[imagesource: Cannes Film Festival]

Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness has been awarded the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, the Palme d’Or.

This is the second Palme d’Or win for the Swedish director, who took home the same award in 2017 for The Square (trailer below), a satirical commentary on the art world.

The Guardian describes Östlund’s second geometrically titled film as a “glossy, sexually charged satire on fashion, globalisation, narcissist culture and the super-rich” who have their status undermined by unexpected events, complete with a lengthy vomiting scene.

After being told by an art director to fix his “triangle of sadness” (the zone on his forehead), the fashion model (played by British actor Harris Dickinson) is taken on a luxury cruise paid for by his girlfriend Yaya’s (played by South African Charlbi Dean) massive Instagram following.

That’s Dickinson and Dean above in character.

But this ship of fools, populated by plutocrats and the Undeserving Rich, and piloted by a captain (Woody Harrelson), who is on the verge of a breakdown, is heading for disaster and the one person who might be able to help is the ship’s toilet cleaner, ably played by Dolly De Leon, one of the vessel’s invisible servant class.

Naturally, this film, like “discomfort-food cinema, feelbad cinema”, is divisive.

While the opening section might be construed as “derivative”, it was admitted to Cannes for its “undoubted boldness and showmanship”.

No trailer seems to exist for Triangle of Sadness, so these clips will have to suffice.

Here’s the moment that includes the film’s name:

Now, enjoy captain Harrelson and a rich guest having a communist-capitalist quote-off while the ship threatens to tip:

And this uncomfortable White Lotus-esque moment:

For want of a proper trailer, here’s one for The Square, Östlund’s first Palme d’Or win:

The best director prize was won by South Korea’s Park Chan-wook for his erotic crime film, Decision to Leave.

The best actor was awarded to Song Kang-ho for Broker – the same gem who starred in 2019’s Oscar-winning Parasite.

[source:guardian]