The Celebration
“Summertime – and the living is easy” …….. Rich family patriach Helge Klingelfeldt is particularly anxious that thier three grown children Christian, Michael and Helene, support the party’s festive mood by making a display of happy unity of the clan. Even downstairs staff is expected to somehow join in the general ambidience.
Dusk Falls, and the master of ceremonies introduces himself and announces that dinner is served. Helge is met by spontaneous outbursts of applause and song. The Guests are in a merry mood, indeed. While everyone’s being seated, the kitchen staff add their finishing touches to the evening’s festive meal. Fish steam, venison broil. The banquet begins.
When Christian eventually clears his throat and calls for silence only he knows what is to come. A speech to shock, a speech to shatter. The most heart-breaking night in living memory is about to descend on the unsuspecting Klingenfeldts. However, irrespective skeletons being mercilessly ripped out of the family closet stiff upper lips prevail and in a highly macabre way the party just keeps going on.
Interview
The strict stipulations of the vow of chastity
Three years ago you formed the DOGME 95
group with Lars von Trier, Christian Levring and Søren Kragh-Jacobsen. You wrote the group’s “Vow of Chastity” with Lars von Trier. Why was it necessary to draw up the Dogma rules?
“Despite the uniformity we are trying to attain in the group, you would probably receive different answers from the various ‘brothers’. There is a completely personal reason: when we were playing around with the idea, I sensed that it was extremely inspiring, and of course I’d tried it before, at the National Film School of Denmark-the limitations-and it always has been a major source of inspiration.
I happen to be a confused and chaotic person, so I appreciate this kind of regularity. The other thing that appealed to me was the collective aspect. That four people could get together and make a statement and try to start a wave in all humility. It’s fully lived up to what I was hoping for. The collective feeling arising from making the leap together is extremely stimulating for what you’re trying to do”.
“There is also another reason, which may actually apply to Danish film and me, and which is very much a product of Danish film culture. I think that it has been very hard to liberate oneself from a film convention that possesses many qualities, but which in many ways envelopes you and weighs you down.
When a film director makes a film, it quite automatically gets done in a particular way. You have a unit of thirty people around you, lots of lighting and all that, which has to be planned ages in advance. It’s a large, ponderous machine. The result is a particular kind of film, and this imposes limits on Danish film, I think. So 1995 was an obvious time to try and shake oneself out of all that in some way, and explore what can actually be done with the really basic qualities in film. To me is was so beautifully consistent. I liked that.”
How did the Dogme philosophy work in practice? Didn’t the Vow of Chastity feel like a limitation?
“Perhaps in a few situations, but first and foremost, the rules-the limitation-turned the work into the most enjoyable and actually the most liberating project I’ve ever been involved in. So funnily enough it had quite the opposite effect. Precisely because there was such a clear framework, there was great lightness of feeling within it. We could romp to our heart’s content”.
Because there was a set of rules?
“Yes, because it is a clearly defined film even before you write a single word. Because you see a film in your mind’s eye even as you read the rules, and because there are walls to play against. When it says you mustn’t have any music in the film, what happens to me is that I automatically include a load of songs. This kind of limit generates many ideas.
The characteristic feature of the Dogme films is that they very quickly become group portraits. There is more pathos, because if you cannot play on all the subtle emotions and amplify them by using background music, you have to trumpet them out through what is left, which means the cast.”
In your previous film, The Greatest Heroes, there is that completely archetypal shot of the gracious losers on the roof of the car, pissing on the world. You can’t do shots like that in a Dogme film. Don’t you miss it?
“I missed it on a tiny number of occasions, because what happens when you have a set of rules like ours is that you recode your brain to think within them, and to create a dream-like world within what one has on hand. The toughest nut to crack was in connection with the dead sister. In the script she haunts the location, and is present as a ghost throughout the film. Such dream-like things are difficult to deal with when you are trying to be down-to-earth and realistic.”
Did you have the plot before you knew it would be a Dogme film?
“No. When we wrote the rule book I said I’d make a film, and I committed myself to a date for making it, because I knew that a script would emerge that I at least was prepared to be accountable for. I could sense that right away. When we drew up the rules, we had great fun. The process was a real laugh. We said “Hey, we can’t do that”-and did it.”
