Storytelling's Most Useful Type of Scene

A video essay on the most narratively powerful type of sequence or scene that you will find in a movie, book, play or what you will... the Celebration.
Weddings, funerals, birthdays, parties and balls (and orgies?). They are the stuff of great writing because they give a story the chance to gather every important character and let them interact for a while under the auspice of important themes such as love and death.
Through their behavior and reactions we get glimpses of their different personalities. Characters who would normally never meet have long awaited encounters. Celebrations can set the world of the movie or establish a particular time of happiness (or lack thereof...).
Leon Tolstoy (War and Peace), Gustave Flaubert (Madame Bovary), William Shakespeare (Hamlet), Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice) and that highly productive scribe Anonymous (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight) all knew it. As did screenwriting couple Frances Goodrich and Albert Hacket and the other screenwriting couple Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan.
Through several examples you'll learn why celebration sequences are so ubiquitous and infinitely useful. Seven out of ten episodes in Succession's final season were centered on some kind of event after all.
00:00 The Bad Sleep Well
00:29 The Godfather
01:01 Celebration Sequences
01:44 All About Eve
02:05 The Deer Hunter
03:03 Fanny and Alexander
03:51 Literature
05:28 Visconti's The Damned & The Leopard
06:28 The Thin Man
07:34 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
08:13 Advantages & Opportunities
#videoessay #thegodfather #kurosawa #ingmarbergman #thedeerhunter #thegreatgatsby #screenwriting #screenwritingtips
Danse Macabre by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/
Bushwick Tarantella by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/
Consort for Brass - Classical Rousing by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/

[@noizetv4240]

Selfishly I hope this channel stays niche. In my nine years of scriptwright study, the past few months watching these videos have taught me more about storytelling than anything else by leaps and bounds. This man is a secret weapon and should stay that way.

[@GerardMenvussa]

Tough luck, the last video just blew up. Thanks for sharing your secret weapon with us :p

[@elevenseven-yq4vu]

No, this precious is not yours alone, it should be brought out into the world to shine even brighter.

[@mattresbert]

Brilliant

[@dr.juerdotitsgo5119]

I share your sentiment, not because I write scripts, but because I don't want to see this channel eventually dissecting superhero movies and Disney remakes.

[@nihaalsandim9986]

True

[@loganwelty7094]

Man the algorithm overlords sent me GOLD with this channel. Outstanding work mate!

[@Pete-hm5gw]

Though it's not technically an occasion , the opening sequence in Boogie Nights serves a similar purpose. All the major characters at the club dancing, Jack discovers Eddie from Torrance.

[@monkeyattackedmyass5435]

A weekend night at the club, where everyone will be there to see and be seen is an occasion, and a celebration.

[@LittlePhizDorrit]

Party scenes are amazing. What's perfect about them is how well they set up a story too, even in bad films they can be the best part.

[@malzola347]

Hannah and her sisters begins and ends with thanksgivings parties. And Woody Allen always shots wonderful parties.

[@andreloss338]

Babette's Feast by Gabriel Axel, from 1987, is another interesting movie on presenting character contrast over a party, or a banquet, as it is the case.

[@badinfluence3814]

So many good examples. Road To Perdition is another one that comes to mind. All the characters, their motivations and what is to come all shown during one large gathering. Great video agajn.

[@olivierdouheret5898]

Great and very instructive video as usual. Thank you very much. Parties also serve the spectator to virtually enter the story as one of the stunts and therefore help them to be more concerned by the plot. Another famous movie opening with a party: Festen from Thomas Vinterberg in 1998.

[@JunebugPresents]

I love celebration scenes. You had accurately articulated all the reasons why I love them. I have a few screenplays with them. I need to see them on the big screen one day.

[@jlovebirch]

Another great video -- all of these are next level critiques.

[@postmodernrecycler]

My fave use for a celebration scene is The Fearless Vampire Killers. A party TRULY reveals who is who (what)!

