The Celebration

The Celebration

Directed by Thomas Vinterberg • 1998 • Denmark
Starring Ulrich Thomsen, Henning Moritzen, Thomas Bo Larsen

The Danish Dogme 95 movement that struck world cinema like a thunderbolt began with THE CELEBRATION, Thomas Vinterberg’s international breakthrough, a lacerating chamber drama that uses the economic and aesthetic freedoms of digital video to achieve annihilating emotional intensity. On a wealthy man’s sixtieth birthday, a sprawling group of family and friends convenes at his country estate for a celebration that soon spirals into bedlam, as bombshell revelations threaten to tear away the veneer of bourgeois respectability and expose the traumas roiling beneath. The dynamic handheld camera work, grainy natural lighting, cacophonous diegetic sound, and raw performance style that would become Dogme hallmarks enhance the shattering visceral impact of this caustic indictment of patriarchal failings, which swings between blackest comedy and bleakest tragedy as it turns the sick soul of a family inside out.

The Celebration
  • The Celebration

    Directed by Thomas Vinterberg • 1998 • Denmark
    Starring Ulrich Thomsen, Henning Moritzen, Thomas Bo Larsen

    The Danish Dogme 95 movement that struck world cinema like a thunderbolt began with THE CELEBRATION, Thomas Vinterberg’s international breakthrough, a lacerating chamber drama that uses the...

Extras

  • THE CELEBRATION Commentary

    This commentary track, recorded in 2005, features director Thomas Vinterberg.

  • Last Round

    Directed by Thomas Vinterberg • 1993 • Denmark
    Starring Thomas Bo Larsen, Ann Eleonora Jørgensen, Martin Brygmann

    This Student Academy Award–nominated short film by future Dogme 95 revolutionary Thomas Vinterberg displays his facility for rendering the raw-nerve emotional extremes of the human e...

  • The Boy Who Walked Backwards

    Presented here is a short film by Thomas Vinterberg. THE BOY WHO WALKED BACKWARDS (Drengen der gik baglæns, 1995) follows a young boy as he exhibits signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder following the death of his older brother. The film was a breakthrough for Vinterberg, winning the best drama ...

  • The Purified

    This 2002 documentary by Jesper Jargil offers a rare insider’s view into the collective known as the Dogme Brethren and features interviews with filmmakers Søren Kragh-Jacobsen, Kristian Levring, Thomas Vinterberg, and Lars von Trier.

  • THE CELEBRATION Deleted Scenes with Commentary

    The following deleted scenes include commentary by director Thomas Vinterberg.

  • THE CELEBRATION Deleted Scenes

  • Cast and Crew on THE CELEBRATION

    This 2005 documentary features interviews with the cast and crew of THE CELEBRATION, including director Thomas Vinterberg and coscreenwriter Mogens Rukov.

  • Anthony Dod Mantle on His Career

    This 2003 documentary, directed by Shari Roman, profiles cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle.

  • Behind the Scenes of THE CELEBRATION

    This 1998 television documentary features interviews with the cast and crew of THE CELEBRATION during the film’s premiere at Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen.

  • Thomas Vinterberg on the Backstory of THE CELEBRATION

    In this 2005 interview, director Thomas Vinterberg discusses the true story that inspired the plot of THE CELEBRATION.

  • Thomas Vinterberg on THE CELEBRATION