Why shouldn’t the director be credited?
“Of course the value of that is purely symbolic. People know very well who made the films, but we are trying to step back from the product, trying to be as un-auteur-like as possible. Funnily enough, the result is some pretty auteur-like films.”
You appear as a cab driver in a Hitchcock
“It’s a kind of capitulation in the face of what I’ve just told you. Actually I think it is very honest. Because it was really very difficult to withdraw from one’s own product. In a way The Celebration has turned out to be a highly personal film, although not one based on personal experience. But the idea is, of course, as the rules state, to explore the truth and observe it from without. Therefore it was natural not to be credited. I know that many people will think it’s affected. Maybe they’re right.”
Several scenes seem to be caps doffed at other films. The chain of dancers through the house appears to be a cruel parody of Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander ?
“Well, it isn’t. It’s a plagiarism that’s just way over the top. Fanny and Alexander is one of my three favourite films. It’s just that we really felt like doing that chain thing, just like in Fanny and Alexander, because it had to be noisy and the people at the party just had to get out into the rest of the house. We couldn’t avoid it, and so we thought “All right, let’s go for it!” I considered all kinds of other family traditions that might serve a similar purpose, but I couldn’t come up with any, so we capitulated”.
Which are your other two favourites?
“The Godfather, with ten or fifteen other films coming third. I am very fund of The Godfather, and I’ve drawn a heck of a lot from it. Not absolute plagiarisms, but features that manifest themselves in the whole family structure. The characters played by Ulrich Thomsen and Thomas Bo Larsen arise from my fascination with James Caan and Al Pacino in The Godfather, and Moritzen’s patriarch was of course inspired by good old Marlon, not that I’m making any comparisons, of course.”
You used practically the same cast as you did for The Greatest Heroes?
Yes, actually it’s completely the same. I thought that as we were going to venture onto thin ice with this Dogme project anyway, the innovative side was already decided on. What directors fear most is repeating themselves, and that problem had been kind of dealt with in that we’d be making a Dogme film. And I also felt that I hadn’t finished with this bunch of actors yet. I didn’t think we’d achieved everything yet. I was still curious about them, and fancied the idea of spending a summer with them. That is very much the way I cast my films: who do I feel like spending my summer holidays with?”
It’s fascinating, seeing Henning Moritzen in a proper film part again ?
“I think Moritzen is the one who makes the greatest investment of all. I was massively impressed by that, and I am impressed that he consented to be in the film, because even though it is 1998, people who play that kind of role still incur opprobrium to some degree. But he joined a youth club where there were a bunch of people who’d thrown themselves into a project with a video camera, and he did so to the full, with no reservations whatsoever.
To me, in fact, one of the most interesting aspects of the film is whether you might begin to feel a kind of uneasy sympathy for the father. He plays a character that is far, far from any consciousness with which he has ever been in contact. That makes him the real quantum leap in this film. It’s been fantastic, working with him like that.”
What kind of reception do you think The Celebration will have in Cannes?
“I have absolutely no idea. People who’ve seen it have reacted very much the same way, namely with deep, deep silence and darkness; they’ve totally entrenched themselves by the time the credits appear. Then they phone two days later, still in the throes of the film, and tell me how fantastic they think it is. In other words, reactions have been good.
My other films all appealed to an emotion that’s closer to the surface, a kind of sentimental feeling that has yielded immediate responses. This one apparently lies several layers deeper down, and it’s been very weird for me to encounter such silence at the end of my film. But I am pleased with the film, and really I’m not that concerned what other people think of it.
I feel I’ve done something pretty consistent. I have penetrated a layer of evil and abomination I’d never been to before. So my own feeling is one of satisfaction. I’m pleased when people like this film, but I’m not so dependent on their doing so as I usually am”.
