Henning Moritzen is persuasive as a man who expects to be listened to. His father in The Celebration is worth the discomfort: the authority feels familiar, and the family around him feels painfully real.
Fi1m perspective
In The Celebration (1998), the birthday belongs to Henning Moritzen’s father, and so does the attention. The occasion establishes his importance before the performance has to do much explaining. Moritzen supplies the authority that makes this arrangement believable, giving Thomas Vinterberg’s family reunion a recognisable centre. We found it distressing because he and the actors around him made these people familiar enough for their behaviour to hurt.
That father came late in a career which included popular comedy and a long commitment to the stage. Poeten og Lillemor (1959) helped establish him with Danish audiences, while Ingmar Bergman’s Cries and Whispers (1972) brought international notice. Later character work included Børge in Memories of a Marriage (1989), before Vinterberg put him at the centre of a birthday confrontation. The comedies should not be treated as an apprenticeship he needed to leave behind; being funny is not a lesser qualification for playing people with complicated family lives.
The part needs more than a general air of sternness, since Vinterberg’s family is crowded with separate grievances. Ulrich Thomsen’s Christian remains direct when the writing risks becoming emphatic. Thomas Bo Larsen’s Michael and Paprika Steen’s Helene each bring their own discomfort, and neither feels interchangeable with the other. Moritzen’s authority makes sense among these particular people, which is why the performance has more force than a stock domineering father would.
The handheld photography sometimes gets between us and the actors, while the writing risks pressing too hard where their performances are already enough. Those reservations matter in a film that relies so heavily on making a family’s behaviour convincing. Moritzen is a strong reason to see it, though reducing him to this severe patriarch would leave the comedy and theatre out of the picture. Start with The Celebration, but watch the people around him too.
Biography
Henning Moritzen (1928–2012) was a Danish actor who appeared in more than 70 films between 1950 and 2010, as well as in numerous stage productions.
He trained at Privatteatrenes Elevskole in Copenhagen and worked extensively at the Royal Theatre, performing in a wide range of comedic, musical and dramatic roles from the early 1950s onwards.
His screen credits include Joakim in Ingmar Bergman’s Cries and Whispers (1972) and the patriarch in Thomas Vinterberg’s The Celebration (1998).
