Festen

1998 film, the first of the Dogme grouping, by Thomas Vinterberg
starts off with of course that handheld, but very fast cutting, chucking the camera around, all close-ups
then moves to a few wider shots, mixing the two up, always a dynamic camera
this is a sensational film; because it succeeds in creating, and communicating in, its own language
the earlier techniques are revealed to be drawing us into the language, which from there can use a mixture of tight framings/ length of shots/ objective vs subjective (ish), to communicate to us perfectly
this is really pure cinema; everything communicated by the editing and framing
musical, in the way that it tightens things up, choosing to cut from close-ups of the key players, but then rests us (really more vectors than just these two, of course) with the move to wider framings and so on
constantly redefining what each technique means; thye longer take creates suspense, the tight cloe-up changes from heightened intensity, to suspense, to violence
this is like conducting an orchestra; creates some wonderfully cinematic effects, the slight reframing; a different character
the narrative is at the beginning (with occasional returns) a little- action from start to end- but when it becomes more open-ended, retains non-literary quality
the uses of montage are supremely powerful; those close-ups as pure affects, atoms coming to collide
from their we have soviet montage influences, and the switches in tone we have the nouvelle vague, with a wonderful bit of cross-cutting in the middle making us say 'Griffiths'
but it is to the French impressionist cinema this most resembles; the rythmic editing
the ability, after the tightening, to produce some incredible, longer take, fantasy-ish sequences towards the end is masterly, recalling as much Vigo as anyone
the Dogme constraints are even constrained themselves, in the use of close cameras and various other technqiues, but these constraints force it to be a film that is properly filmic
the even 'mistakes', where it does slip up narrative and editing wise, are properly 'filmic' mistakes; which makes this such a superior movie
this is really a modern work of brilliance