Sadness triangle, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, is a villainous satire on capitalism. A movie that breaks that system with a bang, but doesn’t really know what to do with the pieces.
“It’s not just about the outside,” confirms one while casting a topless male model. It is as if director Robin Ostlund is commanding the viewer here to look beyond the sometimes ridiculous surface of his film.
It won’t prevent it Sadness triangle He will be particularly remembered for his frantic midsection. Strongly composed resistance piece About a captain’s dinner on a multimillion-dollar yacht bobbing in a low-pressure area. A bunch of oysters and octopuses, from waves crashing against the bow and glasses rolling on deck, from vomit and diarrhea dripping down the aisles. And take ginger candy against seasickness.
The guests on this yacht are a motley crew of filthy rich. They made their money with weapons, applications, and manure. Then there are influencers Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlaby Dean), who basically get stuff for free.
Ostlund clearly takes pleasure in letting this Western “civilization” slide into its vulgarity. It’s not subtle, but it doesn’t have to be sarcastic either. It is layered to a certain extent. At least literally. A yacht is like a cross-section of a class society straddling national borders, with the rich at the top and the pedestrians at the bottom in the belly of the ship. A strict hierarchy, in which each individual does what the class above dictates.
As Joost Broeren-Huitenga has shown previously, the layers are also present in the highly detailed elaboration of the metaphor that is the film, where everything has a symbolic meaning. From the names of the characters to an animal hiding in the bushes.
However, this elaboration of detail does not necessarily make the allegory itself more profound. As a caricature of the current capitalist system on the brink of collapse Sadness triangle Passed. Despicable, smart and luxurious. But once Ostlund blows that system up and has to say something about what might happen next, it feels like the air is kind of running out.
The final segment, in which a number of characters from different classes of the yacht have to build a new society in miniature of a desert island, isn’t surprising or thought-provoking. The way power is rearranged, which party calls the shots and reaps the concessions, is all very clear.
