I hope we have all seen Saltburn the past couple of weeks and maybe this is just my late take on the movie but I would like to take a moment to explore why everyone's obsessing over it but especially why the film actually is more stimulating than dazed.
It's a thriller
Emerald Fennel wonderfully creates a weaved plot with a myriad of references and unexpected links: just like Inception or the Talented Mr. Ripley, the audience is always surprised by what happens next. In a very cinematic way she detaches herself by the contemporary production of movies who's plot is predictable and leaves us scrolling on our phone or skipping scenes to get to the end. Instead she invites us to question what will happen next and lurk inside of the storyline. This also justifies the actually criticised adoption of the 4:3 format, an old school format that reflects the way TV worked before the advent of big screens and phones whose purpose is to leave the spectator spy the action of the movie.
It's unhinged
The disturbing scenes just leave you speechless and ponder about eroticism while Oliver's character makes you think on a more psychological level of the power of an obsession and how it can expand to extremes (to the point of killing people for an end). It reminds us how easy it is to fall into this pathology when we admire and worship someone and we get so much into our heads that we also start believing a bullsh*t romance that we make up. (Not my bestfriend feeling like Timothee Chalamet is actually cheating on her with Kylie). And - if we want to take this even further - it is the director's goal to depict a perfect family, in a perfect house but with crazy and out of mind personalities: Felix's mother Rosamund is ferociously critical about people's weaknesses, his father Sir James is significantly detached from emotions and reality thus creating a bubble ready to pop. The dichotomy of everyday average family attitudes such as Karaoke in a very non-everyday attire is also provocative of a feeling that lets the audience identify oneself with the characters, but not too much. The oxymorons are really something else. Fennell unsettles her viewers because her direction also alternates between little to no spatial distance (eg. bath tub scene) to panoramic views of the house always to leave the spectator as a curious observer.
The aesthetic is just a polarised party messy rich aristocratic girl extreme
I loved the colours, the outfits and the Villa's interior decor - as well as the incredible insanity of the parties thrown at Saltburn. Below a few of my favs scenes from which I take inspiration:
