Down with the rich! Class rage fuels new wave... of ‘us v them’ films and plays
...of ‘us v them’ films and plays
A luxury berth on a superyacht may seem like a good place to unwind. But cinema audiences will think very differently about the appeal of this kind of private cruise after watching it Triangle of sadnessthe grand prize winner at the Cannes Film Festival.
A nasty, graphic scene, showing the copious vomit and diarrhea of wealthy passengers, sparked cheers and sobbing from the crowd at its premiere on the French Riviera, and then again at the annual Toronto Film Festival last week, ahead of release in UK cinemas next month.
Similar sounds of anarchic merriment came from a London theater on Thursday during the first night of Richard Eyre’s new play about class and politics, The snail shell, when the actress who played a poor Irish waitress gave an emphatic goodbye “And fuck you!” to the entitled guests to a dinner with silver service.
Both the new film and the play are examples of a rapidly growing penchant for furious attacks on privilege and wealth. Capturing the rich villain’s glamor and safety in a script is no longer just the prelude to a satisfying unmasking, but instead the prelude to an aggressive, if not fatal, challenge to the social order.
Two movies in the last two weeks, the forgivenstarring Jessica Chastain and Ralph Fiennes as wealthy travelers to Morocco, and I came by, a Netflix thriller starring Hugh Bonneville cast as a wealthy London philanthropist, also charts this rebellious terrain. In both films, it is revealed that the comfortable way is callous, hedonistic and aloof, and in the case of Sir Hector Blake of Bonneville, very dangerous.
“There’s a certain gruesome, physical element used to undermine the rich in these stories that taps into a well of anger against the system,” said film broadcaster and producer Jason Solomons. “I think filmmakers sense the levels of anger and frustration that are there, the frustration of trying to break through and make a living, and provide the audience with the pleasure of a catharsis.”
Also unveiled in Toronto last week was the nerve-wracking Babysita horror film starring Anna Diop as a Senegalese woman who works in the home of an affluent New York couple, all the while longing for her own child.
British actress Florence Pugh will soon be tackling similar social inequalities. The star of 2019’s disturbing Midsommar produces and stars in a film version of Nita Prose’s bestseller, The girl, in which Molly, an impoverished cleaner in the fictional Regency Grand, exposes the murderous underbelly of the five-star lifestyle. “My uniform is my freedom. It’s the ultimate invisibility cloak,” she notes in the novel, as she walks the halls in search of a killer.
In the wake of Parasitethe bloody South Korean Oscar winner, and of last week’s Emmy successes for the television dramas squid game and white LotusSet in a luxury resort, there is a clear global appetite to expose and criticize the vast disparities in wealth and status. Both series focused on the desperation of the serving classes.
Matt Smith, Jessica Chastain and Christopher Abbott in The Forgiven.
The ill-fated hunt in Triangle of sadness is fraught with people representing the wealthy private jet owners of the modern world. Among them are a grizzled Russian oligarch, sailing alongside his wife and mistress, and an elderly British arms manufacturer and his wife. The reluctant captain of the ship is Woody Harrelson, ultimately the accidental agent of destruction in Ruben Östlund’s film. The Swedish director, best known for his alpine drama Force of the majority and satire on the art world The square eventually hands over power to one of the yacht’s cleaners, Abigail, played by Dolly De Leon, in a storyline that reflects a long history of cautionary tales in which the oppressed rise to exact revenge on their masters.
“Triangle of sadness Like it Parasite did, turn class power upside down by leveling people up. It’s a popular strategy and often involves physical, bodily functions or violence,” said Solomons, who is producing a film based on the book. A waiter in Paris who also examines the degrees of class. “We see stories where money is reduced to mere waste and waste. The cinema audience is, of course, caught between these two asset classes. It’s going to be uncomfortable for some to watch and that’s probably what some of these directors are up to,”épater les bourgeois‘, or to provoke the middle class, as the French say. And after all, we all feel guilty about this division, wherever we are.”
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