Thomas Vinterberg
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Melancholia (2011)
Directed by Lars von Trier
influenced by The Celebration (1998)
Themes Plot Visuals
It's a micro-treatment of what most sci-fi eschatological tales take a more expansive view of: Think " When Worlds Collide " reconfigured as a Bergman film, or, to be more specific, as " The Celebration ," the 1998 family drama directed by von Trier's Danish sort-of disciple Thomas Vinterberg .
With a first hour that plays like 1998's " The Celebration " crossed with 2008's " Rachel Getting Married ," the film fascinatingly follows Justine around for much of the time without spelling out what it is that is wrong with her.
Shot by Claro in gloriously rich colors, the “Justine” half of “Melancholia” is a rich comedy of manners and buried family secrets, deliberately recalling Bergman’s country-house comedies, like “Wild Strawberries” or “Smiles of a Summer Night,” and also perhaps “The Celebration,” by von Trier’s onetime Dogme 95 collaborator Thomas Vinterberg.
In its lacerating portrait of an unhappy family dynamic, this half of the movie suggests "The Celebration" (1988), by von Trier's fellow Dane and former "Dogme 95" filmmaking compatriot, Thomas Vinterberg.
The first, titled 'Justine,' is all about the doomed wedding party and is very reminiscent of fellow Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg's "The Celebration."
Writer/director von Trier gleefully gathers all this emotional turmoil with his restless digi-cam, making this first chapter seem like an homage to The Celebration, by von Trier’s fellow Dogma ’95 disciple Thomas Vinterberg.
The Hunger Games (2012)
Directed by Gary Ross
influenced Far from the Madding Crowd (2015)
Characters Plot
Bathsheba Everdene (Carey Mulligan), whose surname was the inspiration for author Suzanne Collins' character Katniss Everdeen in "The Hunger Games" series, is as resilient a character in 2015 as she was in 1874 when Hardy's novel was published.
One small element that might interest younger audiences of today is that the name of its lead character, Bathsheba Everdene, was Suzanne Collins' inspiration when it came time to give a surname to the heroine of The Hunger Games.
And “Everdene” has a new contemporary context from Katniss Everdeen, the strong-willed heroine of The Hunger Games franchise whose last name is borrowed from the protagonist of Thomas Hardy’s 1897 novel, Far from the Madding Crowd.
Bathsheba Everdene is the acknowledged inspiration for "The Hunger Games" heroine Katniss Everdeen , and even if Bathsheba doesn't have Katniss' archery chops, she battles against an oppressive regime with at least as much chutzpah as her dystopian-future namesake.
Hardy’s self-reliant heroine — who reportedly inspired the surname of a more recent one, Katniss of “The Hunger Games” — is in good hands with Mulligan, a subtle actress whose face speaks volumes even when she’s just quietly observing.
Before Suzanne Collins gave us The Hunger Games’ Katniss Everdeen, there was Thomas Hardy’s Bathsheba Everdene in Far from the Madding Crowd, another novel about a rural girl and her career and romantic suitors.
Vinterberg adds a scene to the last of these which is incredibly moving, reminiscent of Hitchcock's "Rebecca" yet evoking a different emotion.
A Room with a View (1986)
Directed by James Ivory
influenced Far from the Madding Crowd (2015)
Themes
In the end, their film might not be in the same vaulted league as such classic romantic period pieces as James Ivory’s “A Room With a View” (1985) or Martin Scorsese’s “The Age of Innocence” (1993), but “Far From the Madding Crowd” is one the most satisfying, finest romantic period dramas to grace screens, big or small, in awhile.
My thoughts keep drifting to the vivacious spirit of James Ivory's "A Room with a View" and Ang Lee's "Sense and Sensibility," which didn't suffocate the comedy from the productions, laden with cinched bodices and delicately situated pince-nez as they are.
I can't help but wish this new "Far From the Madding Crowd" came with the thrill of interpretive discovery, the way Jane Campion gave Henry James' "Portrait of a Lady" a good shaking-up or, more conventionally, the way James Ivory mainstreamed E.M. Forster in "A Room With a View" and "Howards End."
Rachel Getting Married (2008)
Directed by Jonathan Demme
influenced by The Celebration (1998)
Themes Visuals
For a moment, it feels as if Demme and Lumet are trying to conjure the supernaturalism of the unhappy Danish family get-together in 1998's "The Celebration."
Rachel Getting Married has more in common with the great Dogme film The Celebration than last year’s overacted Margot at the Wedding.
Quinn's freewheeling cinematography at times recalls Dogme films like The Celebration.
Director Demme shoots most everything with a dispassionate hand-held camera that evokes the fine Danish drama "The Celebration," which centered around a family reunion not unlike this one, captured the tense, dramatic events via a natural filmmaking style, and featured an actor, Ulrich Thomsen, who looks not unlike Bill Irwin here (Irwin plays the patriarch and his is a fine performance too, as is Rosemarie DeWitt's as the eponymous Rachel).
There is a lot of The Celebration, probably the best of all the Dogma films, in Rachel.
The Darwin chart of this breed of American indie, otherwise known as unlikely shrines to The Celebration (or Festen, if you prefer), follows in the United States with something like Margot at the Wedding near the top as most-evolved down mid-way to Rachel Getting Married and its histrionic Demme-tasse reduction, down to ankle-deep--we're talking primordial muck--with Dan in Real Life.
