Here's to the man who killed my sister.

Jazlyn 2022-05-24 12:57:10

1998 Cannes Film Festival Jury Award (third prize). Dogme95 No. 1 work.
The Danish director Thomas Vinterberg wrote and directed based on a story heard on the radio. The center is Jiejia Chou. This ugliness is unusual, it is about child molestation and incest among close relatives; the whistleblower is very special, the eldest son of the family and the victim himself. There is an old Chinese saying that one's ugliness should not be publicized. Although things have passed for many years, the eldest son was finally unable to take care of himself after the twin sister committed suicide. On the occasion of his father's 60th birthday, he resolutely exposed his beast behavior. The film tells how the eldest son made it difficult for everyone to believe in this shocking scandal, and focused on the contrast between each person's words and actions before and after learning the secret. The plot is very dramatic, but it is difficult to say what it means; perhaps from the two couples dancing in relief after the storm, the director holds a positive attitude towards the behavior of the eldest son. Of course, this film also focuses on domestic violence, child abuse and other phenomena, as well as society's zero tolerance for such crimes. Directors of similar themes discussed more deeply in The Hunt more than ten years later.
The high concentration of time and space is a major feature of this film (so it was adapted into a drama many times later), and Dogme95 has no narration, no soundtrack, no special effects handheld photography and other requirements, leaving a lot of room for the actors. In the film, the lonely and persistent elder son, the wayward and violent younger son, the daughter on the verge of collapse, the hidden father, and the mother who helps the abuser all leave a deep impression on people. Especially the youngest son, who looked like a prodigal before, turned against his best brother because he couldn't believe it. After the truth became clear, he flattened the beast father on behalf of the audience and refused to forgive him. His series of actions seem illogical, but they are in line with his impulsive personality and the creed of the supremacy of family honor. The reaction of the guests was relatively flat, except that they were making a fuss to leave, but they found out that they couldn't find the key, and they just gave up, and the handling was somewhat sloppy. For the analysis of the bystander's perspective, the director will also complete in "The Hunt".
When writing this film review, I have to mention Dogme95. This was a movement initiated by two middle-aged Danish directors Thomas Vinterberg and Lars von Trier at an international conference in Paris to celebrate the centenary of the birth of film art in 1995. The background is that people are rethinking where modern movies should go. The original intention was to resist the commercialization model of Hollywood's large-scale production. As a result, 10 clear rules and precepts for filmmaking were put forward and people were encouraged to abide by it. The two directors first led by example and made a movie each (in fact, they did not fully meet the requirements. According to them, the director himself has the final interpretation right). This film is the first and the best response to a dogma95 movie. . Respondents from all over the world successively made more than two hundred films in accordance with the content of the declaration, and they were included in the roster after being reviewed by the Dogme95 committee. The sport has mixed reviews in the industry. Some people say that they are going back to the basics, some say that they are self-imposed, some say they are creative, and some say they are regressing. My view is that it has a positive role in advocating low-cost authenticity in life, which allows more ordinary people to participate in film production, thereby promoting the development of film universalization; but its proposition is too radical and Harsh, each of the ten is not easy to do (see the Wikipedia entry for specific content), let alone come together. The entertainment function of movies cannot be ignored, and dogmatism is not a good thing after all. If the current Hollywood is compared to the evil capitalism of profiteering, then this movement is like Hitler's National Socialism, that is, the Nazis. In fact, the two directors have only filmed the Dogme95 each, so what should they do afterwards. The sport officially ended ten years later. Conclusively, this was just a small trend in the history of film.
For Thomas Vinterberg, this film is his internationally renowned work. In Denmark, he won the Bodil Award and Robert Award for the best film. The director cannot be signed, so the director column in IMDB is vacant). However, Thomas couldn't find the status afterwards, and shot bad films, and didn't slow down until after 2010.

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Extended Reading

The Celebration quotes

  • [last lines]

    [subtitled version]

    Michael: Nice one, Dad. Good speech. Well done. But I think you'll have to go now so we can eat our breakfast.

    Faderen: Of course, of course.

    Faderen: [to his wife] Coming?

    Moderen: I'll stay here.

  • [subtitled version]

    Christian Klingenfeldt: I've just never really understood why you did it.

    Faderen: It was all you were good for.