Triangle of Sadness

Ruben Östlund splits the film into three named parts: Carl & Yaya, The Yacht, The Island. The opening argument is over who pays a restaurant bill, so the class material arrives as a couple’s negotiation long before the ship sinks. Pitching the part to Woody Harrelson, Östlund said the captain would read The Communist Manifesto to vomiting guests; the duel of quotations at dinner is exactly that. The storm was not shot at sea. Production designer Josefin Åsberg built the yacht interior on a hydraulic platform two metres up, so the rocking could start gently and grow until furniture slid across the room. Östlund works past twenty takes a scene, and cutting this passage took months. Power changes hands in the third part: Dolly de Leon’s toilet manager ends up on top because she can light a fire and catch fish. It was Charlbi Dean’s last role; she died in August 2022, months after Cannes. The film won Östlund a second Palme d’Or, took European Film Awards for film, director, screenwriter and actor for Zlatko Burić, and lost all three Oscar nominations. A good fit if you will give an hour to a satire’s setup rather than its payoff and want the sickness sequence at full length. Not for anyone expecting the yacht section to end on a punchline.