家宴

‘I don’t think so. Looking at American society, I’m sure that there are a lot of families living on the surface, not thinking of what’s behind the facade. And that’s the topic of the film. There’s also a huge amount of Child abuse in American. At Cannes, many French journalists had to stop their interviews because they were crying. The reason that people say this is very Danish is explained by the rituals which we follow thoroughly in the film. The themes of the film are universal, although it doesn’t sound very humble to say that. ’

In the interview of Festen (Thomas Vinterberg, 1998), Vinterberg mainly mentioned that many families are different in appearance and inside in society. Many families will deliberately show their happiness and harmonious in front of outsiders. But inside the family, there are many unspeakable sadness and corruption. The director concentrate on Child abuse, the oppression of children by a family. This phenomenon is common, and the event in the film Festen is only a typical event, which is dramatized and revealed. The story takes place in the upper class, a class that pays more attention to hierarchy and dignity. The conservative tendency and patriarchal style of northern Europe can be better displayed in the upper class.

The whole family presents absurd "harmony" in the celebration, which can be regarded as the ultimate hypocrisy. With Christian's hand, director Thomas Vinterberg lift the fig leaf of a decent family and revealed the true face of the authoritative father. In the opinion of the director, the family is the only one institution that people can't choose and escape (Porton, 1999). In such a family environment, the primary task of each child is to maintain the glory and dignity of the family. Helena chooses to swallow the sadness after seeing her sister's suicide note and does not publish it to the public. After Michael seeing her sister's black boyfriend, he tries to drive him away in order to "not shame the family". This is tantamount to Fascism in the family, where individual interests are suppressed under collective interests. Christian is the eldest son favored by his father in the family. His character is modest, gentle and decent, which is in line with the image of a regular successor wanted by the big family at that time. His brother is ignorant, cynical and not valued. But no one thought that it was the eldest son who lit the smoke of "war" at home. Because the dead person is his twin sister. In such family oppression, the interaction between peers will be more important and the relationship between peers will be solid. His sister died under the pressure of the sexual assault of the authoritarian father.

In Denmark, one in 10 children will suffer from domestic violence, which seems to have become a part of society and is difficult to change in a short time (Porton, 1999). His father's behavior finally violated Christian's last line of defense, even if his behavior would disgrace the family and disgrace his father's majesty. He can't stand such a hypocritical family, and blames himself for failing to protect his suicidal sister. Then, the role of mother accounts for a small proportion in the film. In the patriarchal family, she is always around her husband. She speaks appropriately and behaves gracefully. However, after her son tells everybody the truth she had already known for many years, she chooses to cover up the facts and claims that Christian is suffering from paranoia. The false accusation against his son reflects that in this kind of family relationship, the oppression of the younger generation has become conventional. In the end, the father's exit will not completely destroy such a family relationship, Wood (1999) argued that even if patriarchy is overthrown immediately, it will still take several generations to gradually eliminate the imperceptible habit of universal rule.

Word count: 544

Reference list:

Kaufmann, M., Hald, B. (Producer), & Vinterberg, T. (Director). (1998). Festen [Motion Picture]. Denmark: Scanbox Danmark.

Porton, R. (1999, March 22). Something rotten in the state of Denmark: an interview with Thomas Vinterberg. Cineaste, 24(2–3), 17.

Wood, R, P. (1999). Humble guests at the celebration: an interview with Thomas Vinterberg and Ulrich Thomsen. CineAction, pp. 47-54.

‘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. Thomas Vinterbergsaid this in an interview about Festen, he talked about the reason why they set the Dogme rules. I believethe born of Dogme 95 is not an coincidence. It is kind of rebellion and dark humor. Iwant to talked about this and explain my personal understanding of Thomas Vinterberg’s words.

(BABETTE'S FEAST 1987)

The decade from 1980 to 1990 was probably one of the most important moments in the development of Danish film. The Danish government makes the strategies called ‘national film culture’ at the second half of 1980s. The annual subsidy of €67 million for films industry is based on this strategy (Cecilie, 2014). Compares to other country in Europe, the level of direct aid to film industry is above the average(Cecilie, 2014).You can even say that this is actuallythe Utopia of film. With investment and protection from the government, Denmark actually made many great films in this decade. However, with the great environment comes the invisible limitations. The huge market for film has also made it hard for filmmakers to create and express themselves as they wish, but instead they need to give what the audience want to see at cinema. And because of the impact of Hollywood more and more people joined the film industry. More than thirty people circling around the director, lights and assist director and many stuffs. The job of a director seems more like a man who try to makes a huge machine works instead of creates something. The creators enjoins the benefits but they cannot liberate themselffrom this situation in the mean time.

Until 1995, a group of young man stands out and built the Dogme 95. Then Festen as the first Dogme film was born. Being the first Dogme film means that Festen needs to abide by the 10 rules. Of course this rules are harsh and somehow deliberate things. But compares to the rules of film production now, it seems not that harsh. The fact is that the Dogme 95 try to make creating as the core not technology by go downs to a totally different way of film making. They refused the technology roughly and try to show what a film should be: a story.

(FESTEN mistake scene)

(Mistake scene in Idiot)

Very interesting things is one scene in Festen. If you are carefully enough, you may find a stick with camera which is reflected in a mirror. Obviously you should use your own hands to finish the shooting in Dogme film. But the director still did this for a more beautiful story. Consider other mistake scene in Dogme film.This tells that even they fight the new technology, but they still want a good film and story. Dogme is more about a spirit not absolute rebellion. Film is creating by the people, not the technology. 1995 is the year, it can not be late no more for the film production.

Interview from:

http://www.dogme95.dk/interviews/interview-with-thomas-vinterberg/

Reference:

Givskov, C. (2014). Institutionalization through Europeanization: the Danish film policy reforms of the 1980s and 1990s. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 20(3), 281–295. //doi-org.ez.xjtlu.edu.cn/10.1080/10286632.2013.786058

孩子

第一次看dogma很新颖，有的时候镜头放得很低又跟得很近。大儿子幼时被性侵，现在他难以定心于一个女人。小儿子儿时被忽视、远送他乡(没经历过性侵或许也经历过家暴)，现在他粗鲁暴躁。

大女儿需要服用药物，不断说想回家，说明她不把自己生长的酒店当家；她的母亲见她男朋友时说“nice to see you back”而女儿说那是别人，说明她带过不止一个黑人男友回家；在宴会上几乎所有家庭成员都唱了歧视黑人的歌—— 或许女儿有的是一种反向的种族歧视，她交黑人男友是因为她受不了她家，她家是白人至上的、让她厌恶的白人家庭。

父母

最后父亲终于道歉了，可是他真的忏悔了吗？我看不出他感到很懊悔，虽然我也不知道感到抱歉的人看起来应该是怎样。所以，他的一句道歉，是屈服于道德还是屈服于暴力？小儿子已是个成年男人，把父亲揍倒在地，把母亲惊得花容失色。

母亲是不在乎的，只想维持和平的假象。宾客们也是不在意这整件事的。大儿子宣布秘密后，母亲很轻易地就能让宾客平静下来；看到父亲和母亲入场吃早餐，宾客们也继续聊着天，在父亲起身让大家安静前没有任何反应。对那个秘密的震惊是需要演出来的，但演完后又需要一个台阶下，母亲就总能发话给宾客一个台阶下，让他们回到冷漠的原样。

社会群体

那么，如果孩子们的精神问题是源于父亲和母亲，父亲和母亲的问题又是源于哪里？尽头在哪？

（超字数短评……这不是影评，没有什么特别的见解，只是提出一些问题）