To think Saltburn was a bit shit

[HummusDip]

I don’t watch films that often, but watched on Amazon Prime largely due to Carey Mulligan/Rosamund Pike…

It’s visually good, but felt rushed/unbelievable towards the end…

It’s just not convincing - particularly ‘Oliver’…

It's a bit like Emerald Fennell watched Parasite and thought hmm, but what if the rich people were the real victims.

She's got a way of marketing her films that's initially appealing but there's no substance at all when you actually think about them. Promising Young Woman was billed as a rape revenge film and SPOILERS there was no actual revenge or comeuppance in it at all. The lead character did nothing beyond scold them men she lured home, her grand revenge plot was a flop and led to her very predictable death (which the camera lingered on in true male-gaze style) and Fennell's idea of resolution was that she called the cops from beyond the grave. I think we all know with the rates of conviction for rape, and cops famously taking historic rape cases seriously, how well that case would've gone. Oh and the worst punishments in the film were all meted out to women.

Maybe today but DH went circa 2010 and there were literally a handful of people from state education in his collage, and most of them were still pretty MC. Most of the students he met were very wealthy, wonderfully eccentric, and completely bonkers.

Agree it was icky couldn't finish watching it.

Everything was very convenient rather than inevitable and well plotted (unlike in, say, the far superior The Talented Mr Ripley). The flashback sequence at the end to ‘explain’ everything was unforgivable and actually explained nothing. That was not a clever or well thought out murder plot and it’s frankly amazing that all of these things just happened to work out for him 🙄 Stylish weak nonsense imo. Nowhere near as elegant as the films it was emulating (Ripley, Brideshead, etc). Great cast though.

That’s unusual, I think. I was there in the 90s (from a state school) and we were the majority even then. Maybe it varies by college.

Actually I’ve looked it up now and it was about 50-50 overall when I was there so my college may have had more state school students than average. State school students were the majority - just - by 2006 so definitely having had just a few state pupils in a college of hundreds must have been unusual.

Yes Ive just looked up the figures and staggered that it was actually 50/50. I think his collage must have been an outlier. I can only remember a handful of ‘normal’ type students and his year group wasn’t massive so he knew most of them. Unless they were all reverse Oliver’s and were masquerading as posh people

It takes a huge amount of energy, creativity and self belief to write and direct films, I take my hat off to any woman who manages to do it, rather than tear them down

So do I.

It’s bloody hard work. (Junior doctors don’t have a clue how many hours some people put in, and it’s a lot less well paid.)

Christ, this was hard work. Beautifully shot in places, painfully dark in others.

It reminded me of the sort of self absorbed work some drama students produce, purely for their own indulgence.

Oh, and I was eating my breakfast when the bath scene happened. Boak.

Overall, I liked it. But three scenes felt gratuitous / shock value / unnecessary and spoiled it for me

Also tons of money and industry connections and the safe knowledge that you can flop catastrophically at the box office and still have an incredibly comfortable life also helps. I'll hang on to my hat for those who have actual skin in the game I think, Emerald Fennell is loaded.

I was at Oxford in the mid 1980s. 30% of students were women, 70% men, and at my college 10% were state educated, 90% private or public school, so I was a real outlier and simply clueless about how much wealthier than me ALL my friends were. It made a huge difference to everything - to what they did in the holidays, to how they dressed, what they got up to at weekends, what job opportunities they had.

I was the only one with severe money worries the whole time , the only one who worked through every holiday and returned exhausted, not having done all the reading because I was doing full time shop work, office work and waitressing. there was zero understanding in those days that social class affected performance or mental well being. It seems a lot more balanced and aware/supportive these days.

Most successful English actors are of public school boy/girl ilk, acting schools are elitist and unaffordable for working class students.

The same has been afforded to Emerald Fennel, she was brilliant as CPB in The Crown however. But she may grow into a great director in time.

It was a strange combination of interesting and boring.

But by god, at least it wasn't Antman, or another superhero movie.

Nobody is being 'torn down'.

Emerald Fennell made a film for public consumption. We, the public, are entitled to critique it. None of the comments I have seen here have been of a personal nature.

I'm sure directors love having their work called shit and unoriginal

Why do you care what she thinks? Also do you realise you’re on an online forum where people are allowed, within reason, to express their opinions?

@Allfur I think it’s great that you acknowledge how hard it is for female directors, but I think it’s a bit much to expect people to never have a critical reaction to the work a female director creates. I don’t think any woman director (or woman professional in any field) wants to be infantilised. Emerald Fennell will not be in the least affected by us having a conversation about a film she made. It’s part of the job and there will be greater critics (and greater fans) with much more relevance to her than a handful of anonymous people on mumsnet. It really is okay for us to discuss our opinions of the film honestly. No one has said anything personal or unwarranted.

I enjoyed it throughly, especially the lovely Barry Keoghan.

As an aside, funny how you never see him, Derek Jacobi and Iwan Rheon in the same room at the same time.

Well then I guess she better make sure her work is not shit or unoriginal.

As a total aside I just looked at Keoghan's Wikipedia page and discovered he had an incredibly challenging background and childhood, and now feel very rotten for passing remarks on his face. Unlike Fennell (who I have nothing against, I'm sure she's a very nice person) he has really had to overcome a lot to get the acclaim he is currently enjoying, and he really is a very talented actor. Long may his star continue to rise!

I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but there is a scene where they are all eating at the table. It's daylight and Felix is wearing a pink shirt. During the scene, you can see a gardener tending to the grounds outside the window. Felix then walks past the window (I'm sure it's him - same dark dair and pink shirt) The camera then goes back on Felix who is still sitting at the dining table. I'm not sure if it's a blooper or if I'm missing some sort of subliminal message.

ETA - its the scene where they are talking about poet Shelley's doppelganger which makes me feel it is deliberate.

Aha! I'm not going mad, then. Ive just googled again and this article explains it all. Glaringly obvious now I think about it.

(Spoilers in article)

https://screenrant.com/saltburn-catton-family-deaths-breakfast-scenes-foreshadow/

Jacob Elordi is gorgeous.