Film No. 82 (2023) SALTBURN. 13th Nov.

 

Film No. 82  (2023)  November 13th.  6:30 PM  EVENT CINEMAS, VMax, Cine 3,  Innaloo.

"I think you're a moth. Quiet, harmless, drawn to shiny things." (Venetia gives Ollie her summary of who she thinks he is).

WINNER: Audience Award (Emerald Fennell) Savannah Film Festival.

Don't seek out a viewing of SALTBURN if you've already decided what you're getting, chances are, you'll be in for a surprise. And while I'm issuing advice, block your ears if someone, in their excitement, starts telling you what SALTBURN is all about. 

Barry Keoghan broke our hearts in THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN, it seems he's got the same aim here. Oliver (Keoghan) is desperate to belong, as we meet him on day one at Oxford University. He's a scholarship winner, it's the only way this working class boy could afford to be an Oxford student. Enter the charismatic and astoundingly popular Felix (Jacob Elordi) who repays a kind act of Ollie's by inviting him to his family estate, Saltburn, for the summer. I know, BRIDESHEAD REVISITED; you've seen it all before. Well, you haven't, not when it comes to The Cattons'. Very definitely, you haven't.

Emerald Fennell is an actor turned film-maker. Her debut, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN won her best screenplay at The Oscars. SALTBURN proves she is no "one hit wonder". Fennell will be a reason film lovers of of Gen Y will be lining up to be entertained. She writes sharply and with cutting humour. Are these the lines she craved in the scripts she recited as an actor? Rosamund Pike delivers a character, Elspeth, Felix's mother, that she will surely cherish for years to come. Pike steals every scene she's in.

What are we to think of the lavishness that comes with Saltburn? Is it a marker to prove these people, born into extreme privilege lack contact with the rest of the world? And how is the grounded Felix, so well grounded? And while I'm  asking questions, who is this Cary Mulligan character, Pamela? What is the significance of her exit? Was Mulligan suddenly called away to a new project? The throw-away line as to her fate is  part of the film's puzzle. 

Was THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY one of Fennell's favourite films? Stop with the questions. I'm asking too many. I should be recounting Ollie's journey into Saltburn. But no; I won't. SALTBURN deserves to be enjoyed on a big screen by those with an open mind. Go back to my questions, post viewing.  11GUMS.