Film Review 《FESTEN》

I should state clear at the beginning that I admire this type of story settings very much, which focus on depicting different characters and their feelings of gladness, anger, sorrow, happiness, surprise, fear and sadness within a specifically scene. (This may be the only thing I agreed with the Dogme95)

After I finish watching, my initial response was,” Whoa! A great film!” then I felt fear with self-protecting. As the saying goes, “every family's got their issues”, but the issue is not just a secret, it is a taboo. Although it may not as unmentionable as the one in the film, they are all fatal. I felt upset because it is unavoidable in every family. When a truth revealed, the contradictions between people became more acute, and then we wouldn’t find anywhere to hide ourselves.

The Elder Son, Christian:

   My first impression of him was quiet and sedate, or can say a little wooden. We can find this when he faced his hot brother and the maid who’s been in love with him. The experience of childhood sexual abuse from his father built his personality like this such as inferiority or cannot express his emotion, so he chose to escape from this, he ran away. However, the death of his sister waked his mind to against his father. The surface of peace has broken since this celebration night. We can see the process of Christian’s change, he just like heating a kettle of water, from cooling to boiling and finally burning everything. He didn’t go to his sister’s funeral, but he used his own way to love his sister. When anything is over repressed, it would be amazingly powerful once it burst out. This is what I could explain about Christian.

The Little Son, Michael:

   Compare with Christian, Michael is the one obviously unwelcome. He is a person of hot blood and fiery temper, running a dirty small restaurant, driving an old car; even don’t have a formal suit. We can see it’s a sharp contrast here. However, he should be the most simple one, he has a traditional mind, he is proud of his rich family and in order to keep the dignity of this family he insult on sister’s black boyfriend, knock hell out the old lover and so on. That’s why he beat up his father at midnight, because his father broke his respect and destroyed his belief. Fortunately, he could stand with his backs and his legs straight and asked his father to go quietly in the next day’s morning.

   After a “festen” and a revealed secret, everyone’s life has or hasn’t got a new path are still going on, although there is only a mess left. Ourselves, our family and even our life, they are fragile; love may hurt so deeply inside, things we always uphold may be a mistake, do in power sometimes useless, just like this film.