'The Celebration'

The Celebration is the first Dogme 95 film.

The genre was began in the Danish filmmaking ranks by Lars von Tier and The Celebration director Thomas Vinterberg.

It's a direct rejection of expensive, shallow Hollywood films. Here are the rules, according to Wikipedia:

1. Filming must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in. If a particular prop is necessary for the story, a location must be chosen where this prop is to be found.

2. The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. Music must not be used unless it occurs within the scene being filmed, i.e., diegetic.

3. The camera must be a hand-held camera. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted. The film must not take place where the camera is standing; filming must take place where the action takes place.

4. The film must be in colour. Special lighting is not acceptable (if there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera).

5. Optical work and filters are forbidden.

6. The film must not contain superficial action (murders, weapons, etc. must not occur.)
Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden (that is to say that the film takes place here and now).

7. Genre movies are not acceptable.

8. The final picture must be transferred to the Academy 35mm film, with an aspect ratio of 4:3, that is, not widescreen. Originally, the requirement was that the film had to be filmed on Academy 35mm film, but the rule was relaxed to allow low-budget productions.

9. The director must not be credited.

Clearly, just watching The Celebration and not realizing it was a "Dogme 95" production, it's extremely evident that this was the case. There's no music outside of the piano written into the film. It's all handheld and all very low quality compared to the behemoth films being made today on hi-def and digital. At times, the film looks like it was shot through a glass.

Vinterberg also went as far to have the actors hold the camera in order to get the shots while keeping everything handheld, most notably during the speech scenes and when Christian passes out.

Of course, Vinterberg did admit to breaking the rules (in the first of its kind) by covering a window, which affected the light and used a prop.

Apart from all the DYI bullshit that went towards making it, it's a really good film.

Although, I do have a gripe with the DVD cover art. It shows Christian with a soul patch that stretches down to the bottom of his chin. In the film, Christian has no facial hair. Couldn't we get a photo of him as it was in the film?