It's the sixtieth birthday of Helge, the father of the Klingenfeldt clan, which is to be celebrated by family and friends at their grand house in the country. But a pall hangs over the celebrations because one of Helge's daughters Linda, committed suicide a couple of months ago... she was the twin sister of Christian (Ulrich Thomsen), the elder sister of the troubled and obviously obnoxious Michael (Thomas Bo Larsen) and of the highly emotional Helene - Paprika Steen.
It's like any family occasion in Australia... the elder son will give a speech... The bath scene was a prelude to paedophilia and this film is a stark and sad condemnation of that crime in a family... but the whole film has a delicacy of reality about it, people do things, they're frightened of what they've done, their acts engender duplicity and loyalty simultaneously.
I don't know what they're trying to achieve with Dogma but if it's anything like the integrity of Festen then I just have to applaud them. The reality engendered by the direction, by the performances, by the editing of this film is so strong and so stark and so compassionate, all at the same time that it's worth 10 - 1000 times any degree of phony slickness from Hollywood. Academy awards should go to Ulrich Thomsen who plays Christian, and a screenwriting award too to Mogens Rukov, and why not best director to Vinterberg - he's a major talent in the world... uh, but I forgot, he can't be any good because he's a signatory to Dogma!..
David's comments: The core of an interesting film, but spoilt by Thomas Vinterberg's slavish adherence to the adolescent Von Trier Dogma line, which results in the amateurish camerawork and the atrocious video to film transfer. Dogma, a publicity stunt no more, is the cinema equivalent of the cult of ugliness. It's a pity because the theme - conservative Danish attitudes to sex and racism - was worth exploring by someone who knows how to make a film. At least this is better than Von Trier's own ridiculous Idiots.
