1178 Triangle of Sadness

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DarkImbecile
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1178 Triangle of Sadness

#1 Post by DarkImbecile » Fri May 24, 2019 3:51 pm

Triangle of Sadness

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Master of social discomfort Ruben Östlund trains his unsparing lens on the world of wealth, beauty, and privilege in this audacious, Palme d’Or–winning satire of our status-obsessed culture. A model-influencer couple (Harris Dickinson and Charlbi Dean) get a ticket to the luxe life when they’re invited aboard an all-expenses-paid cruise alongside a coterie of the rich and ghoulish—but an act of fate turns their Insta-perfect world upside down. Pushing each provocative set piece to its outré extreme, Östlund maps the shifting social hierarchies with the irreverence of a modern-day Luis Buñuel and the incisiveness of a cinematic anthropologist.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
  • New 4K digital master, approved by director Ruben Östlund, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
  • One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
  • New interview with Östlund and filmmaker and actor Johan Jonason
  • Two new programs: one about the film’s special effects and one about a challenging day on set
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by film critic A. S. Hamrah


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Re: New Films in Production, v.2

#3 Post by DarkImbecile » Tue Feb 04, 2020 11:52 am

DarkImbecile wrote:
Fri May 24, 2019 3:51 pm
Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness sounds fun:
A contemporary satire taking place in the world of fashion, “Triangle of Sadness” is set on a luxury yacht and ends up on a deserted island where hierarchies are turned upside down. The film is produced by Erik Hemmendorff at Plattform Produktion.

The movie, which marks Östlund’s English-language debut and his most ambitious feature ever, is approximately budgeted at 10 million euros.
...
“’Triangle of Sadness’ is an existential candy-bag; reflecting, provocative and entertaining. The bar is as usual set high and we are currently planning the wildest scene ever in the history of film,” said Östlund. “On a luxury yacht, in a storm, passengers are struggling with sea sickness and table etiquette during a captain’s dinner. A really nasty dish will be served.”
I loved The Square, as I know some others here did, and this sounds solidly in that vein of ambitious comedy.
All right, I’m just going to issue a temporary ban in this case, but if certain people don’t start reading threads before posting, there may be more serious consequences in the future.


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DarkImbecile
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Re: New Films in Production, v.2

#5 Post by DarkImbecile » Tue Feb 04, 2020 2:01 pm

Damn, I knew I should have put that ban in place faster

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Re: Trailers for Upcoming Films

#6 Post by aox » Mon May 23, 2022 2:06 pm

Ruben Östlund returns with Triangle of Sadness. It got a standing ovation for 8 minutes at Cannes.

They released this clip from the film

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Re: Festival Circuit 2022

#7 Post by domino harvey » Wed Jun 01, 2022 7:05 pm

Ostlund announced that the theatrical cut of Triangle of Sadness will be “longer and richer”… the film is already 2 1/2 hours long!

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Re: Trailers for Upcoming Films

#8 Post by criterionsnob » Tue Aug 09, 2022 1:11 pm


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Re: Trailers for Upcoming Films

#9 Post by Never Cursed » Tue Aug 09, 2022 6:29 pm

God that looks tedious

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Re: Trailers for Upcoming Films

#10 Post by furbicide » Tue Aug 09, 2022 8:12 pm

It's anything but! Though I'm very glad I didn't see that trailer before watching the film, because it pretty much reveals the entire plot.

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Re: Trailers for Upcoming Films

#11 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Aug 09, 2022 10:53 pm

Yeah, it ostensibly seems to be a more naked execution of concept for Östlund, but I enjoyed the trailer's face-value approach at satirizing a class of people requiring literal single-syllable affirmations, milking this well dry in rote antisocial rhythms a la Lanthimos. However, the reveal of what I imagine has to be the last act is irritatingly spoiler-y, and reminds me why I hate trailers

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Re: Trailers for Upcoming Films

#12 Post by colinr0380 » Fri Aug 12, 2022 1:02 am

I like that the Triangle of Sadness trailer reveals that it has a team up scene between Woody Harrelson and Zlatko Buric, who were both in Roland Emmerich's disaster film 2012! (Albeit they never meet in that film, and Buric had the much bigger role that may relate to the Östlund film!)

Domino may have to tell us whether it turns out to be a remake of Stanley Kramer's Ship of Fools.

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Re: Passages

#13 Post by Never Cursed » Tue Aug 30, 2022 3:00 pm

Charlbi Dean, one of the stars of Triangle of Sadness, dead at just 32 from an "unexpected illness"

