Sensual, Sultry, Saltburn: A non-classical film review
⏱ 5 min
It’s currently 00:00 on 26th November 2023... thirty minutes after my recent cinema viewing of the black-comedy thriller, Saltburn. As soon as I left the theatre, I felt a calling to recap and explore the subtleties surrounding this spectacular visualisation of the early two thousands.
From the well-curated casting, to the captivating cinematography, the sound was seamlessly integrated, and the audience were transfixed on a journey of awe: not from the narrative, but much rather the artful style of storytelling which ignited the unexpected twists, turns, and darkness subsiding human thought and emotion.
One undercurrent that resonated particularly, and feels relevant to the collective consciousness, is how LOVE and HATE teeter on the same line of self-expression. Both require extreme desire, and are filled with a magnitude of deep, bloody-red strokes of passion, and assertion.
In some moments, love is a hidden desire: a watchful eye, peeping through a dimly-lit window and into a much brighter room, which one lies far and separated from. Another form of love is the moment of acceptance that you feel in the loving gaze of another, who appreciates your flaws and accepts them entirely, ingesting your blood, your bodily fluids - your rawest sense of self.
What is Saltburn?
It’s exactly this - a journey into the darkness, through an abundance of lightness and beauty (outwardly). When things in life look so glamorous, embellished with gold, it’s easy to think that they are not filled with a rotting sensation - eroding from within. This erosion inevitably comes to the surface, and it’s often through a crack that is identified from the gaze of another — the one that wishes they had what you have; the illusion of perfection.
Tell me about perfection, why Saltburn embodied it?
2001 pop sensation 'Murder On The Dancefloor' by Sophie Ellis-Bexter resounded, while a young murderer swirled around nude in his shadows on the sultry tiles of an aristocratic home (entirely alone). The walls adorned in eclectic, historical paintings from the 16th century. This contrapuntal moment created a transcendence of emotional expectations, enriching sadness with glistens of light.
The film is hidden with cues that draw the viewer in and out of consciousness between right and wrong, good and evil, sexiness and unpleasantness, all-the-whilst maintaining the same level of interest and intrigue. It has a non-judgmental tone; there is no real sense of right or wrong.
None of the characters are likable in the traditional sense; they are not designed to be. Instead, they are authentically themselves within the realm of the story, each holding a post towards the moral objectiveness of your own perception.
Felix (played by the handsome Jacob Elordi) and Oliver (portrayed by Barry Keoghan, our lonesome, wannabe-victorious protagonist) dance through scenes of friendship, unknowingness, care, obsession, jealousy, love, and hate, proving how companionship oscillates on the border of uncertainty. Yet, we freely give ourselves to the hands of others through a game of trust and true love.
Why watch Saltburn?
Escape for a couple of hours into this world and see through the lens of the sick, disturbed, sexy, troubled, lonely, witty, joyful, characterful layers that surround human existence, most of which are masked by people, day to day, while living discretely under the surface.
Saltburn is a window in to understanding how thrilling it can be to paint an illusion of your own identity to feel connected, alive, and seen by others. All the while, one remains entirely alone, temporarily acknowledged, and forever dissatisfied, or perhaps, completely and utterly satisfied.
“Saltburn is a 2023 black comedy psychological thriller film written, directed, and produced by Emerald Fennell. The film stars Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, Alison Oliver, Archie Madekwe, and Carey Mulligan. Set in England in the mid-2000s, it follows a young university student who becomes infatuated with his wealthy schoolmate, who invites him to spend the summer at his eccentric family's estate.” - Wikipedia
