“The Celebration.” Directed by Thomas Vinterberg. Written by Vinterberg and Mogens Rukov. Running time: 105 minutes. In Dutch with English subtitles. No MPAA rating (brief nudity, language, violence). Nightly, Dec. 14-17, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville.

Thomas Vinterberg’s “The Celebration” is that rare film that takes cinematic risks, employing fresh, sometimes startling elements that can be directly attributed to Dogma 95, the Danish filmmakers’ collective that demands, at its heart, cinematic purity from bare-bones production.

Yes, really.

Shot directly on video with hand-held cameras, the film has been blown up to 35 mm, giving it a vital, slightly grainy look that complements the occasional horror of what’s unfolding on screen, while only rarely detracting from it.

Following Dogma 95’s so-called “Vow of Chastity,” everything seen and heard in “The Celebration” is natural: the sound, the sets, the lighting. Nothing has been embellished with special camera work or with computerized effects. The film fits no genre because genre films have been deemed unacceptable. Music, rather remarkably, is unacceptable, too.

The Vow — itself entertaining — reads like the gushing of a hopeful young idealist. An excerpt: “I swear as a director to refrain from personal taste! I am no longer an artist. I swear to refrain from creating a `work,’ as I regard the instant more important than the whole. My supreme goal is to force the truth out of my characters and settings. I swear to do so by all means available and at the cost of any good taste and any aesthetic considerations.”

No, Spielberg, Altman and Van Sant have not signed on — which should surprise no one — but what may surprise some is how effective these dictums are in helping to create one of the year’s better films. Indeed, “The Celebration” comes as something of an unexpected pleasure in its stripped-down state, an unfettered, uncluttered spark of life amid a glut of uninspired, uninteresting holiday films — “Star Trek: Insurrection,” “Jack Frost” and “Psycho” chief among them.

On one level, “The Celebration” is about the birthday celebration of a wealthy 60-year-old man; on another, it is about the disgrace and vilification of that man by his remaining three children (the fourth, a daughter, recently committed suicide). But as well as the film’s story is written, and as strong as its performances are, the film is compelling primarily because Vinterberg’s hand-held camera is used as a tool to implicate the audience as a guest at this party.

With his camera constantly seeking the action as it unfolds, we become part of the crowd, dodging the stinging, verbal bullets crisscrossing the festooned tables like deadly warheads. It can be great fun to watch — farce hinging on the unwanted, uncomfortable, embarassing truth.

Interesting. By trying not to be an artist, Vinterberg has created something close to art.

Grade: A-

Video of the Week

“Six Days, Seven Nights.” Directed by Ivan Reitman. Written by Michael Browning. Running time: 101 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for language, sexuality and adult themes).

In “Six Days, Seven Nights,” Anne Heche and Harrison Ford crash-land on a South Pacific island, where they encounter, among other things, a band of pirates — and their mutual lust. If the latter sounds like a stretch, it isn’t. The chemistry between Heche and Ford can be electrifying, proving that Heche’s appeal is transcendent regardless of the unnecessary, busy-body buzz that continues to swirl around her sexual orientation.

Still, “Six Days, Seven Nights” doesn’t electrify as a whole; it’s too careful, too steeped in formula to be anything more than reserved, so-so entertainment. If the risk was to hire Heche as a romantic, heterosexual lead, then dirctor Reitman should have followed through with a film that took further risks, firmly pressing against the boundaries instead of shying away from them.

Perhaps the studio wouldn’t let him — and that’s a shame. His film feels stilted, canned, oddly flat in spite of the good performances. Unfortunately, the film’s problems run even deeper: We’ve seen all this before in better films, namely “Father Goose” (1964), “The African Queen” (1951) and “Heavan Knows, Mr. Allison” (1957).

Heaven knows you should rent those films instead.

Grade: C

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear each Monday in the NEWS. Each Thursday on “News Center 5:30 Today,” he reviews what’s new and worth renting in video stores.