Triangle of Sadness

Östlund's biting attack on the 1%, starring Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean, and Woody Harrelson, won the Palme d'Or for best film at the 2022 Cannes Film ...

This time when I was shooting, in order to create this sense of presence for the actors, I got everyone to stand around the camera and look at the actors, to give them their full attention. And I don’t want it to be so specific about why the different characters do what they do, I want to give the feeling that all men, and all women can identify with the situation. I try it out and look for when I really feel there’s a dilemma there for the actor, where you can see that they are struggling with their morals, ethics and expectations, expressing that in a believable and strong way. There’s the dilemma between what I want to do and what I feel that I have to do. If the line doesn’t work, we change the setup a little bit and see if it works then. And the cleaning lady is the only one who knows how to fish and how to make a fire. In Triangle of Sadness, for example, there’s a scene, the “bill scene,” where the male model and the female model are at a restaurant and the female model has said: ‘I’ll treat you.’ But when the bill comes, she doesn’t pick it up. A lot of the scenes in these three films are based on situations I have experienced myself. The male model is a bit on his way down and he is together with a female model on her way up. Then she said: we can split the bill if you want, you know, take out the calculator and so on, and there was so much shame for me in that situation. I decided the starting point of the film should be a male and a female model couple dealing with the fashion world and with being models. When I met her, I just wanted to hear everything about her work and the fashion industry and to get an insider’s perspective of that industry.