At the 70th Cannes festival, the Golden Palm branch went to, according to the jury, the most innovative, paradoxical and frankly impudent project. The film “Square” (2017) reviews are positioned as a rigid satirical tape about the world of contemporary art and life in Sweden.
The director of the picture was a 44-year-old Swede Ruben Estlund. The rating of the tape is IMDb: 7.20. By the way, as the reviews for the movie “Square” explain, its subtitle is the name of a really existing installation of authorship by Ruben Estland himself.
Original style of director
Ruben Estlund is one of the few world-class directors opened by the MIFF. The premiere of his debut work, The Mongoloid Guitar, was held in Moscow in 2004. The experimental picture immediately attracted the attention of the world community with its quirkiness. Estlund's original directorial style was finally developed for the "Game" (2011). This inventive film provoked heated debate in liberal Swedish society; it was even called racist by individual critics.
In the next project, Force Majeure (2014), the visionary significantly expanded his horizons. The story of how a respectable family man rushed to save his iPhone, rather than his family during an avalanche, was regarded by critics as a caustic commentary on modern values of society. The film "Square" reviews of reviewers called the largest project in the filmography of the director. Sometimes it is equated with the encyclopedia of European (specifically Swedish) life.
Multiple storylines
The plot of the film "Square" reviews of film experts equate to the study of development trends of a progressive European society through the prism of contemporary art. The narrative is an interweaving of several storylines.
The protagonist Christian is the curator of the exhibition "Square" in the Stockholm Museum of Modern Art X-Royal. Throughout the timing of the tape, he is faced with many dilemmas in professional activity and personal life. He is divorced, but cares about the welfare and upbringing of his daughters, strives to work for the benefit of society, is always courteous and correct with others, drives an electric car.
His impeccability sometimes annoys colleagues. But once a man finds himself unsettled after a smartphone, wallet and grandfather's cufflinks are stolen from him on the street. Before, a respectable citizen suddenly changes his integrity, monitors the house of the alleged offender and sets up lynching, bombarding the mailboxes of the house with threatening letters. By the way, he finds cufflinks at home, but already a complete eccentric act will soon entail unpredictable consequences.
Performance Series
By and large, the Estlund project can be considered almost a documentary tape, similar to a video recorder record, accompanied by witty and caustic comments on the spite of the day. Critics in the reviews of the film “Square” compare the director with M. Haneke in observation, and as a satire with L. Bunuel or M. Ade.
The structure of the picture is a gallery of rhetorical questions, the very wording of which is very provocative. Curatorial episodes are considered to be the most caustic, which prompted some viewers to call the film a satire on the world of contemporary art. This wording has a right to exist, but it is not accurate. The Estlund project is not a mockery of museum laws, customs, ridiculous expositions and exhibits, it is much more extensive.
Here, it is appropriate to mention the real performance beyond the foul - a shocking moment in which Terry Notari, who had previously played in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, in the image of a Russian artist, depicts an aggressive primate during a dinner party. This scene parodies many deliberately scandalous advertising campaigns, the consumer attitude of the media to contemporary art.
Acting Ensemble
In the film “Square” (2017), the actors are selected delightfully. The main role was played by the Danish theater, film and television actor Klas Casper Bang (“The Jungle Child”, “The Bridge”). His dramatic talent was awarded the European Academy Award.
In partnership with Klas, Golden Globe award winner Elizabeth Moss worked brilliantly to reveal the image of Anne. The American actress is known for the projects "Anatomy of Passion", "The Handmaid's Tale" and the movie "Interrupted Life".
Not the last role in the implementation of the director’s idea was played by Dominic West, who got the role of Gijoni. The British actor is best known to the public as a detective Jim McNulty in the series “wiretap”. Also, the track record of the artist includes the paintings “Rock Star”, “300 Spartans”, “Hannibal: Ascent”.
Terry Notari was inimitable in the image of Oleg Rogozin. The American actor, stuntman and understudy often portrays fantastic creatures or animals for the film and television industries. He brilliantly demonstrated his skills in the films Avatar, The Adventures of Tintin, Avengers: War of Infinity, in the series The Hobbit and The Planet of the Apes.
Grand art experiment
In addition to the excellent cast, the advantages of Estlund's work include sharp topical and funny satirical scenes, a lot of cameraman finds by Frederic Wenzel, sudden plot twists and sensible flirting with absurdism. In general, the picture is an excellent arthouse film project that has collected many awards. The film "Square" (2017), in addition to the "Golden Palm Branch", was awarded the European Film Academy Award and other reputable film festivals.