Saltburn

[Icehaven]

That's Carey Mulligan! And very good she is too.

Oh so it is! I totally remembered it as being HBC. Is she even in it?

[Mister Six]

I don't think so. It does seem like a bit of an HBC role though.

[Icehaven]

I think it's a bit daft to attack her for being a symptom of something she has no control over. What's she meant to do? Make a film about struggling working class people? Just not direct anything at all?

I see your point but people like her should at the very least use their position to give a leg up to as many less connected and less privileged artists as they can, and I'm sure some do, but not enough to make a tangible difference. If they really gave a crap about their medium they'd feel duty bound to widen the field as they'd understand that the same kind of people getting all the opportunities while potentially great film makers miss out is ultimately bad for the industry, but then it'd mean more competition for them so...

[Mister Six]

Yeah, but what's this got to do with Fennell? Do we have stats on what she's doing and not doing? Do we know where someone should be in their film industry-changing push after making two films?

It's not like I disagree with the sentiment, but applying it here to a specific person who's only got any kind of international attention in the past few years seems a bit petty.

[Icehaven]

Well this thread is about her film so it's understandable she'd be singled out here, although I daresay there's more deserving targets who've had far more time to lower the drawbridge and haven't done so.

[Mister Six]

I'd suggest that even if this is her thread, there's no need to actually single her out.

Instead, let's all give Phoebe Waller-Bridge a kicking for handing Killing Eve over to fellow rich girl Fennell instead of Ken Loach (I'm only half kidding).

[Capt.Midnight]

Carey Mulligan's character is so accurately portrayed. My friend had a very wealthy family and you'd come across people exactly like that.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

I'd suggest that even if this is her thread, there's no need to actually single her out.

Instead, let's all give Phoebe Waller-Bridge a kicking for handing Killing Eve over to fellow rich girl Fennell instead of Ken Loach (I'm only half kidding).

I think both Fennell and Waller-Bridge are total shite, is that okay?

[Mister Six]

👍

[madhair60]

i despise all women

[El Unicornio, mang]

This was good. Definitely seemed like almost a remake of The Talented Mister Ripley but the performances and cinematography and general vibe kept me interested. Pitch perfect characterisation of very specific types of people we've probably all encountered at some point. Maybe about 20 mins too long though, didn't really need the flashback explanation near the end.

Also, totally lost it at

Spoiler alert

the police keep getting lost in the maze

[close]

[Shaky]

Just watched it and I concur entirely. Doesn't thematically do anything new but it looks fantastic, nails the woozy summer weirdness, performances are all great and I was never bored. It didn't really need things to be so firmly spelled out at the end but that doesn't derail the film or anything. Lovely opening credits, too.

That's two really interesting, engrossing, if not entirely perfect films from Fennell so very keen to see what she does next.

[Norton Canes]

The other similarity I'm surprised no-one has mentioned is Atonement (which I suppose itself riffs on Brideshead etc.)

[Toxteth OGrady]

Was anyone else hoping to see Farleigh watching yer man at the grave with a horrified smirk on his face?

[Vodkafone]

The other similarity I'm surprised no-one has mentioned is Atonement (which I suppose itself riffs on Brideshead etc.)

I'm currently reading Jill, a novel by Philip Larkin. There is a lot of that in Saltburn, which makes me wonder whether she read it or whether the outsider at Oxbridge idea is such a well-worn trope that one can pick it up from all sorts of places.

[Beagle 2]

I enjoyed it a lot, although it's certainly a much less interesting film once you realise what it's actually about.

[BlodwynPig]

At Newcastle train station and there is a train to Saltburn. Now, i've never seen a train listed as Saltburn but rather Middlesbrough at its last stop. Are they doing a Potter?

[holyzombiejesus]

Was anyone else hoping to see Farleigh watching yer man at the grave with a horrified smirk on his face?

I've just been trying to do a horrified smirk, it's very difficult.

[checkoutgirl]

This was ok and the performances were good but the ending ruined it a bit for me. Another one of those. Surely the final scene was a clever marketing ploy to generate interest like Divine at the end of Pink Flamingos.

