|
The Celebration was a Danish film which I saw early this year. The technique, which is constantly praised as revolutionary, consists of refusing to use special lighting or sets and only hand-held cameras. The result is something like a 13-year old taking home movies of a family gathering.
The story consists of relatives gathering for a 65th birthday celebration for the father of the family. At the party, with a large number of extended family and friends, the eldest child tries to tell the assembled gathering that the reason his sister committed suicide and that he is a worthless wanderer is that Father had sexually abused them as kids. Every time he tries to speak (and remember, the audience does not know what he is going to say), he is forceably thrown out of the room and beaten up. Finally he gets the whole message out, and the people who were throwing him out without letting him speak now, with no more evidence than the oldest child's statements, shun the father.
|