The Age of Innocence (1993)
Directed by Martin Scorsese
influenced Far from the Madding Crowd (2015)
Themes
In the end, their film might not be in the same vaulted league as such classic romantic period pieces as James Ivory’s “A Room With a View” (1985) or Martin Scorsese’s “The Age of Innocence” (1993), but “Far From the Madding Crowd” is one the most satisfying, finest romantic period dramas to grace screens, big or small, in awhile.
This is for audiences who enjoy films such as “The Age of Innocence,” anything by Jane Austen and television’s “Downton Abbey.”
A very pleasurable and sinful experience that could easily be made into an American movie à la The Hangover.
If you don’t know Vinterberg’s work, this might sound like the premise of a dumb men-being-boys comedy à la “The Hangover.”
It is about alcohol in a nuanced, proximal way that boozy films ranging from The Lost Weekend (1945) to Withnail And I (1987) to The Hangover (2009) never really manage (or even attempt).
As the town’s hysteria spreads like a contagion we’re reminded of past persecution tales, from The Children’s Hour, in which a spiteful student accuses two teachers of being lesbians (at a time when that was a much bigger deal than today), to Capturing the Friedmans, the unnerving documentary about a father and son accused of molesting computer students in their basement.
Crudely, if maybe helpfully, this drama about how a false accusation of child abuse destroys the life of a simple kindergarten worker could be dubbed The Children’s Hour meets Capturing the Friedmans.
More heavy-handed than Lukas Moodysson’s similarly themed Together , less abrasively confrontational than The Idiots by fellow Dogme 95 signatory Lars von Trier , The Commune is slightly melodramatic in its exploration of the emotional fallout when an experiment in collective living coincides with the breakdown of a marriage.
Like slightly buzzed versions of Robin Williams’ John Keating in Dead Poets Society , they incorporate creative teaching methods to inspire the students, resulting in such rousing scenes as chorus teacher Peter (Lars Ranthe, also from The Hunt ) conducting his young vocalists to harmonious beauty and gym instructor Tommy (Thomas Bo Larsen, ditto) spurring a seemingly hopeless young soccer player to success.
This conundrum has faced, and arguably gotten the better of, all three previous attempts to put the novel on the screen, most notably John Schlesinger's lavish, well-cast but lethargic 1967 version, which even Julie Christie, in the wake of her Darling/Doctor Zhivago ascendency, couldn't help bring to ground.
Or is it, like Thomas Vinterberg’s “The Celebration,” a matter of everything that goes wrong is very right and simply hasn’t been spoken aloud even though it demands to be spoken aloud?
While the high bar for reunions gone wrong is “The Celebration,” Kusama’s abstract approach suggests Michael Haneke’s “Funny Games” by way of Harold Pinter’s “The Birthday Party” (with a touch of Ti West’s Jonestown-inspired “The Sacrament”).
Strong performances and tight visual construction disguise the fact we’ve seen this all before, from films that explore very similar themes (notably 2008’s Doubt, a more compelling and nuanced work) to films that share degrees of familiarity related to the persecution of innocent people including We Need to Talk About Kevin (2008), The Insider (1999) and Evil Angels (1988).
In John Patrick Shanley's marvellous 2008 film Doubt , we are never absolutely certain whether Philip Seymour Hoffman's popular, humane New York priest is a paedophile or Meryl Streep's vindictive nun is merely motivated by envy.
Seemingly incapable of cracking a smile, he fits securely in the stoic-farmer tradition that stretches from John Wayne in “The Quiet Man” to Russell Crowe in “The Water Diviner.”
Strong performances and tight visual construction disguise the fact we’ve seen this all before, from films that explore very similar themes (notably 2008’s Doubt, a more compelling and nuanced work) to films that share degrees of familiarity related to the persecution of innocent people including We Need to Talk About Kevin (2008), The Insider (1999) and Evil Angels (1988).
While the fierce masses continue to ostracize their neighbor, the simple-minded Klara (like the innocent child in the Boris Karloff version of “Frankenstein,” but without the tragedy in that 1931 film) knocks on the door of the down-and-nearly-out Lucas with an offer to walk his dog, Fanny.
Another Round reminds me a bit of Edgar Wright’s The World’s End, just without the aliens.
There are echoes of Ian McEwan's novel (and later Joe Wright's film) Atonement in the childish accusation, and of Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs in the community's violent response.
But to divulge any more of "Coherence" -- a bit like Thomas Vinterberg's "The Celebration" by head-spinning way of the best of "The Twilight Zone" -- would take the piss out of the whole thing.
This conundrum has faced, and arguably gotten the better of, all three previous attempts to put the novel on the screen, most notably John Schlesinger's lavish, well-cast but lethargic 1967 version, which even Julie Christie, in the wake of her Darling/Doctor Zhivago ascendency, couldn't help bring to ground.
Julie Christie (hot after her best actress Oscar for another Schlesinger film, Darling) stars as Bathsheba Everdene, the headstrong country girl made good after inheriting her uncle's estate, who captivates devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak (Alan Bates), lonely landowner Boldwood (Peter Finch) and dashing soldier Sergeant Troy (Terence Stamp).