家宴1998

‘I don’t think so. Looking at American society, I’m sure that there are a lot of families living on the surface, not thinking of what’s behind the facade. And that’s the topic of the film. There’s also a huge amount of Child abuse in American. At Cannes, many French journalists had to stop their interviews because they were crying. The reason that people say this is very Danish is explained by the rituals which we follow thoroughly in the film. The themes of the film are universal, although it doesn’t sound very humble to say that. ’

In the interview of Festen (Thomas Vinterberg, 1998), Vinterberg mainly mentioned that many families are different in appearance and inside in society. Many families will deliberately show their happiness and harmonious in front of outsiders. But inside the family, there are many unspeakable sadness and corruption. The director concentrate on Child abuse, the oppression of children by a family. This phenomenon is common, and the event in the film Festen is only a typical event, which is dramatized and revealed. The story takes place in the upper class, a class that pays more attention to hierarchy and dignity. The conservative tendency and patriarchal style of northern Europe can be better displayed in the upper class.

The whole family presents absurd "harmony" in the celebration, which can be regarded as the ultimate hypocrisy. With Christian's hand, director Thomas Vinterberg lift the fig leaf of a decent family and revealed the true face of the authoritative father. In the opinion of the director, the family is the only one institution that people can't choose and escape (Porton, 1999). In such a family environment, the primary task of each child is to maintain the glory and dignity of the family. Helena chooses to swallow the sadness after seeing her sister's suicide note and does not publish it to the public. After Michael seeing her sister's black boyfriend, he tries to drive him away in order to "not shame the family". This is tantamount to Fascism in the family, where individual interests are suppressed under collective interests. Christian is the eldest son favored by his father in the family. His character is modest, gentle and decent, which is in line with the image of a regular successor wanted by the big family at that time. His brother is ignorant, cynical and not valued. But no one thought that it was the eldest son who lit the smoke of "war" at home. Because the dead person is his twin sister. In such family oppression, the interaction between peers will be more important and the relationship between peers will be solid. His sister died under the pressure of the sexual assault of the authoritarian father.

In Denmark, one in 10 children will suffer from domestic violence, which seems to have become a part of society and is difficult to change in a short time (Porton, 1999). His father's behavior finally violated Christian's last line of defense, even if his behavior would disgrace the family and disgrace his father's majesty. He can't stand such a hypocritical family, and blames himself for failing to protect his suicidal sister. Then, the role of mother accounts for a small proportion in the film. In the patriarchal family, she is always around her husband. She speaks appropriately and behaves gracefully. However, after her son tells everybody the truth she had already known for many years, she chooses to cover up the facts and claims that Christian is suffering from paranoia. The false accusation against his son reflects that in this kind of family relationship, the oppression of the younger generation has become conventional. In the end, the father's exit will not completely destroy such a family relationship, Wood (1999) argued that even if patriarchy is overthrown immediately, it will still take several generations to gradually eliminate the imperceptible habit of universal rule.

Word count: 544

Reference list:

Kaufmann, M., Hald, B. (Producer), & Vinterberg, T. (Director). (1998). Festen [Motion Picture]. Denmark: Scanbox Danmark.

Porton, R. (1999, March 22). Something rotten in the state of Denmark: an interview with Thomas Vinterberg. Cineaste, 24(2–3), 17.

Wood, R, P. (1999). Humble guests at the celebration: an interview with Thomas Vinterberg and Ulrich Thomsen. CineAction, pp. 47-54.

孩子

第一次看dogma很新颖，有的时候镜头放得很低又跟得很近。大儿子幼时被性侵，现在他难以定心于一个女人。小儿子儿时被忽视、远送他乡(没经历过性侵或许也经历过家暴)，现在他粗鲁暴躁。

大女儿需要服用药物，不断说想回家，说明她不把自己生长的酒店当家；她的母亲见她男朋友时说“nice to see you back”而女儿说那是别人，说明她带过不止一个黑人男友回家；在宴会上几乎所有家庭成员都唱了歧视黑人的歌—— 或许女儿有的是一种反向的种族歧视，她交黑人男友是因为她受不了她家，她家是白人至上的、让她厌恶的白人家庭。

父母

最后父亲终于道歉了，可是他真的忏悔了吗？我看不出他感到很懊悔，虽然我也不知道感到抱歉的人看起来应该是怎样。所以，他的一句道歉，是屈服于道德还是屈服于暴力？小儿子已是个成年男人，把父亲揍倒在地，把母亲惊得花容失色。

母亲是不在乎的，只想维持和平的假象。宾客们也是不在意这整件事的。大儿子宣布秘密后，母亲很轻易地就能让宾客平静下来；看到父亲和母亲入场吃早餐，宾客们也继续聊着天，在父亲起身让大家安静前没有任何反应。对那个秘密的震惊是需要演出来的，但演完后又需要一个台阶下，母亲就总能发话给宾客一个台阶下，让他们回到冷漠的原样。

