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No one will take his side for more than half of the film, and the film techniques enhance the difficulty of watching it. The rawness of the shooting, the low quality of the image, the hand-held camera and shaky shooting make it documentary-like and all the more immersive. At the beginning, one can notice the succession of three shots that have water at its center of the image, acting as a metaphor of emotional drowning and submersion; tears, a glass of water, and a woman in a bathtub. Later on, the viewer will discover that Linda died in a bathtub. The film explores family dynamics and each individual’s complicity and vices. Most of the film is made of fake smiles and forced laughter, especially coming from the mother, whose name we only hear for the first time at the 59th minute. The women of the family cannot take up space, they hide constantly and are not given any recognition. Mette, Michael’s wife, is referred to Michael’s “little Mette” by the mother of the family, not only reducing her for her fertility capacities, but also making her husband’s property as well as diminishing her individualism and perpetuating a patriarchal scheme. To add on with its horror, as Helene’s partner Gbatokai arrives, the family barely tries to hide their internalised racism. Everything becomes gaslighting, manipulation, games of power, shame and guilt. The Dogme 95 avant-garde movement encourages creativity for filmmakers to focus on stories to tell without relying on artificial elements and accessories. In Festen, filmmaking really enhances the escalating tensions throughout the whole film through the intrusive and voyeuristic presence of the camera as well as its shooting angles and perspectives. Would prevail the collective rather than an individualistic approach of each filmmaker.
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