History Film / TheCelebration

''The Celebration'' (''Festen'') is a 1998 Danish film directed by Creator/ThomasVinterberg. It was notably the first film made under the [[{{Minimalism}} minimalist]] guidelines of UsefulNotes/{{Dogme 95}}, which were co-created by Vinterberg alongside Creator/LarsVonTrier.

Helge Klingenfeldt-Hansen, a respected businessman, gathers his family and friends for his 60th birthday. Amongst the guests are his wife Elsa and his three children Christian, Helene and Michael. Tensions are running high as the family is still recovering following the suicide of Christian's twin sister Linda.

''The Celebration'' (''Festen'') is a 1998 Danish film directed by Creator/ThomasVinterberg. It was notably the first film made under the [[{{minimalism}} minimalist]] UsefulNotes/{{Dogme 95}} guidelines, which were co-created by Vinterberg alongside Creator/LarsVonTrier.

* ClosestThingWeGot: Despite being considered the canonical "first" recognised Dogme 95 compliant film (or ''Dogme #1''), Vinterberg admitted to ''very'' slightly bending the rules by bringing in a cover for a window in one scene despite outside props being forbidden in the guidelines. However, no one is pedantic enough to take away its canonical place.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: Christian, big time. [[spoiler: After a childhood of abuse which left him deeply traumatised, and after suffering emotionally and mentally from the recent suicide of his sister, he finally confronts his father. Although his efforts are initially met with denial and then verbal and physical threats from the man's friends and family, he is eventually able to make them see what kind of person he really is. By the end, it's implied that some of the trauma might be on the way towards starting to heal.]]

As guests arrive one by one, the action moves into the dining room where the celebration is about to begin. Christian then stands up and prepares to make a speech. However, he reveals that he has actually written two speeches and gives his father a choice: does he want the "yellow" speech or the "green" speech? After being coaxed by his guests, Helge settles on the "green" speech, which Christian has dubbed the "honest speech." The guests have no idea what kind of dark family secrets are going to see the light of day as Christian begins his speech...

* BasedOnAGreatBigLie: Vinterberg stated that the story was inspired by story told by a caller to a phone-in radio show which subsequently turned out to be a hoaxer.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Of a kind. Christian has written two speeches for Helge's birthday and gives Helge the choice on which speech he will make. It's never revealed what the unchosen speech contained (or even if the speeches were at all different in the first place), but the one Helge picks [[spoiler: is the one in which Christian outs him as a paedophile who abused him and his sister]].

* KarmaHoudini: Else, who [[spoiler: despite being accused by Christian of witnessing his abuse and doing absolutely nothing to prevent it and repeatedly painting him as a liar after he gives his speech]] is allowed to eat breakfast with the family the next day and seemingly faces no repercussions from them.

* MortonsFork: {{Implied|trope}} when Christian asks Helge to pick between two different cards for which speech to make. The one Helge picks [[spoiler: contains a damning revelation about the sexual abuse he inflicted upon Christian and his late sister]]. Christian was never able to get to the other card, but it could have contained the same accusation based on a different incident, or even just been a duplicate of the other card. Alternatively, it could have been something completely benign, which Christian would then [[BreadEggsMilkSquick follow up with the other speech]]. Either way, Christian was not going to let this opportunity to [[CallingTheOldManOut call Helge out]] slip by.

''The Celebration'' (''Festen'') is a 1998 Danish movie directed by Creator/ThomasVinterberg and was filmed according to the [[{{minimalism}} minimalist]] UsefulNotes/{{Dogme 95}} guidelines.

As guests arrive one by one, the action moves into the dining room where the celebration is about to begin. And then Christian stands up and prepares to make a speech. However, he gives his father a choice. Does he want a yellow speech or a green speech? After being coaxed by his guests, Helge settles on the green speech, which Christian has dubbed the "honest speech." The guests have no idea what kind of dark family secrets are going to see the light of day as Christian begins his speech...

!! '''The Film Contains Examples Of:'''

* AwfulTruth: The revelation of the sexual abuse.

* BigScrewedUpFamily: It's like watching a gigantic familial pile-up. To elaborate, the eldest children (Christian and Linda) were repeatedly abused to the point where Linda eventually killed herself shortly before the start of the film; Helene is a radical who enjoys making her family uncomfortable mainly through her choice of boyfriends; Michael is a thug with extreme WellDoneSonGuy tendencies, and both Helge and Else [[spoiler: are responsible for the abuse suffered by Christian and Linda]].
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Christian has succeeded in his mission and Helge has been outed as a monster and subsequently rejected by his family, but he reminds them that they are still his family and it's implied none of them will ever want to see each other again]].
* BlackSheep: Helene tries hard to get her family to see her as this, but she is ultimately just like the rest of them. [[spoiler: In actuality, the black sheep is arguably Christian since he abandons the family's veneer of respectability and, according to Helge, has done so repeatedly ever since he was a child]].
* BreakThemByTalking: [[spoiler: Helge]] attempts to do this to Christian in a private confrontation after Christian makes his speech, threatening to make his own speech about how mentally unstable Christian is and telling him that no one cares about what he's said. It almost works.
* CallingTheOldManOut: The entire movie is about Christian confronting Helge and his attempts to get everyone at the party to understand what kind of a man Helge really is. In the process, Else also gets called out for being an AccompliceByInaction.

