Puncturing the balloon of art world hypocrisy
CANNES, FRANCE— A Swedish film that wickedly satirizes the art world has energized the Cannes Film Festival.
Ruben Ostlund’s The Square takes dead aim at the pomposity and hypocrisy of artists — and indeed all people — who seek to provoke reactions without thinking about the consequences of their acts.
It is very funny but also sharply critical, asking the serious question, “How much inhumanity does it take before we access your humanity?”
The Square was well-received by international critics Friday, in advance of its gala world premiere Saturday, and looks to be a major contender for the Palme d’Or or other festival prizes.
It’s the latest social inquisition from the eagle-eyed Ostlund, whose previous film Force Majeure zeroed in on the ramifications of a man’s sudden cowardice at a moment of family crisis.
The new film, which co-stars Elisabeth Moss (TV’s Mad Men and The Handmaid’s Tale) and Dominic West (TV’s The Affair and The Wire), similarly focuses on the flaws of a male who considers himself above the moral and intellectual failings of lesser men.
His name is Christian, played by Danish actor Claes Bang, who looks a bit like Pierce Brosnan, a former James Bond — and Christian evidently considers himself every bit as suave and cool as 007.
He’s the head curator of Stockholm’s X-Royal Museum, a contemporary art institution that seeks to stir and shake people with its highminded installations. A divorced dad of two preteen girls, he drives an electric car, says all the right things about good causes and congrat- ulates himself for being both a thinker and a man of action. The museum has a new show, accurately called The Square, a public space described as “a sanctuary of trust and caring. Within it we all share equal rights and obligations.”
Commendable stuff, indeed, but when Christian’s wallet and cellphone are stolen by grifters working a clever scam, his ill-considered response is the opposite of the trust in humanity he’s been so righteously espousing. And as results both comical and not ensue from his actions — he’s also held to account for his bedroom indiscretions — his staff at the museum are busy making his life hell in other ways.
A controversial PR stunt involving a homeless tot goes viral on YouTube, bringing unwanted attention to the museum and threatening the museum’s funding. But the capper to Christian’s fall from grace, and the scene most talked about, involves a fancy-dress dinner that goes disastrously awry when a performance artist hired to shock well- dressed noshers turns into a real caveman. He’s played by Terry Notary, a stuntman and choreographer who plays simians in the current Planet of the Apes franchise.
The Square recalls the astringent humour of Ostlund’s fellow Scandinavians Roy Andersson and Bent Hamer, but the filmmaker is very much a man with his own unique take on the absurdity and contradictions of modern life.
He says in his production notes that he “wanted to make an elegant movie, with visual and rhetorical devices to provoke and entertain viewers” to comment on what he sees as “growing beliefs in the individual and the declining beliefs in the community. The distrust of the state, in media and in art.”
Mission accomplished — and it’s not lost on anybody here that the film is having its world premiere at one of the most serious of global cultural events. It gleefully bites the hand that feeds it. The Cannes Film Festival runs May 17-28. Follow Peter Howell on Twitter and Instagram: @peterhowellfilm.