Status: 09.01.2024, 17:00 PM
By: Katja Kraft
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Strong ensemble: (from left) Alison Oliver, Jacob Elordi, Barry Keoghan shine in the satire "Saltburn" on Amazon Prime Video. © Chiabella James
Emerald Fennell's "Saltburn" is a bitter social satire. It's a hit on Amazon Prime Video - and rightly so, says our critic.
This woman just has what it takes. Actress Emerald Fennell is releasing her second feature film – and everyone is freaking out. It is a great pleasure to see how the 38-year-old now manages to disturb us brave modern Biedermeier a bit again after the rock-strong #MeToo revenge thriller "Promising young Woman" (2020).
In "Saltburn", available on Amazon and currently hotly debated on the Internet because of some explicit scenes, she takes us into a world that should be well known to herself. Director Emerald Fennell is the daughter of British jeweller Theo Fennell, also known as the "King of Bling" because of his illustrious clientele. The characters in her film would buy clunkers from their father like chewing gum. Because the characters in her film are decadently rich.
Beautifully rich: Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi) in the Amazon Prime film "Saltburn". © Amazon Prime Video
England, mid-2000s: The outrageously gorgeous Felix Catton (the gods meant well to him: Jacob Elordi) enchants everyone at the University of Oxford with his charm and the habitus of a young man from the highest circles. This sympathetic guy doesn't need to be arrogant. He dances through life with an attractively light-footed manner, safely on every social stage – from mahogany to laminate. Aware of himself, Felix can afford to be friendly and attentive to everyone. This weakness is exploited by his fellow student Oliver (the Irishman most recently impressed in "The Banshees of Inisherin": Barry Keoghan). Visually, it is less blessed with classic beauty, awkward and insecure. Or so it seems. But when Felix invites Oliver to his family's sprawling estate for a summer, the true face of this coyty guy is gradually revealed.
"Saltburn" is a bitter social satire
The final revelation is "predictable", critics complain. Agrees. But that doesn't diminish the entertainment value of the bitter social satire. Its strength lies in the fact that, even as spectators, we cannot escape the fascination of vulgar wealth. That we would love to have Felix as a friend ourselves, who is so beautiful, so open-minded, so sensitive. But as it turns out in the course of the film, he's also terribly naïve and – when push comes to shove – self-righteous and selfish. Charity, as Emerald Fennell tells us in passing, ends when the beloved self suffers as a result.
The director and screenwriter pulls them all through the champagne; the eccentric figures who receive destitute guests in the noble halls of Saltburn, for their own amusement and to assure themselves of their generosity. Rosamund Pike and Richard E. Grant play Felix's unworldly parents in a deliciously caricature-esque way. But Fennell doesn't spare the parasitic beneficiaries who want a piece of the cake – even if it doesn't taste as good as it looks.
The party is over: Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) in front of the huge estate in Saltburn. © Amazon Prime Video
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Of course, it's stylized, over-the-top. Fennell exploits clichés and provokes with scenes of disgust. But she does so with a terrific ensemble, with a sense of atmospheric images and backdrops, between Patricia Highsmith, Oscar Wilde and F. Scott Fitzgerald. With pop songs from the 2000s, it lifts the story into a past that is longer ago than you think, as millennials realize in horror when watching the film – with hearts leaping with nostalgia, pumped by hits like "Time to pretend" by MGMT (2007), "Mr. Brightside" by The Killers (2003), "This modern Love" by Bloc Party (2005) and "Murder on the Dancefloor" by Sophie Ellis-Bextor (2001). The latter has made it back into the British charts through the film.
In this way, Emerald Fennell strikes a chord with the social media-strong group of people in their mid-thirties. Calculated? The artist, who was born in 1985, may just want to have a little fun herself. That's what the film does. And it shows that it's not the money that's bad. Bad is man. The one who would not like to spend a summer lazily enjoying the summer retreat at the castle moat, let him throw the first gem.