Narrative technique · used in 10 films
Using a party or celebration as the place where normal rules are dropped and characters show who they really are. Afterwards, order often comes back down hard.
Examples
Jean Renoir · 1939
The château party is exactly the kind of civilized place where you can break the rules as long as nobody says so out loud. That holds until a guest arrives who doesn't know the rules.
Where to see it: The theatrical performance during the party. The costumes let the characters drop their social roles for a little while.
Federico Fellini · 1953
At a masquerade ball, normal rules are dropped. Alberto does a surreal dance in drag, and Fausto's pursuit of Giulia gets him into trouble.
Where to see it: The carnival ball: Alberto dances in costume while Fausto chases another woman and loses his job.
Federico Fellini · 1960
The Steiner party, the aristocratic party and the final beach party are all places where the beautiful life shows how empty it is. Fellini films parties as the moments when the Roman world is most itself: excessive, beautiful and completely hollow. I feel like nobody in this film relaxes at a party. It is where they are most fully exposed.
Where to see it: The aristocratic house party. People waste the late night away in a decaying castle outside Rome. The party shows how this class relates to its own history.
Miloš Forman · 1975
McMurphy smuggles in alcohol and 2 women for an overnight party in the ward. It's the most joyful sequence in the film, and it is also the point where everything turns for the worse. The aftermath the next morning starts the chain of events that destroys both McMurphy and Billy Bibbit.
Where to see it: The ward party and the discovery the next morning. Joy and catastrophe are built as a single unit.
Richard Linklater · 1993
A keg party in a field under a moonlight tower is where normal rules fall away. Mike, who has been humiliated by tough guy Clint, makes a stand and punches him. Tony reconnects with Sabrina, and Pink faces the football pledge. People show who they are when no adult is watching.
Where to see it: The keg party under the moonlight tower: Cynthia, Tony and Mike arrive at their first keg party, and Mike ends up in a fight with Clint.
Stanley Kubrick · 1999
The Ziegler Christmas party and the orgy at the Somerton mansion are both places where the rules of Bill's life are switched off. They are also where his inadequacy gets exposed.
Where to see it: The Somerton masked ceremony. Bill's costume is rented and he doesn't own it. That marks him as an outsider right away.
Martin Scorsese · 2013
The Stratton Oakmont office parties are the moral center of the film. In them, the market's rules are turned upside down. The people who sell financial fictions all day publicly act out the reality those fictions hide. The excess has a purpose. The parties are the film's statement about what financial capitalism is.
Where to see it: The office party sequences. The trading floor becomes a place where every rule gets broken. For a while, you can see what the market normally keeps hidden.
Richard Linklater · 2016
The coach's two rules are broken almost at once. The team's house party and the performing arts students' costume party both let people drop their usual masks. Jake's teammates step into a room they assumed they would hate and loosen up.
Where to see it: The Oz costume party: Jake takes his teammates to a performing arts party, where they feel out of place at first and then enjoy themselves.
Emerald Fennell · 2023
The Catton family's summer parties and birthday celebrations are where class performance and erotic tension collide. Wealth makes a lot of things permissible, and Oliver adjusts his transgressions to fit.
Where to see it: Oliver's birthday party at the end of the summer. The rules of the estate briefly dissolve, and Felix is found dead the next morning.
Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou · 2023
The possessions start as a party game. Teenagers cheer and pass the embalmed hand around like a dare. The only rule is the 90-second limit, and the party mood makes everyone careless with it.
Where to see it: Mia's first turn at Hayley and Joss's gathering. She says "I let you in" and the room cheers. The possession runs slightly past 90 seconds.
Questions