‘Saltburn’: How Queer is Fennell’s latest film, really?
Previously deemed an ‘explicit’ and eclectic ‘queer’ story of obsession, Fennell’s sophomore film remains shrouded in mystery.
After the release of its teaser trailer, no further mention of queerness has been made by major news outlets. Whereas prior to it, a few queer media outlets had labelled the film as such, including Gay Times and PinkNews.
This fall, we have a long-run of queer studio films coming our way, including All of Us Strangers (starring Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal), Maestro (Bradley Cooper, Matt Bomer), Strange Way of Life (Ethan Hawke, Pedro Pascal), and (presumably) Saltburn. Nevertheless, whether the latter is actually queer or not is up for debate after the release of its teaser and the reviews of its first festival screening at Telluride. Let’s dive into whether or not Saltburn belongs to the category of queer cinema — with the limited information available prior to its wide release in December 1st of this year.
Set in the early 2000s, Barry Keoghan plays Oliver, a quiet, troubled student at Oxford University struggling to find a place among the privileged elite. Unsurprisingly, this takes a turn when he is sucked into the gravitational pull of the charismatic and alluring Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), whose pity toward Oliver leads to him being invited to the Catton family’s eccentric estate for the summer. Introducing the outsider to a world of lavish excess and particular characters with fabricated personas — including Rosamund Pike’s amusing yet blunt portrayal of Felix’ mother. In Vanity Fair’s insightful interview with the film’s director, Fennell describes Saltburn as a marriage between a contemporary exacerbated sense of desire –that sees us wanting everything around us– and the subsequent disgust we feel towards this desire.
The closest instances of a (potential) queer desire between Oliver and Felix seen in the teaser trailer are very subtle, mostly through the stares and actions of Oliver. When they mischievously run alone together at night; the yearning, endeared smile of Oliver, presumably as he looked at Felix; Oliver’s frown when he discovers Felix having sex with a girl; a shot of Felix’ sweaty neck, as the film seems to show us the world through Oliver’s perspective.
So, is it a queer film?
Unlikely. Straightbating is the best we can hope for at this point, as previously attempted by Brokeback Mountain’s famously misleading posters. Reviewers anticipate that the film could be read as a reimagining of The Talented Mr. Ripley, though they warn Saltburn falls behind in managing the implicit queerness between the protagonists when compared to its two-decade-old predecessor (Variety).
In any way, we shouldn’t be so gratuitous by deeming films like this “queer”, when we can very much argue that Oliver’s lust doesn’t seem to be necessarily targeted towards Felix himself but to his way of life, motivating Oliver to become as powerful as the Catton’s. Regardless if it as a misinterpretation by the journalists that initially labelled it “queer” or by the way the film was marketed prior to its screenings, we should be careful with how lenient we are in allowing studios to call their products one of us.
With an attempt at following the steps of the recent and poignant class critiques such as Parasite, Triangle of Sadness, and The Menu, it is likely that Saltburn has set itself up by shying away from queerness as it fails to land either target.
