This film wants to be Festen. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a minor masterpiece made by Thomas Vinterburg and released in 1998. The English title is The Celebration and it’s the first certified film made according to Dogme 95. It’s also a hell of a lot more interesting to talk about than the mildly painful After the Wedding.
Having been exceptionally slack during the Film festival, this was one of the films I had pinned to see-when-it-returns. This was based on the frankly quite bewilderingly fantastic cheekbones of the leading man. As it turns out, this was not solid reasoning.
Following the journey of Jakob (Mads Mikkelsen of Casino Royale fame), who leaves his beloved Indian orphanage to try and fundraise in Denmark, the film assumes some kind of Four Weddings and a Funeral mantle, as it rocks through life changing events at a rate of knots. Jakob’s life is turned upside down by the revelation of long buried secrets, as is the life of everyone he encounters.
Bizarrely the scenes set in India are shot on different stock (or given some HORRIBLE treatment in the grade). I assume this is to contrast the vibracy of run down amusing third world India with the stolid frankness of the Danish upper class. Either way, it’s boring and contrived. The only fresh thing in this whole film comes from Pramod (Neeral Mulchandani) a boy Jakob has raised in the orphanage.
Possibly if this hadn’t come hot on the heels of the Golden Age of Danish cinema it wouldn’t have been so disappointing. Instead, it comes off as rather hollow. It’s nice and crisp to watch, but you never get the sense that anything hangs in the balance. Rent Festen – it transcends the apparent narrowness of Danish family drama.
