The Paper's reporter Cheng Xiaojun
This past weekend, the Cannes Film Festival welcomed the premiere of the main competition film Triangle of Sadness.) The film is written by the famous Swedish director Ruben Östlund, who won Cannes' highest honor, the Palme d'Or, in 2017, and this comeback is not entirely impossible from the seven- or eight-minute standing ovation of the audience after the film's screening.
Poster of "Triangle of Sorrows"
The film is starred in a handsome male model played by British actor Harris Dickinson, who borrows his internet celebrity supermodel girlfriend, takes a ride on an ultra-luxury yacht, and attends a casual party at sea organized by the super-rich. Unexpectedly, the sea suddenly changed, and a group of people were forced to live on a desert island, which gave rise to all kinds of absurd stories. The title literally translates to "Sadness Triangle", which refers to the triangular wrinkles formed by the frown on the forehead of people, and for models who eat by the face, the "Sadness Triangle" is what they try to avoid.
The biggest thrill in the film for the audience should be a fifteen-minute seasickness scene. The fierce storm made the handsome men and women on the ship who were originally exquisitely dressed and well-dressed all vomit. In this scene, the director uses the camera to show their vomit and excrement in detail, so that the well-informed Cannes audience can't help but scream on the spot, but what is heard more on the scene is the audience's happy and cheerful laughter.
Ostlund (right) on the set of The Triangle of Sorrows
At a press conference the day after the premiere, director Ostlund was grateful for the enthusiastic response from the Cannes audience, saying that whatever reason they screamed for, it was the greatest affirmation of his work. He said that he also knows that some professional film critics have criticized its jokes as too vulgar after watching this film, and the bad taste of all kinds of and is gathered together, which is really losing the noble status of the Cannes competition film. But Ruben said he didn't care about any of this, and he was more interested in the direct reaction of the audience, especially those who were not familiar with the so-called art film norms.
The crew of "Triangle of Sorrows" appeared at the Cannes Film Festival
"We've done some test screenings in Berlin and Stockholm before, and I found that everyone reacted coldly after watching it. Later, we went to the Spanish countryside to put a show, more than thirty rural people, usually do not watch much movies, but the result is that they are the happiest to see, want to laugh, want to call, the feedback is very direct, let me feel that this movie is not in vain. Europeans in the big cities of Berlin and Stockholm, who are always so reserved in comparison, like to hold their arms and stay out of the way when watching movies, forgetting that they are actually part of the show. My goal in making this film was to give the audience the thrill of a roller coaster ride, because that's what the movie does. I don't want people to watch this movie with a pretentious clever attitude. So this time, the Cannes audience can have such a reaction to this film, and I am very happy. ”
In 2017, Ostlund won the Palme d'Or in the main competition section of the 70th Cannes Film Festival for "Square"
Viewers who have seen Ostrend's previous works "Force Majeure" and "Square" should be able to see that the 48-year-old Swede's work has always been tinged with anger, willing to challenge tradition and ridicule authority, and willing to be the little boy who punctures the emperor's new clothes. According to himself, this "Triangle of Sorrows" tells the absurd story of how beauty can be used as money in this year, "which also means that Western civilization is coming to its end."
Filming began at the beginning of 2020, when the surging news reporter happened to be in Gothenburg for the film festival, Andelund deliberately rushed back to his hometown from the shooting site, took the time to meet with the media from all over the world, and also revealed a lot of ideas about the new film, such as the three-part structure of the film, and also said that it was inspired by his wife. At a press conference in Cannes, Ostlund also once again emphasized Le's wife's contribution to the new work. "We met eight years ago, she's a fashion photographer, and I learned from her what the fashion world really is all about. How fashion becomes a commodity, the poor working environment of the model and how beauty is used as money, etc. ”
Woody Harrison (left) with Ostrend on the set of The Triangle of Sorrows
American actor Woody Harrison plays the captain of a yacht in the film, who is portrayed as an alcohol-addicted Marxist. At the press conference, Harrison, who has always dared to speak, said that he was not a Marxist at all in his life, but a more radical anarchist in a sense. As if to prove that what he said was true, he immediately made a joke about former US President George W. Bush on the spot. In a speech at the Dallas Presidential Center on May 18, George W. Bush mistakenly referred to Ukraine as Iraq, calling the invasion of "Iraq completely unjust and barbaric." Woody Harrison also said humorously, "I think this practice is very bad, as a country, a country with such military power, such a superpower, will run to attack other countries without being provoked at all, such as Iraq... Pander to...... Exceed...... Sorry, I can't even remember how much else there was. ”
In addition to "Triangle of Sorrows," the weekend premiere was also featuring the documentary Jerry Lee Lewis: Haunted by The Heart, directed by Ethan Cohen from the Coen Brothers. Debut for decades, Ethan Cohen and brother Joel Cohen have always been inseparable from Meng and Meng, but last year's "The Tragedy of Macbeth", only the brother Joel directed alone, the outside world widely speculated whether there was any contradiction between the brothers, so in the Cannes press conference of "Jerry Lee Lewis: Troubled by the Heart", the focus was also on this issue.
Stills from Jerry Lee Lewis: Haunted by the Heart
In this regard, Ethan Cohen said that things are not complicated at all. "We all loved movies since we were young, and we wanted to make movies, and at that time everything was out of passion and impulse, and we did it, and the process was full of fun." He explains, "Then the second film, which was still full of fun, almost as much as the first time. But after thirty years, it's not that I'm feeling less fun, but making movies feels more and more like a job for me than in the old days. ”
He said that in fact, his brother Joel also had the same feeling, because it was the inevitable price of growth, but his brother's sense of burnout was not as strong as his, so "The Tragedy of Macbeth" became the work of his brother alone. "The last two films we worked on together were really torturous and very difficult. So much so that I began to ask myself: Why do you want to continue making movies? Now that the fun has become less and less. ”
During the epidemic, the lockdown and confinement also had a great impact on him, and even had the emotional problem of claustrophobic horror. At this moment, T-Bone Burnett, a musician friend who had worked with him on "Drunken Folk Songs" and "The Three Kings of Prison Escape", called and asked him if he wanted to try to make a documentary by Jerry Lee Lewis, the elder figure of the rock and roll hall, because the work was mainly cut on the computer, which was quite suitable for homework during the lockdown, and in this way, he had his return to the film world.
Asked if he would work with his brother in the future, Ethan Cohen said that this kind of thing was not accurate until the end. "I don't even know what I'm going to do in my next film right now, and it's possible to do it with him." Before, I was like a child's temper, thinking that everything had become boring, and that it was no longer interesting to make movies. And then there was a global outbreak. So, we never know what's going to happen next. Can you predict the future? ”
Editor-in-Charge: Zhang Zhe