* DrivenToSuicide: Linda, shortly before the start of the movie. [[spoiler: It's gradually revealed to have been due to the lasting trauma of the abuse she and Christian suffered at the hands of their father]].
* EarnYourHappyEnding: Christian, big time. [[spoiler: After a childhood of abuse which left him deeply traumatised, and after suffering emotionally and mentally from the recent suicide of his sister, he finally confronts his father and gets the man's friends and family to see what kind of person he really is. By the end, it's implied that some of the trauma might be on the way towards starting to heal.]]

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Of a kind. Christian has written two speeches for Helge's birthday and gives Helge the choice on which speech he will make. It's never revealed what the unchosen speech contained (or even if the speeches were at all different in the first place) but the one Helge picks [[spoiler: is the one in which Christian outs him as a paedophile who abused him and his sister]].
* JerkAss: So many to choose from... But Michael remains the undisputed king by the end of the movie: he attacks a former lover, refuses to believe his brother (who has little reason to be lying), displays several racist and misogynistic beliefs, beats up his brother, and helps to ''tie him up and leave him in the woods''.

* MoodWhiplash: You're laughing, you're cringing, you're creeped out, you're appalled, you're crying... And hey, you're laughing again!

* RapeAsDrama: The main driver of the plot is the revelation of incest in the family.

* StepfordSmiler: Else [[spoiler: who has been aware of her husband's abuse of their children for decades]] tries to laugh off Christian's speech and is seemingly the last person to accept the truth.

* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler: Helge after Linda's letter is read out to the point where all pretext of respectability is finally dropped and he ''screams'' at his guests and indirectly admits to raping his children by telling Christian that it was "all [he] was good for".]]
* WellDoneSonGuy: Michael takes this trope to disturbing levels. At one point, he even goes so far as to knock Christian out, tie him up, and drag him out to the woods - and it's implied he does this to gain his father's approval.

** Christian accusing Helge with the line: [[spoiler:"Then he'd put us across the green couch -- that's been thrown out now -- and raped us, abused us sexually. He had sex with his little ones."]]
** Helge confessing, by telling Christian [[spoiler: "It was all you were good for."]]

* BlackSheep: Subverted slightly by Helene. She tries hard to get her family to see her as this, but she is ultimately just like the rest of them. [[spoiler: In actuality, the black sheep is arguably Christian since he abandons the family's veneer of respectability and, according to Helge, has done so repeatedly ever since he was a child]].

* AbusiveParents: Helge, [[spoiler:who raped his children Christian and Linda, while they were growing up]], and Else through inaction -- [[spoiler:Christian reveals that she walked in on Helge while this was happening on at least one occasion]].

* BeneathTheMask: Even during Christian's speech and its immediate aftermath, Helge remains seemingly unperturbed to the point where it's not entirely clear if Christian ''is'' telling the truth or not. [[spoiler: When he is alone with Christian, the facade slips and he verbally rips Christian apart in a very condescending manner, using his {{Berserk Button}}s of Linda's death and his trauma-induced fear of intimacy against him.]]
* BigScrewedUpFamily: It's like watching a gigantic familial pile-up. To elaborate, the eldest children (Christian and Linda) were repeatedly abused, to the point where Linda eventually killed herself shortly before the start of the film; Helene is a radical who enjoys making her family uncomfortable mainly through her choice of boyfriends; Michael is a thug with extreme WellDoneSonGuy tendencies, and both Helge and Else [[spoiler: are responsible for the abuse suffered by Christian and Linda]].

* BlackSheep: Subverted slightly by Helene. She tries hard to get her family to see her as this, but she is ultimately just like the rest of them. [[spoiler:In actuality, the black sheep is arguably Christian since he abandons the family's veneer of respectability and, according to Helge, has done so repeatedly ever since he was a child]].

* EarnYourHappyEnding: Christian, big time. [[spoiler:After a childhood of abuse which left him deeply traumatised, and suffering emotionally and mentally from the recent suicide of his sister, he finally confronts his father and gets the man's friends and family to see what kind of person he really is. By the end, it's implied that some of the trauma might be on the way towards starting to heal.]]