Interviewer: Bo Green Jensen, Weekendavisen (April 1998)
Prices
24.05.98 – Cannes International Film Festival, France – Prix du Jury
Thomas Vinterberg, Director
30.08.98 – Haugesund Norwegian International Film Festival, Norway – Nordisk Amanda
Thomas Vinterberg, Director
15.09.98 – Forum du Cinéma Européen de Strasbourg, France – Prix de l’Avenir du Cinéma Européen
Thomas Vinterberg, Director
30.10.98 – Sao Paulo International Film Festival, Brazil – Special mention
Thomas Vinterberg Director
08.11.98 – Lübeck Nordic Filmdays, Germany
3 prizes:
– Lübecker Nachrichten Public’s Prize
– Baltic Film Prize for Nordic Feature
– Film Ecclesiastical Film Prize
**.11.98 – Festival Internacional De Cine De Gijón, Spain – Premio Al Mejor Director
Thomas Vinterberg Director
02.12.98 – The 1998 European Film Awards England European Discovery 1998 – Fassbinder Award
Thomas Vinterberg Director
04.12.98 – Black Night’s Film Festival Tallinn, Estonia – The Award of the Society of Estonian Filmjournalists
Festen
09.12.98 – L.A Film Critics Award, USA – Best foreign language picture
Festen
16.12.98 – N.Y Film Critics Award, USA – Best foreign language picture
Festen
08.01.99 – The Copenhagen Award, Denmark Best picture of the year
Thomas Vinterberg Director
06.02.99 – International Film Festival Rotterdam, The Netherlands – Citröen Audience Award 1999
Festen
08.02.99 – Guldbaggen, Sweden – Best foreign picture
Festen
27.02.99 – Robert 1999, Denmark
7 awards:
Best editor Valdis Oskarsdottir
Best cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle
Best writer Thomas Vinterberg & Mogens Rukov
Best supporting actress Birthe Neumann
Best supporting actor Thomas Bo Larsen
Best male lead Ulrich Thomsen
Best picture of the year Festen
07.03.99 – Bodil 1999, Denmark
2 awards:
Best Danish Picture of the Year Festen
Best male lead Ulrich Thomsen
20.03.99 – Independent Spirit Award, USA Best Foreign Picture
Festen
NOMINATIONS:
04.12.98 -The 1998 European Film Awards, England Nominated Best European Film
Festen
04.12.98 – The 1998 European Film Awards, England Nominated Best European Actor
Ulrich Thomsen
17.12.98 – Nominated for Golden Globe, USA
Festen
Questions related to the Celebration:
What was the budget?
The budget was 7.000.000 Dkr
What camera was used?
Sony PC7 E
Where was the transfer from video to film made?
At a laboratory in Holland named CINECO
How did you record sound?
The sound was mixed to 2 track DAT on location. A time code slate with the DAT-recorder as master was used. The sound was synchronized to the picture on digibeta
What system did you edit sound with?
The sound wasn’t edited. The 2 tracks of sound was transferred from digibeta to a waveframe, using a EDL from the picture editing, and mixed to one track beta, which is the final master
How long did it take to shoot “Festen”?
It took six weeks to shoot FESTEN – The Celebration
What type of lighting did you use?
Only available light was used on FESTEN – The Celebration… varying from daylight to low level tungsten and mixed lighting.
What is the major difference in production when shooting video instead of film?
“The main differences regarding video shooting contra film shooting is obviously the cheaper costs of video… however watch for long hours and sound synching when shooting hours of raw material. In the case of Festen – The Celebration, the work machine was extraordinarily lightweight… hence generally more production value. However the dogma rules could sometime create unforeseen problems and inevitable delays – often due to sound preparation and the fact that image and sound cannot be separated.” Anthony Dod Mantle (Cinematographer FESTEN – The Celebration).
In what system did you edit?
Avid.
What do you feel is special about the video image? How would you compare it to film? How would you compare the final film output, with the original video source?
“Basically I could get video origin material and super 8 film material to match almost, which gave me the wish to shoot all exterior on super 8 and all interior on digi video. I wanted an image tending toward decomposition as opposed to high resolution. This combined with the mobility and agility of the video camera was in dynamic terms close to pure organic film grain. Pushing exposure both in shooting and in transferring can enhance video noise to an interesting esthetic dimension. Combinations of dnr-digital noise reduction and frame or field doubling also can be utilized”. – Anthony Dod Mantle (Cinematographer FESTEN – The Celebration).