Author: Jo-Ann Titmarsh
With Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund’s name spread throughout Cannes and far beyond. A comedy about a cowardly man who makes no attempt to save his family during an avalanche and the aftermath of his inaction, the film garnered huge acclaim and his new film was eagerly anticipated. The Square is also a comedy, this time about a man who performs an apparently brave act and has to deal with the consequences.
We first meet Christian (Claes Bang) lying on his sofa at work and awoken to give an interview with an American journalist, Anne (Elisabeth Moss). He is the curator of a contemporary art museum and Anne wants to him to explain his comments about exhibitions. Östlund wrote the screenplay and his take on art-world babble is brilliant. In a nice visual touch, Christian is also filmed with the words You Are Nothing in neon tube lighting behind him.
With Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund’s name spread throughout Cannes and far beyond. A comedy about a cowardly man who makes no attempt to save his family during an avalanche and the aftermath of his inaction, the film garnered huge acclaim and his new film was eagerly anticipated. The Square is also a comedy, this time about a man who performs an apparently brave act and has to deal with the consequences.
We first meet Christian (Claes Bang) lying on his sofa at work and awoken to give an interview with an American journalist, Anne (Elisabeth Moss). He is the curator of a contemporary art museum and Anne wants to him to explain his comments about exhibitions. Östlund wrote the screenplay and his take on art-world babble is brilliant. In a nice visual touch, Christian is also filmed with the words You Are Nothing in neon tube lighting behind him.
- 5/21/2017
- by Jo-Ann Titmarsh
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
When it comes to satire there are few easier targets than the world of contemporary art. “My 5-year-old could do that,” so goes the saying. This is not to indicate that the art world is no longer fair game, but the self-seriousness of that scene and the conceptual nature of what it tends to put out have been battered with the same stick for so long by now that it’s become almost impervious to such jabs. Almost.
One of the rare exceptions might be Ruben Östlund’s The Square, an acerbic, sphincter-tightening dark comedy that works as a sort of drawn-out spiritual castration for its über chic Stockholm art curator protagonist. Indeed, Östlund’s film is about our relationship with art but it’s about a number of other things, too — perhaps a few too many things, even if you never really feel the 142-minute running time. It’s about class,...
One of the rare exceptions might be Ruben Östlund’s The Square, an acerbic, sphincter-tightening dark comedy that works as a sort of drawn-out spiritual castration for its über chic Stockholm art curator protagonist. Indeed, Östlund’s film is about our relationship with art but it’s about a number of other things, too — perhaps a few too many things, even if you never really feel the 142-minute running time. It’s about class,...
- 5/20/2017
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
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