* JerkAss: So many to choose from... But Michael remains undisputed king by the end of the movie: he attacks a former lover, refuses to believe his brother (who has little reason to be lying), displays several racist and misogynistic beliefs, beats up his brother and helps to ''tie him up and leave him in the woods''.

* MortonsFork: {{Implied|trope}} when Christian asks Helge to pick between two different cards for which speech to make. The one Helge picks [[spoiler:contains a damning revelation about the sexual abuse he inflicted upon Christian and his late sister]]. Christian was never able to get to the other card, but it could have contained the same accusation based on a different incident, or even just been a duplicate of the other card. Alternatively, it could have been something completely benign, which Christian would then [[BreadEggsMilkSquick follow up with the other speech]]. Either way, Christian was not going to let this opportunity to [[CallingTheOldManOut call Helge out]] slip by.

* RetiredMonster: [[spoiler: Helge committed heinous actions towards his children well before the events of the film, then faces the repercussions of these actions over the course of the film.]]

* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler:Helge after Linda's letter is read out, to the point where all pretext of respectability is finally dropped and he ''screams'' at his guests and indirectly admits to raping his children by telling Christian that it was "all [he] was good for".]]
* WellDoneSonGuy: Michael takes this trope to disturbing levels. At one point, he even goes so far as to knock Christian out, tie him up and drag him out to the woods - and it's implied he does this to gain his father's approval.

** [[spoiler: "It was all you were good for."]]
** And before that, [[spoiler:"Then he'd put us across the green couch -- that's been thrown out now -- and raped us, abused us sexually. He had sex with his little ones."]]

* AbusiveParents: Helge, [[spoiler: who raped his children Christian and Linda, while they were growing up]], and Else through inaction - [[spoiler: Christian reveals that she walked in on Helge while this was happening on at least one occasion]].

* EarnYourHappyEnding: Christian, big time. [[spoiler: After a childhood of abuse which left him deeply traumatised, and suffering emotionally and mentally from the recent suicide of his sister, he finally confronts his father and gets the man's friends and family to see what kind of person he really is. By the end, it's implied that some of the trauma might be on the way towards starting to heal]].

* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler: Helge after Linda's letter is read out, to the point where all pretext of respectability is finally dropped and he ''screams'' at his guests and indirectly admits to raping his children by telling Christian that it was "all [he] was good for".]]

** And before that, [[spoiler: "Then he'd put us across the green couch -- that's been thrown out now -- and raped us, abused us sexually. He had sex with his little ones."]]

* BasedOnAGreatBigLie: Vinterberg stated that the story was inspired by story told by a caller to a phone-in show which subsequently turned out to be a hoaxer.

** [[spoiler: "It's all you were good for."]]

%% * BerserkButton: Helge... Christian... Michael... Deeply suppressed rage runs deep in this family.

%% * BlackComedy: This is sometimes injected into conversations, often as a result of severe MoodWhiplash.

* GratuitousGerman: Courtesy of the German toastmaster Helmut von Sachs, who frequently lapses into German and refers to Helge and Helene as: "Meine dänische Vater und Mutter."

** And before that, [[spoiler: "You sexually abused us, you raped us, you had sex with us little ones."]]

%% * RetiredMonster: [[spoiler: Helge.]]

''The Celebration'' (''Festen'') is a 1998 Danish movie directed by Thomas Vinterberg and was filmed according to the [[{{minimalism}} minimalist]] UsefulNotes/{{Dogme 95}} guidelines.

* BreakThemByTalking: [[spoiler: Helge]] attempts to do this to Christian in a private confrontation after Christian makes his speech, threatening to make his pwn speech about how mentally unstable Christian is and telling him that no one cares about what he's said. It almost works.

* BeneathTheMask: Even during Christian's speech and its immediate aftermath, Helge remains seemingly unperturbed to the point where it's not entirely clear if Christian ''is'' telling the truth or not. [[spoiler: When he is alone with Christian, the facade slips and he verbally rips Christian apart in a very condescending manner, using his BeserkButtons of Linda's death and his trauma-induced fear of intimacy against him.]]

* AbusiveParents: Helge, [[spoiler:who raped his children Christian and Linda, while they were growing up]], and Else through inaction - [[spoiler:Christian reveals that she walked in on Helge while this was happening on at least one occasion]].

* BeneathTheMask: Even during Christian's speech and its immediate aftermath, Helge remains seemingly unperturbed to the point where it's not entirely clear if Christian ''is'' telling the truth or not. [[spoiler:When he is alone with Christian, the facade slips and he verbally rips Christian apart in a very condescending manner, using his BeserkButtons of Linda's death and his trauma-induced fear of intimacy against him.]]

