I'm no fan of the Dogme "manifesto," that excuse for laziness and attitude-copping in filmmaking; I thought that "Breaking the Waves" was a horrible mess that wasted one of the greatest performances of recent years. It did, however have a strong theme and a semblance of plot, if repellant and implausible. "Festen" is little but an exercise in hyper-style hung upon the tritest of themes, family dysfunction, and no real story. The characters are virtually interchangeable in their callousness and victimhood, the sex and violence are neither titillating nor shocking, and the fact that the whole thing takes place in a remote villa or hotel effectively removes it even further from any kind of emotional engagement with the audience (taking place on the planet Dogme, not Earth.) There are some nuances in the details that are promising but ultimately add up to nothing but stylistic flourishes, which find ultimate expression in the closing credits-- dispassionately viewed/filmed through water (groovy effect!), music-box mechanical melody masquerading as meaning of some sort...
Review of The Celebration
