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Film Of The Week Squaring up to the art Establishment

MARIA DUARTE sees a subversive satirical attack on the pretentiousness and hypocrisy of contemporary culture

The Square (15)
Directed by Ruben Ostlund

 

FROM the absurdity and pretentiousness of art to social and class prejudices, sexual harassment and our lack of humanity and ever-growing distrust of one another, last year's Cannes Palme d'Or certainly tackles controversial issues and thought-provoking themes.

 

Deliciously cynical and surprisingly hilarious, writer-director Ruben Ostlund's latest offering is as smart, entertaining and acute as his previous film Force Majeure.

 

The Square centres on Christian — a wonderfully charismatic and engaging Claes Bang — a divorced father of two and the prestigious curator of a contemporary art museum in Stockholm who finds himself in both personal and professional crisis as he tries to introduce a daring new exhibit.

 

This consists of a square of light in the museum's courtyard with the inscription, “The Square is a sanctuary of trust and caring. Within it we all share equal rights and obligations.” After falling victim to an elaborate mugging, however, Christian doesn't live up to his own beliefs or those of his installation.

 

The film's a surreal exploration of the difference between instinct and intellect, what we believe and what we actually do. And it highlights the contentious role of a digital media that only engages in promoting something when it has a controversial or sexy hook.

 

After the museum's PR agency devises a shocking promo video for the exhibit, it goes viral, sparking a public outcry and, inevitably, matters go explosively downhill.

 

Characters have deep and gruelling conversations against the backdrop of bizarre-looking art installations as they interrogate each other about what constitutes art and Ostlund keeps you gripped with colourful and increasingly absurd images and inventive scenarios. There are fine performances from an eclectic A-list cast which includes Elisabeth Moss as a US journalist and Dominic West as a self-absorbed artist who attends a Q and A on his work in his pyjamas.

 

But it's Terry Notary who steals the show as a performance artist who, dressed as a gorilla, terrifies the museum's gala dinner guests in the film's final hair-raising act — an extraordinary and difficult scene to watch.

 

This remarkably ambitious satire hits its mark fair and square with ingenious flair and style and will haunt you long after the end credits have rolled.

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