* BigScrewedUpFamily: It's like watching a a gigantic familial pile-up. To elaborate, the eldest children (Christian and Linda) were repeatedly abused, to the point where Linda eventually killed herself shortly before the start of the film; Helene is a radical who enjoys making her family uncomfortable mainly through her choice of boyfriends; Michael is a thug with extreme WellDoneSonGuy tendencies, and both Helge and Else [[spoiler:are responsible for the abuse suffered by Christian and Linda]].
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Christian has succeeded in his mission and Helge has been outed as a monster and subsequently rejected by his family, but he reminds them that they are still his family and it's implied none of them will ever want to see each other again]].

* BreakThemByTalking: [[spoiler:Helge]] attempts to do this to Christian in a private confrontation after Christian makes his speech, threatening to make his pwn speech about how mentally unstable Christian is and telling him that no one cares about what he's said. It almost works.

* DrivenToSuicide: Linda, shortly before the start of the movie. [[spoiler:It's gradually revealed to have been due to the lasting trauma of the abuse she and Christian suffered at the hands of their father]].
* EarnYourHappyEnding: Christian, big time. [[spoiler:After a childhood of abuse which left him deeply traumatised, and suffering emotionally and mentally from the recent suicide of his sister, he finally confronts his father and gets the man's friends and family to see what kind of person he really is. By the end, it's implied that some of the trauma might be on the way towards starting to heal]].

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Of a kind. Christian has written two speeches for Helge's birthday and gives Helge the choice on which speech he will make. It's never revealed what the unchosen speech contained (or even if the speeches were at all different in the first place) but the one Helge picks [[spoiler:is the one in which Christian outs him as a paedophile who abused him and his sister]].

* KarmaHoudini: Else, who [[spoiler:despite being accused by Christian of witnessing his abuse and doing absolutely nothing to prevent it and repeatedly painting him as a liar after he gives his speech]] is allowed to eat breakfast with the family the next day and seemingly faces no repercussions from them.

* MoodWhiplash: You're laughing, you're cringing, you're creeped out, you're appalled, you're crying.. And hey, you're laughing again!

* ParentalIncest: [[spoiler:Helge repeatedly sexually abused his twin children, Christian and Linda, throughout their childhood]].

* SiblingRivalry: In spades. Helene and Michael both appear to view Christian as being the favourite of his parents [[spoiler:which makes Christian's accusation all the more difficult for them to believe]].
* StepfordSmiler: Else [[spoiler:who has been aware of her husband's abuse of their children for decades]] tries to laugh off Christian's speech and is seemingly the last person to accept the truth.

* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler: Helge after Linda's letter is read out, to the point where all pretext of respectability is finally drops and he ''screams'' at his guests and indirectly admits to raping his children by telling Christian that it was "all [he] was good for".]]

%% * AbusiveParents: Helge, and Helene through inaction.

%% * BigScrewedUpFamily: It's like watching a a gigantic familial pile-up.

%%* BlackSheep: Subverted slightly by Helene.
%% * CallingTheOldManOut: The whole point of this movie. The Old Woman also gets called out for being an AccompliceByInaction.
%%* CantHoldHisLiquor: Michael.
%% * DrivenToSuicide: Linda.

%% * JerkAss: So many to choose from... But Michael remains undisputed king by the end of the movie.

%% * ParentalIncest: Between Helge and his twin children, Christian and Linda

%% * SiblingRivalry: In spades.

%% * VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler: Helge after Linda's letter is read out.]]
%% * WellDoneSonGuy: Michael takes this trope to disturbing levels.

* AbusiveParents: Helge, and Helene through inaction.

* BerserkButton: Helge... Christian... Michael... Deeply suppressed rage runs deep in this family.
* BigScrewedUpFamily: It's like watching a a gigantic familial pile-up.
* BlackComedy: This is sometimes injected into conversations, often as a result of severe MoodWhiplash.

* CallingTheOldManOut: The whole point of this movie. The Old Woman also gets called out for being an AccompliceByInaction.

* DrivenToSuicide: Linda.

* JerkAss: So many to choose from... But Michael remains undisputed king by the end of the movie.

* ParentalIncest: Between Helge and his twin children, Christian and Linda

* RetiredMonster: [[spoiler: Helge.]]
* SiblingRivalry: In spades.
* TheUnfavorite: Michael.
* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler: Helge after Linda's letter is read out.]]
* WellDoneSonGuy: Michael takes this trope to disturbing levels.

%%* {{Minimalism}}: Well, it is a Dogme film.

* ParentalIncest
* RapeAsDrama

%%* AbusiveParents
%%* AwfulTruth

%%* DrivenToSuicide: Linda.

%%* ParentalIncest
%%* RapeAsDrama
%%* RetiredMonster: [[spoiler: Helge.]]
%%* SiblingRivalry: In spades.
%%* TheUnfavorite: Michael, again.
%%* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler: Helge after Linda's letter is read out.]]
%%* WellDoneSonGuy: Michael takes this trope to disturbing levels.