The best comes at the end of the year. No film was as polarizing this year as the thriller “Saltburn,” which was released on December 22, 2023 and was nominated for two Golden Globes. Videos showing shocked viewers following the end of the film are making the rounds online. You are left disgusted or excited. What does it take to be considered the “most controversial film of 2023,” as “Die Welt” headlines?
A plot and characters that are not easy to categorize at first, sexually charged scenes bordering on the reasonable, cold-blooded murders, some penis flashes and ravishingly composed images. A scenery as surreal and grotesque as it is beautiful. The essence of old and new. Director Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman”) has created a set that will be remembered.
The Gothic castle, which, along with the equally historic Oxford University, is the main setting of the thriller – if you want to put the feature film into a genre – is not portrayed as dark, old-fashioned or dusty. The stone walls, the countless rooms, the paintings by Rubens, the library with the first editions of Shakespeare – director Fennell translates them into today. Like the characters, there is nothing dark, old-fashioned or dusty regarding them, even though they are a British aristocratic family. The parties, the costumes, the scenes at the lake, everything shimmers full of life and color. Celebrate like “The Great Gatsby” once did.
Image: Amazon Studios
“Lifelike Doll” takes control
The storyline is quite one-dimensional. Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi play two friends who met at college. The loner Oliver Quick and the aristocrat’s son Felix Catton. Oliver presents himself as a penniless, reserved boy from difficult circumstances; his childhood is said to have been marked by drugs and violence. He claims. Felix is open, trustworthy and helpful. He is admired and popular. Well received by the girls.
After some clever intrigue, Oliver, who immediately only has eyes for Felix, is invited to spend the summer with him at the Saltburn family estate. There he meets Felix’s eccentric and patronizing parents (played by Rosamund Pike and Richard E. Grant) and sister Venetia. A spoiled family friend (played by Carrey Mulligan) is also a guest over the summer. They will all die within 30 minutes of the film. Then there’s the cousin, who will be the only one who doesn’t fall for Oliver’s fake charm, calling him a “lifelike doll.”
And he’s not wrong. Because Oliver embodies a psychopath like he is in the book. He uses sex as his preferred means of manipulation.
Carnage for the sake of the goal
Felix is the first to have to believe it – although Oliver seems to love him, as far as he can. The scene in which Oliver fidgets with the drain of the free-standing bathtub following Felix has taken a bath and masturbated in it remains disturbing in the viewer’s mind. And then Oliver, lying on Felix’s grave, shirtless, penetrating the earth that had just been piled up.
After the rest of the family has also been “eliminated”, Oliver has apparently achieved his goal and dances naked through the historic rooms in an epic final scene. Green Drawing Room, Blue Drawing Room, Dressing Room, Library. The Rubens. In between, rotations without obscuring Oliver’s penis in the picture.
Social criticism or shallow shock effects?
Everything for art – or for public success? The line between critical, successful social satire and shallow entertainment that thrives on shock and disgust effects is blurred in “Saltburn”. In contrast to the remarkable images, which were drawn in a crisp, colorful and contemporary way.
Author
Francesca Giles
Editor
Francesca Giles
