How two Youtube videos inspired Ruben Östlund’s ‘Triangle of Sadness’
Ruben Östlund is undoubtedly a lover of satirical and black comedy, utilising such tones and genres in his most known and acclaimed works. The filmmaker received praise at Cannes Film Festival this year for Triangle of Sadness, a story of a celebrity fashion couple stranded on an island after their cruise ship sinks. The film stars Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean (her last film before she passed), Dolly de Leon, Zlatko Burić, Henrik Dorsin, Vicki Berlin, and Woody Harrelson.
Östlund’s English language debut was met with acclaim and success upon release, receiving praise among critics for its well-executed risky humour. In addition, the director won the Palme d’Or at Cannes. However, the film only grossed $14.5 million against a $15.6 million budget. Triangle of Sadness isn’t viewed as the director’s most superior work. However, it’s a compelling contribution that takes a swipe at the affluent.
An interview with GQ led Östlund to reflect on how his films involve awkwardness and second-hand embarrassment for audiences to grit their teeth at. The filmmaker explains this frequent characteristic: “I think that we, human beings, are very sensitive to social interactions… The fear that we have to lose faith in front of each other, the fear that we have that we are going to be excluded from the group, and so on, it’s something that is definitely a primal behaviour and a primal fear that we have.”
In the same interview, Östlund reveals he was inspired to write Triangle of Sadness after watching some Youtube clips, finding “two videos that are fun to talk about”.
“One is Denver, the dog. The owner of the dogs comes home, and he finds out that the dogs have eaten the kitty cat treats.” Östlund explains. “He is walking over to dog number one, and he’s like, ‘Macy, did you do this?’ And he’s filming Macy, and the dog is looking very normal. ‘I don’t think you did.’ Then he walks over to Denver—and I have never in my life seen shame expressed in a stronger way.” This emotion of shame implies a concurrent theme in the director’s film, one that augments its satirical undertones. “I used that YouTube clip, and I showed it to the actors, Harris and Jean-Christophe [Folly] when we were shooting when they had stolen the pretzel sticks,” Östlund adds.
Keeping a theme of animals’ reactions, the filmmaker then describes the following Youtube clip transmitted to Triangle of Sadness. “There’s another clip that I also think is very interesting. It’s scientists looking at how monkeys deal with inequality,” he says. “There are two monkeys in two different glass cages next to each other, so they can see each other. When they give a little stone to the researchers, they get a reward back.” Östlund was immediately engaged in the video’s set-up and potential outcomes, as it’s a scenario that alludes to human psychology and that of animals. “The first monkey gives a stone to the scientist, and it gets a cucumber,” he adds. “Then the second monkey gives the stone to the scientist, and that monkey gets a grape. So the first monkey is looking like, ‘What is going on here?'”.
Östlund then gets to the video’s climax and explains how the creature then “looks at the stone first, and then he gives it to the scientist. And once again, he gets a cucumber. And he gets so angry he starts hitting on glass, throwing the cucumber on the researchers.” The director then highlights what this video meant to him and how it inspires the ideas he explored in his film: “And it’s just a beautiful example that inequality is not only provoking us human beings, animals also get very, very provoked of inequality.”
This concept of inequality, as communicated through this clip of primates, went on to be utilised in this year’s Palme d’Or winner. It would be an interesting experience to rewatch Triangle of Sadness, knowing that the inspiration for its thematic concepts came from Youtube videos about animals’ emotional responses to everyday encounters and experiments.
Watch Östlund discuss Triangle of Sadness here.