[@bearcb]

La Regle du Jeu/The Rules of The Game, by Jean Renoir

[@zacnewford]

thanks for this! well done as always

[@elevenseven-yq4vu]

Great video essay! While "War and Peace" (1966/7) has the most beautiful celebration scenes I have ever witnessed - yes, there is another one in a another movie that I love very much, which is used for yet another purpose: "Heaven's Gate" (1980) starts out with a long celebration that is used for contrast and to illustrate the hypocrisy in the lifestyle of the elite class which the movie portrays; not by characterisation within the scene itself so much, as by contrasting it with what follows during the course of the story. Also, there is waltz which seems like a joyous foreshadowing of things to come, but with hindsight its promise could not be worse betrayed than by a later scene which is a denouement to the story and shows utter destruction of everything this elite pretends to uphold - by that very elite, in a scene with a structurally similar movement to the most lavish part of the Celebration scene. The circle closes, and the plot will begin to repeat with the next generation; this is at least what the coda suggests. One of my favourite films ever, and your video made me appreciate it even more by shedding that new light on it. Less masterfully, this way of using a celebration scene (contrast between celebration speech and outside behaviour to show hipocrisy) has been re-used in "All Quiet on the Western Front" (2022), but not as structurally sophisticated. I am surprised you did not even mention "The Celebration" (1998) in your video. Why not, too obvious?

[@dr.juerdotitsgo5119]

Probably because The Celebration is some ugly avant garde monstrosity for the sake of being "revolutionary" 😆

[@dattebenforcer]

What about the celebration in Eyes Wide Shut?

[@oneinchpunched3661]

Such a great video essay. It really gets my creative juices flowing when envisioning a celebration scene, even without knowing what to write about. Its like; Lets dive into the party and see who and what drama I find in there. Its such a concentrated mini universe in where actions, reactions, emotions and behaviour can be exaggerated or heightened without feeling over the top even. People get drunk, manipulate, conspire, confess, lets go of long kept inhibitions. You name it. Its so perfect a way to start finding characters and in the end, a story. I feel that its even a great writing exercise to open up possibilities from a blank page. Its like hitting the ground running. I love this. Thank you for highlighting this. As many have already said; your channel is one of the best out there. Keep appreciating and investigating the great minds behind the greatest told stories in cinema. We all benefit from your passion.

[@James-Tanner]

Maybe you went over this with contrast but a celebration seems to act as a false victory, a deceptive twist or maybe an idealistic ending point. Happy ever after, or fiona marrying what’s his bucket in shrek…

[@spanishprisoner]

This is gold.

[@DarkSideofSynth]

Let's face it: he probably puts All About Eve even in his grocery shopping list ;) And mine's a compliment!

[@mk-ur4cq]

Shout out to an movie based on celebrations of sorts the anniversary starring bette Davis, it's very good.

[@marqc.9904]

How about a missing party scene? In Dune part I the extremely necessary dinner scene was completely omitted and for the life of me I can't figure out why, other than that Denis Villanueva hates dialogue, no matter its importance to the entire story!

[@rpg7287]

Yet another great video! A quick question: would you consider one of my favorite movies, The Third Man, to fit in this category? It opens with a funeral. It is a small funeral; but it seems all the major characters are there.

[@Moviewise]

Definitely! A bunch of characters are introduced in a single scene and the plot is set in motion. And the film has the distinctness of opening with a funeral and closing with another funeral… for the same character!

[@LovetheFrame]

I have become an instant fan of your videos but, man… Talking about movie celebrations and not mentioning the absolute king Blake Edwards is a capital sin.

[@ozlemdenli7763]

thank you

[@JokerMxyzptlk]

Does anybody have a movie list for this video? Especially the clips that are shown after the American pie segment.

[@hemanthkarri107]

finally!

[@mattresbert]

Good Times indeed

[@ltjom]

Was really hoping to see Die Hard get some love in this one. Alas.

[@imdiyu]

There is an amazing party scene in the Russian film "I am Twenty"... On top of that, that scene has a cameo by Andrei Tarkovsky, credited as The Jerk at Anya's Party. I wonder if you have seen it. If yes, then what do you think of that scene?

[@denroy3]

The Deer Hunter went off the rails to absurdity

[@emanuel_soundtrack]

It can be used for good live music

[@lost997]

You you write movie reviews anywhere?

[@stefanbelov477]

Bro, your videos are great, but can you please start putting the names of the films you are using somewhere in the corner of the screen? Thanks.

[@elijahalbiston]

they're in the description with timestamps

[@zeltzamer4010]

I think Altman and Fellini did this best.

[@user-tr8fp3hq8o]

Dinner table scenes?

[@jessiepinkman861]

lf its an indian film ,u cn put a song there 😊

[@wanderbedits]

The Lord of the Rings as well

[@auntkami]

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof