The Square (2017)

Luke Coverdale

Film 486

Due to the cancelation of PIFF, I was unable to make it to any screenings unfortunately. Hopefully next year I can make it, but in the meantime I was able to choose between twenty years of Cannes palme d’or winners to write about. With many choices available, I decided to narrow my choices and chose to focus on Scandinavian films, as I haven’t had much exposure or knowledge of film’s from that region, so I thought it would be a good idea to explore it further. The first of the two films I chose was The Square (2017) a Swedish film directed by Ruben Östlund. The Square focuses on Christian, the curator of the X-Royal art museum in Stockholm, who along with dealing with ever growing personal issues must manage the promotion of a new modern art installation, The Square. 

The film deals with the decadence and absurdity within the modern art community in a satirical way, while also addressing the hypocritical and entitled nature of those involved, mainly centered around the nature of  titular art installation. The Square promotes helping those in need, as those passing by The Square must help whoever is inside. The installation gives the museum workers and the rich donors a hypocritical sense of self satisfaction, which contrasts with a recurring motif of people passing those in need in the streets, caught up within themselves and frequently their cell phones or other distractions from the outside world and other people. 

One of the most enjoyable parts of the film for me was the artwork created for the film, which parodies many tropes seen in modern art. The film begins with Christian struggling to explain a pompous statement for an exhibition that he wrote during an interview, or an eccentric performance art piece where a mostly naked artist acts like an ape, jumping around a decadent dinner party for the museum’s supporters as they all watch in smug amazement. The humor of the film reminded me of the film Velvet Buzzsaw, which was released on Netflix in 2019. Both films offer a satirical take on the modern art world, but with Velvet Buzzsaw approaching it from a horror oriented perspective. 

The film was well received at Cannes, becoming a surprise hit and winning director Ruben Östlund the palme d’or for 2017. He would become the first Swedish director to win the award since 1951, when Alf Sjöberg won the award for Miss Julie. Along with this, set decorator Josefin Åsberg received the Vulcan Award of the Technical Artist, and the film was also selected to be the Swedish entry for Best Foreign Language Film for the 2018 Academy awards, although the film failed to receive a nomination. However the film would come to achieve great success at the 2017 European Film Awards, where it would receive six nominations, winning all of them, four of which were credited to Ruben Östlund due to his extensive involvement in the film. Through all of the festivals, the film’s humor, writing and the performance of lead actor Claes Bang would be attributed to the film’s prolific success.