The film is exactly what is needed to encourage audiences to watch more cinema in the theaters, and amazingly enough, it is an Amazon MGM Studios production — proving that streamers do know it best if given the chance to do their thing.
It was a night to remember, in every sense of the word. A jam packed house inside the BFI Royal Festival Hall, uniting film lovers with insiders, critics, filmmaker and award voters. Sparkling outfits worn side by side with those donning jeans and a t-shirt and that’s just how a night at the movies should be. Even if this one was the opening night gala celebration of the London Film Festival.
Outside the venue, a few UK-based crew members who work in film and television were trying to bring attention to the dire state of their industry here at the moment. While Hollywood crews may have ways of supporting themselves since the strikes have been on, on this side of the Atlantic the whole system seems ready to implode with so much work depending on U.S. productions. Those who make a livelihood within the industry in the UK say they don’t see themselves working in cinema and TV in 5 years from now and that’s not a good thing. So here’s to a speedy resolution, for all concerned and don’t forget to support your local crews, wherever you may find yourself.
After a few introductions, including the first formal speech by new festival director Kristy Matheson who was appointed in 2022, it was time to view a film.
And what a film Saltburn turned out to be!
Saltburn is the sophomore filmmaking venture by actress, writer and director Emerald Fennell. Fennell won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for her debut feature Promising Young Woman at the 93rd Academy Awards.
The film starts off as Oliver, played by the perfectly quirky Barry Keoghan, talks about his first days at Oxford. We learn immediately that he’s from the wrong end of the tracks, or rather Merseyside in the story, and at first the only person he can hang out with is a young blond kid on the spectrum who offers him a seat at the first dinner, inside the College Dining Hall, on their first day. Oliver is miles away in looks and breeding from the other students, and they never miss an opportunity to make him feel inferior. Yet he takes it quietly on the chin, keeping his composure until a lucky incident brings him closer to the star pupil of the college, the magnetic and charismatic Felix Catton, played by Jacob Elordi. Elordi has the kind of looks and attitude that makes it totally believable when everyone he comes in contact with falls in love with him. So the film doesn’t need to explain or manipulate us into believing any of that.
From this chance encounter, and a few other meet cutes, a friendship develops between these two unlikely comrades Felix and Oliver. When tragedy strikes in Oliver’s world, Felix offers to take him home to Saltburn, his family estate, for the summer. Is he unselfishly magnanimous, or has he found a new plaything, one he will soon get tired of, as the cousin slash permanent houseguest Farleigh (played by Archie Madekwe) seems to imply? Here Fennell does what great magicians always do, keep us distracted with those questions while behind the scenes she weaves a tale so creepy, twisted and worthy of the likes of Edgar Allan Poe into a film that some critics, with lack of a broader vision, have called varying degrees of a Brideshead Revisited rehash. They are only partially right, yet are not helping in the great scheme of things in keeping this wonderfully vibrant and diverse industry that is cinema alive.
At first, the arrival of Oliver into Saltburn is a bit like poor Joan Fontaine arriving at Manderley as the new Mrs. de Winter — complete with a Mrs. Danvers character, the terrifyingly austere butler Duncan, played by Paul Rhys. Keoghan brings all that pathos from his Dominic turn in The Banshees of Inisherin to Oliver’s arrival and we are sold on the story and the characters from the word go. Or in this case, “dead relly… dead relly… dead relly’s teddy,” as Felix introduces Oliver to the stately home, showing him around the endless rooms and corridors.
Then there are Felix’s parents, played outrageously by two sublime actors, Rosamund Pike and Richard E. Grant. They are these broadly painted aristocrats with too much time on their hands and not enough problems. Yet, that is, because we all can see that Felix plus Oliver equals trouble. Completing the mix is Felix’s sister, with a food disorder, Venetia played by Alison Oliver, who crosses paths, in more ways than one, with Oliver. And a cameo by the extraordinary Carey Mulligan as family friend Pamela, the kind of less fortunate, colorful houseguest who never leaves on her own.
Long days hanging out in the garden by their lake turn into long summer nights at formal dinner tables, wearing tuxes and ballgowns like it was 1936. But this is not the English aristocratic countryside of the 1930’s, as the bulk of the story clearly takes place in the mid-2000’s and then, towards the end, in current pandemic, mask-wearing times.
There are multiple layers to the story and themes explored by Fennell, including the love/hate relationship that comes already built into most friendships, especially those that are created across boundaries of different status, intellects and social standing. The ideas here are downright creepy, when we stop and think about some of the scenes we have witnessed and the outcome of the film, yet these are the kind of people we have grown used to if we watch reality TV — and I’m thinking of shows like ‘Married at First Sight’ and the likes. Albeit, taken to an extreme that makes them cinematic and undeniably entertaining. I fell in love with the “joie de vivre” of this film, the courage of its filmmaker to go all the way and not hold back, even at the risk of alienating the more, eh hum… “established” critics — the less pc term “old geezers” would fit better here.
Emerald Fennell on stage on opening night at the BFI London Film Festival
Add to this inebriating mix one rocking soundtrack, a few twists that had my seat neighbor exclaiming “wow!” and more “wow’s!” just as I did too, fantastic cinematography by Swedish star DoP Linus Sandgren and Saltburn quickly turned into one of the most entertaining, luscious films I’ve watched this year. One I can’t wait to watch again, with Amazon’s large subtitles to catch all the nuances and moments which make the film outstanding.
Saltburn will be released in limited theaters in the U.S. on Friday, the 17th of November, with a wider release the following week and later on, will be available on Amazon Prime. It is worth watching on the big screen at least once, with repeated views to follow in streaming. That’s the beauty of these titles, produced by the streaming giants, which one can enjoy more than once, in all their complexities and beauty.
And one last thing, if you don’t get the song ‘Murder on the Dancefloor’ stuck in your head for days to come after watching Saltburn, you’re not alive.
Mic drop.
Images courtesy of Amazon and the BFI, used with permission.