Could never really get a proper grasp of Keoghan's character although not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. He's always interesting to watch and elevated this film.

[Beagle 2]

The recap montage really took me out of it at exactly the wrong point, stating the bleeding obvious or filling in blanks that didn't need to be filled in. It could have been replaced by a five second shot of him bursting the bicycle tyre.

[Icehaven]

I'd had a few drinks by the end but I still don't get how he ended up inheriting the estate. Surely there'd be potential heirs coming out of the woodwork and most of them would have a more legitimate claim than "son's mate from uni that the mum liked."

[PlanktonSideburns]

Watched half of this then shot my telly with a gun

Did I miss much? Reminded me of hitchcocks Rebecca. Has a anyone else said that?

[checkoutgirl]

The recap montage really took me out of it at exactly the wrong point, stating the bleeding obvious or filling in blanks that didn't need to be filled in. It could have been replaced by a five second shot of him bursting the bicycle tyre.

Or just nothing. When he pulled the intubation thing out it was obvious.

[checkoutgirl]

I'd had a few drinks by the end but I still don't get how he ended up inheriting the estate. Surely there'd be potential heirs coming out of the woodwork and most of them would have a more legitimate claim than "son's mate from uni that the mum liked."

Yeah and the cops didn't ask many questions about the deaths either. There wasn't even a single police man in the thing.

We can assume heirs did show up, demanded a proper investigation and he was put in prison.

[Icehaven]

Yeah and the cops didn't ask many questions about the deaths either. There wasn't even a single police man in the thing.

We can assume heirs did show up, demanded a proper investigation and he was put in prison.

Or maybe Emerald Fennell banged her head and now thinks she lives in an alternate universe where the police, Brideshead and Ripley don't exist.

[Sebastian Cobb]

For me I don't think it needs to make total sense, although Keoghan is the protagonist the script is essentially a posho's paranoid fantasy of having their inherited wealth denied them by a usurper, and I think it does a reasonable job of corralling the viewer (posho or not) the a vantage point of its author.

[Vodkafone]

I can't understand why or how it's become such a talked-about film. As I noted in my first post, I thought it was worth watching, but that was it. Now it's Saltburn this and Saltburn that, all over the shop. Which makes me a bit regretful for starting the thread, now that it's something the middle class media seemingly can't shut up about. It probably tells us how many media people went to Oxford, doesn't it?

[dontpaintyourteeth]

essentially a posho's paranoid fantasy of having their inherited wealth denied them by a usurper

succinct. stealing this for my letterboxd review

[Norton Canes]

For me I don't think it needs to make total sense, although Keoghan is the protagonist the script is essentially a posho's paranoid fantasy of having their inherited wealth denied them by a usurper, and I think it does a reasonable job of corralling the viewer (posho or not) the a vantage point of its author

See I thought it was working brilliantly as a film about a posho with a penchant for dangling their privileged lifestyle in front of underprivileged counterparts before crushing their aspirations underfoot and casting them aside; and as such, the trip to Liverpool was a great reveal. It didn't need the rest, it was already a perfectly great story.

[Mister Six]

Yeah, I thought the same. Which is why the film staggers about after that reveal, because all the narrative energy is drained out of it, and Fennell hasn't done enough to set up the reveal that the protagonist's agency is at all clear until it's suddenly immediately obvious.

I can't understand why or how it's become such a talked-about film. As I noted in my first post, I thought it was worth watching, but that was it. Now it's Saltburn this and Saltburn that, all over the shop. Which makes me a bit regretful for starting the thread, now that it's something the middle class media seemingly can't shut up about. It probably tells us how many media people went to Oxford, doesn't it?

Combo of:

1- Posho Brits, which Americans love,
2- Sumptuous camerawork and editing giving the impression of a Quality Product™,
3- Gen Z being so sexless and their media so bland that Keoghan sticking his dick in some soil has become their Salo,
4- But also it's an abstracted and aesthetisised sexuality that's safe for them, unlike the confrontational, upfront and "problematic" Poor Things,
5- Most people haven't read Brideshead and nobody under 35 has seen Talented Mr Ripley so it all seems wildly original.

The fit cast and banging soundtrack help, of course.