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Re: The Films of 2022

#14 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Oct 06, 2022 12:44 am

zedz wrote:
Tue Aug 23, 2022 9:05 pm
Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Ostlund, 2022) – Did somebody say Scandinavian cringe comedy? This is yet another Ostlund film predicated on gender and class roles, but he’s operating in a more transparently farcical arena this time. No, he’s not making any fresh or penetrating analyses of the class struggle, but that’s not what this film is about. It’s a comedy, and its job is to be funny.* If you missed that point, then I guess you slept through the climactic Captain’s Dinner set piece where a pair of blind drunk characters trade Marxist and anti-Marxist aphorisms. And how the hell did you manage to sleep through the Captain’s Dinner?
* It is sickeningly funny.
After finding Force Majeure theoretically interesting but a bit tiring, and The Square an enjoyable and thought-provoking exercise almost designed to disappoint in some areas, I was surprised at how consistently on board I was with Östlund’s latest overlong, uneven, blunt satire- far more than any of his other work, or any comedy this year. It's funny to glance at critical readings of this one, because some outright deny that Östlund is intending to do anything more than implement hard-hitting eviscerations on society. Yet he's also clearly retaining an underlying sympathy for our fragility, and most glaringly, our isolation in that brittle, shelled, and malleable state that leaves no room for secure identity, or to be received with dependable intimacy. There's a pulsating desire to be seen and heard, to be important, and a reactive response to hide under social niceties to keep the status quo or retreat into introverted despair. This is portrayed most obviously in the relationship dynamic of the model couple, but it also extends to Harrelson's captain, who shelters away in the fatalistic self-pity of drink, only to come alive in confessing his passionate conspiracy-ridden beliefs which are also sourced in selfish motives to be seen as smarter, as having a special knowledge over what is mystery to others, and to matter. This is transparently ridiculed as well, but there's more than a twinkle of compassion for him too.

At times the film feels like it’s dragging, where scenes go on for just seconds too long it, but I think all these perceived flaws are actually contributing to something more profound than comedy; fostering a shred of space to meditate for a brief moment on the sadness of it all, before venturing back into farcical satire. This may not read as 'economical' to some viewers, but even a scene that’s five seconds too long earns that stretching to convey a pathos for how alienated and vapid we are, when we have such authentic needs buried underneath, unsafe to expose, without the tools to communicate them against the friction of ubiquitous social barriers. Following suit, the penultimate scene amusingly gravitates with an agonizingly slow-burn towards an expected conclusion, while the final shot is more ambiguous in its intent, and fitting with the elided theme of our loneliness without an idealized stable sense of being where morality and action would align with confidence.

But yes, otherwise this is a scrumptious offering of jabs at cognitive dissonance, social awkwardness, how petty drama has evolved into a (d)evolved form of survivalism while remaining at-odds with it, etc. It's of a piece with Speak No Evil's take on social darwinism regarding our generation, though taking the patheticism of hesitation and uncertainty, or ignorant narcissistic smugness, for laughs rather than horror. The film is touching every hot topic imaginable, and specifically exploring how we feel compelled to engage with or shy away from gendered expectations, social politics, and morality around our agency depending on proximity to actionable harm (most effectively in confronting carnivory's blind dismissal of vegetarianism with a certain animal late in the film, most obviously with a pair of sweet old arms dealers). Like The Square, Östlund doesn't have aims to be subtle, but the gags are intelligent, versatile, layered in witty observance, all exhibited in Tati-esque setpieces, with criticisms woven into the narrative to deliver punchlines sometimes two-hours later than the joke's inception. zedz is right, the Captain's Dinner's culmination in forcing high society into low brow entertainment is reflexively inspiring, and from here on out the setpieces flow into one another relentlessly until the credits roll.

I wouldn't fault anyone for getting tired in the last act, but I was glued to the screen and could've watched another hour of this, at least. This is an incredibly ambitious film, risking a lot by playing with grammatic rules and worn ideas in fresh ways, and it's deserving of the Palme

Also, my advanced screening had these fun promotional items (spoilered for size):
SpoilerShow
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Re: Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, 2022)

#16 Post by Orlac » Fri Nov 18, 2022 4:30 pm

I saw this a month ago as my local arthouse's "mystery film" of the month...as I knew nothing about it, I spent the first ten minutes thinking it was a mockumentary about life as a gay fashion model!

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Re: Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, 2022)

#17 Post by domino harvey » Fri Nov 18, 2022 5:14 pm

Did Papa Elon buy SAG now too?

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Re: Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, 2022)

#18 Post by therewillbeblus » Sat Nov 19, 2022 2:10 pm

I loved this just as much (and laughed almost as hard) the second time, though for those planning to watch it for the first time streaming at home, I highly suggest abandoning your couch and heading to the theatre. The movie is funny in a vacuum but the infectious collective energy of an audience it critical for such grating social humor to maximize its impact. Rarely do I literally feel a part of the movie while watching it, but at my screening I felt like I was a passenger on the rocky ship during the Captain’s Dinner. Sensing the reactions from a wide audience demographic in close proximity as things spiraled out of control was pricelessly absorbing. I had the luxury of attending a press screening in Boston, which effectively emulated a stuffy atmosphere filled with many patrons who resembled some of the elderly snobs losing their wits/control of bodily functions, all of who were reflexively squirming in their seats during the big set piece of scatological interruption that sobered them to their absence of control (yes I looked around, it was one of the highlights of my theatre-going career), but I imagine any large group setting would increase one’s enjoyment regardless of audience diversity

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Re: Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, 2022)

