Happy 51st Birthday, Thomas Vinterberg! Born today in 1969, this Danish actor, screenwriter, producer and film director who, along with Danish film director and screenwriter Lars von Trier, co-founded the Dogme 95 movement in filmmaking, which established rules for simplifying movie production.
However, Vinterberg is best known for co-writing and directing the 1998 Danish black comedy drama film 'Festen' ('The Celebration').
The film tells of a dark secret that mars Helge the father's (Henning Moritzen) 60th birthday celebration. The event is attended by his family, being his son Christian Klingenfeldt-Hansen (Ulrich Thomsen), Michael, the brother (Thomas Bo Larsen) and friends.
'Festen' is best known for being the first Dogme 95 film (its full title in Denmark is Dogme #1 – Festen).
Dogme films are governed by a manifesto that insists on specific production and narrative limitations (such as banning any post-production sound editing), in part as a protest against the expensive Hollywood-style filmmaking.
The film is a low budget film, being DKK8,871,031 ($1.3 million) with and was shot on a Sony DCR-PC3 Handycam on standard Mini-DV cassettes.
'Festen' premiered at the 51st Cannes Film Festival in May 1998, where it won the Jury Prize.
One year later, 'Festen' won two Bodil Awards for Best Picture and Best Actor in a Leading Role (Ulrich Thomson). The highest honor of the festival, the event occurred at the 52nd Bodil Awards in early March 1999.
Some years after making 'Festen', Vinterberg talked about its inspiration: a young man told the story on a radio show of the Danish journalist and host Keld Koplev. Vinterberg was told about it by the friend of a psychiatric nurse who claimed to have treated the young man.
He listened to the radio programme and asked Danish screenwriter and playwright Mogens Rukov to write a script on the events, as if it were the young man's own story. It was later revealed that the story was completely made up by the patient receiving mental care.
'Festen' has earned positive reviews. Based on thirty-four reviews collected by the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 91% of critics gave the film a positive review.
On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 82 out of 100, based on seven critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
American film critic, historian, journalist, screenwriter and author Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars, writing that the film:
Vinterberg has been active from 1990–present.
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