoilers over). Pretty heavy for a movie.

Up Next: Rosemary's Baby, a contemporary horror classic (Uggh I hate horror)