#19 Post by therewillbeblus » Sat Nov 19, 2022 10:24 pm

This one’s been staying active in my mind since I first watched it, and I’m more convinced than ever that Östlund is engaging with some deep, dense, and complex ideas impossible to adequately pull apart beneath the surface of his on-the-nose shtick. The punchlines that come in the final act -around the central couple alone- are hysterical and devastating, blending incongruous primitive drives with inherent hypocrisy and genuine needs for connection gone unrealised due to the burdens of natural and learned interpersonal distrust. Östlund is implicitly detailing how this fatalistic detachment is ironically only exacerbated by our regressive evolution toward layered constructed desires, needs, sensitivities, and identities, all of which (one could argue) were built or at least collectively unveiled in a Darwinistic plea to enclose on the elusive nature of social intimacy; to give and receive validation as a form of healing from the pain of congenital isolation. Östlund knows we’ve failed, but he appreciates some of the attempts we’ve made with what we’ve been given, doesn’t appreciate others, and exposes it all with a reflexively uneven hand to mirror this disharmony of the text: his art, and our lives.

The bitter irony of compounding organic and artificial mechanisms together, before then going so far as to question which is which, is icing on the cake- since the characters, and we, do the same (or worse, and sadder; don’t question, because it’s so nebulous, uncomfortable, and disempowering that we’d rather repress). Psychosocial survivalism leaning towards a goal in emotional stability aggressively contends with literal survivalism, and only becomes more of a handicap as we become more sensitive as a species, which should in theory bridge our social harmony -though these sensitivities are often rooted in histories of classist, political, and gendered oppression. Irony galore!

Also, it’s no secret that we’ve always been commodified by influences based on sex and power, but connecting servitude to Instagram is pretty good. Are we all essentially our own versions of the post-stroke German lady who can only communicate one meaningless phrase, restraining our growth or potential linkage with another soul, deterministically unable to evade the structures that bind us to roles? The answer, on several accounts, is In den Wolken. One of the saddest and most poignant endings in a movie this year

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Re: Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, 2022)

#20 Post by Aunt Peg » Mon Nov 21, 2022 3:31 am

Question: I saw this not long after its Cannes showing and the entire film was subtitled in English.

The only non-English dialogue in the film was some incidental banter between the cleaning staff. Is that subtitled for it's general release?

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Re: Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, 2022)

#21 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Nov 21, 2022 11:49 am

There's some brief non-English dialogue subtitled at the beginning as well as on the yacht, including amongst the guests, though not much. "In den Wolken" is intentionally not translated, but continues to be subtitled throughout

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Re: Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, 2022)

#22 Post by DarkImbecile » Mon Nov 21, 2022 11:57 am

I didn't find this as cutting as Force Majeure or as hilariously unnerving as The Square, but even a lesser Östlund comedy is still more than funny and cringey enough to be worth watching. If there's nothing particularly novel in the satirical targets, Östlund's means of cutting them down are mostly entertaining, though a few of the payoffs are uninspired enough to fall flat (I'm thinking of one involving a grenade in particular) and others feel abandoned prematurely.

Still, even for those who don't find either the more dry relationship and observational humor or the garishly shocking bodily fluid sequences amusing, Östlund's camera continues to be a vehicle for comedy in and of itself: the excited swiveling between bickering lovers in the backseat of a car, the nauseating rolling in a turbulent ocean, and the long tracking shots arriving at dark punchlines. The sound design here is similarly delightful as usual — though delightful may be the wrong word, since Östlund revels in underlining or undercutting his characters with unavoidably irritating reminders of that which they'd rather ignore: buzzing flies, braying donkeys, squeaking windshield wipers, working people, etc.

Oddly, I found Woody Harrelson — who is very often the best and most compelling part of uneven films — not particularly interesting here, largely a function of his meager role and not anything he's doing or failing to deliver as an actor. Still, I was excited to see him going in and then barely noticed when he disappears from the film, which is disappointing. My favorites of the rest of the ensemble were Harris Dickinson's Carl, forever veering between a kind of entitled indignation and a meek willingness to be exploited, and Zlatko Burić's Dimitry, whose boisterously amoral Russian millionaire has a couple of the best moments in the film.

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Re: Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, 2022)

#23 Post by Aunt Peg » Mon Nov 21, 2022 7:29 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Mon Nov 21, 2022 11:49 am
There's some brief non-English dialogue subtitled at the beginning as well as on the yacht, including amongst the guests, though not much. "In den Wolken" is intentionally not translated, but continues to be subtitled throughout
Thanks.

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Re: Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, 2022)

#24 Post by Zot! » Sat Dec 10, 2022 9:03 am

I know there are some Rozier fans here, was anyone else reminded of The Castaways of Turtle Island? It’s been many years since I’ve seen it, but the conspicuous resemblance occupied my mind afterwards.

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Re: Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, 2022)

#25 Post by furbicide » Sat Dec 10, 2022 8:30 pm

Yep, it occurred to me right away too! Certainly the way both films end (and of course the broader plot outline of a mixed bag of affluent travellers on an ill-fated cruise). I couldn't help but wonder if Östlund was familiar with the film and partially inspired by it – I always thought Castaways was ripe for a big-budget remake.

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