社会群体

那么，如果孩子们的精神问题是源于父亲和母亲，父亲和母亲的问题又是源于哪里？尽头在哪？

（超字数短评……这不是影评，没有什么特别的见解，只是提出一些问题）

又是一个发生在聚会中的变故的电影故事。一夜之间，地覆天翻。

又或者什么都没变，丑恶的人还是那么丑恶，无辜的人受过的伤害也无法被当作从未发生。

这部电影，在我的片单里是少有的。我很少看北欧的电影，但是，在我的印象里，它们的电影风格应该是平实又兼深邃，又像是遥远的星星，一闪一闪，点缀在深蓝的夜空中。夜空也不是太过暗黑，就是单纯的色调，简单地悬挂在我们地眼中。这一次的观影体验，正是这样的。

记得我看过一部纪录片，关于胶卷和数码相机在电影中的运用，它们各有各的拥趸，而这部影片正是在摄影机发展过程中首次被用于电影拍摄的影片，如果我没记错的话。那是我第一次听说这部影片，今天，是我首次看这部影片。

影片的展开平铺直叙，孩子们从各地赶回家，参加父亲举办的60岁的生日宴会。兄弟妹三人相处融洽，你丝毫看不出有任何不妥的地方。当然，不妥之处不在于孩子们之间的关系，而在于父亲与孩子们之间。并且，当我看到Christian和父亲会面的情节时，我甚至一度认为父亲更偏爱Christian一些，相对于父亲将Micheal排除在宴会名单之列。但是随着情节的展开，我才渐渐发现Micheal仅仅是莽撞而已，而Christian才是有故事的人。之后宴会上，Christian一次次地尝试把所有事实讲诉给宾客们，却都以失败告终。在第一次尝试后，Christian甚至都试图放弃。但是Christian地朋友们（酒店的工作人员）支持他，他才继续坚持，并且在酒店侍者的帮助下，让所有的宾客相信他所说的故事不是他臆想中的，而是真真切切发生的。Christian非常无助，在所有人不信任他的时候，在所有人保持冷漠的态度选择性的相信着自己的偏见的时候，他就好像是落入河水的一颗石子，推着他前进的是一股默默涌起的浪和自己双胞胎妹妹死亡事件对自己的打击。Christian的所有尝试均无果，最后揭开它们父亲真面目的还是Linda的遗书。但是奇怪的是，事实被揭发了，父亲恼羞成怒了，宾客们却没有我期待的反映，只是默默地面面相觑。反而是Micheal在夜里找到父亲，发泄一般的对他拳打脚踢。

关于宴会上众人对Christian揭发事件的反应，我想提一下。首先讲到Micheal。这是一个十分具有个人色彩的角色，自私、莽撞、大男子主义、无知且简单、重情义。他对家里发生的事情一无所知，从不了解哥哥姐姐所遭受的厄运，因此他不信任Christian，只觉得是Christian脑子出了毛病。于是他的做法很简单，将Christian轰出去，让他无法再回到宴会上，并且在每次推搡中都说这是他哥不能太伤害他。并且在真相被确认后，他的脸上也表现出了明显的震惊。Micheal角色的性格十分突出，易怒的性格，鲜明的红色。Helene知道一切真相，但是并不支持Christian的曝光行为。她曾经质问Christian为什么要这样做。她似乎一直在试图维护家族的形象，维持宴会的平稳进行。她一次次的的想要逃避。最终，Linda的信回到了她的手上，并由Helene的口被念出。Helene的角色十分脆弱，她试图维护表面的平静，但深感无力之后只能选择哭泣，从他人的安慰中逐渐站立起来，直面现实大厦之倾覆。她的颜色是绿色。另外Christian则是蓝色。不过他也并非是一直忧郁的，在事情解决之后，他的人生也开始有了亮色，开始追求自己的爱情。关于宾客们所担任的角色，大概就是冷眼旁观的群众吧。它们随着引导而大喜大怒，随着引导而且歌且舞。

故事地讲述从Christian回来途中偶遇Micheal开始讲述，接着便是众人等待晚宴的开始。兄弟妹三人的画面平行剪切，但是画面的组合令人疑惑。众人没有对晚宴的期待，反而是各有各的心事。也是在这个过程中，故事终又有了一个新的角色，自杀身亡的Christian的双胞胎妹妹。故事的高潮发生在晚宴上，并随着Christian的晕倒，陡然变得平稳。晚宴的戏份是很值得细究的。各位主要角色的演技也十分专业。画面镜头的摇晃似乎更增添了我们心情的复杂。拍摄的角度也时时变化，距离也时而偏远时而靠近。特写的部分是我们审视角色内心的部分；来自角落的目光则给予我们作为旁观者的感觉。另外，电影似乎很会抓人眼球，不仅来自于情节的发展上，也来自于画面的组接上，比如上一秒是Christian低沉的画面，下一帧便是宾客开怀的画面。