"The Celebration" couldn't be better timed for the holiday season, when so many adults find themselves regressing into childlike behaviors and when the truth is so often sacrificed on the altar of domestic peace. The portrait of a family brought to crisis by an explosive act of brutal honesty, Thomas Vinterberg's film offers an inspiring glimpse at one man's dogged insistence on telling the real story and coming to peace with that story in the process.
Ulrich Thomsen plays Christian, a successful restaurateur in France who returns to his childhood home in Denmark to celebrate his father's 60th birthday. The entire family has convened -- Christian's spacey sister Helene (Paprika Steen), his pugnacious younger brother Michael (Thomas Bo Larsen), a gaggle of extended cousins -- in the enormous house where he grew up, which has been converted into a luxury hotel.
The family dynamics become immediately apparent when the three siblings begin to revert to youthful tussling and arguing. Informed that he is not welcome at the party, the dissolute Michael erupts into a petulant tantrum, which Christian immediately smooths over; Helene and Michael argue, Christian steps in to intervene. The dynamic is complicated by the fact that a fourth sibling, Christian's twin sister, took her life in that very house just two months earlier.
The tensions and misunderstandings seem to be part of just another family get together until the birthday dinner begins. That's when Christian rises to make a toast and makes a shocking accusation that will shatter the proceedings to silent smithereens.
Actually, that's not quite accurate. One of the most disturbing and funny aspects of "The Celebration" is the awkward non-reaction of the guests to Christian's outburst. Retreating into the downstairs kitchen, Christian is bolstered in his resolve by his friends the cook (Bjarne Henriksen) and a waitress with whom he was once in love (Trine Dyrholm). He comes back to table, rings his glass with a fork, and elaborates with gruesome detail on his previous story, in a ritual that will repeat -- with increasing desperation and unlikely humor -- throughout the night.
"The Celebration" is the first film to emerge from Dogme 95, a group composed of Vinterberg and Lars von Trier ("Breaking the TTC Waves"), among others, who have taken a vow of cinematic chastity "to counter certain tendencies in film today." In their manifesto, Vinterberg and von Trier have written that they oppose "the auteur concept, makeup, illusions and dramaturgical predictability. Dogme 95 desires to purge film so that, once again, the inner lives of the characters justify the plot."
If this is a revolution, Vinterberg has proven to be an able foot-soldier. Using a hand-held video camera (the videotape was later transferred to 35 millimeter film), he infuses "The Celebration" with the jarring energy of a particularly testy family movie, in which every glance or fumbled wine glass is pregnant with meaning. And he has certainly fulfilled the mandate to eschew predictability: Christian's journey, from storming the temple of bourgeoise respectability to his symbolic crucifixion to his eventual return to the fold, is never less than engrossing.
As they watch "The Celebration," which takes place in one Scandinavian summer night, many will be reminded of Ingmar Bergman, whose conga-line scene in "Fanny and Alexander" has been liberally quoted here and whose "Smiles of a Summer Night" hovers as the benevolent version of this decidedly more malignant portrait. But there are smiles here: The habits of the haute bourgeoisie are presented with scathingly observant wit, and Thomas Bo Larsen is unexpectedly amusing as Michael -- he resembles Roman Polanski's even weedier little brother.
More important, "The Celebration" is just as rigorous morally as it is aesthetically. The movie ends on a mysteriously optimistic note, as if Christian -- true to his name -- has faced his demons, made them face themselves and is ready to forgive. It's a quietly triumphant conclusion to a movie that makes the cinematic medium look brand new.
'The Celebration'
Starring Ulrich Thomsen, Henning Moritzen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Paprika Steen, Birthe Neumann
Directed by Thomas Vinterberg
Released by October Films
Rated R (strong sexual content and language, including references to sexual abuse)
Running time: 101 minutes
Sun score: ****
Pub Date: 12/24/98