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Emerald Fennell-Directed ‘Saltburn’ Conjured Images of Dark, Bloody Comedy, Says Cinematographer Linus Sandgren at Camerimage
Cinematographer Linus Sandgren says he and director Emerald Fennell relied on their emotions and instincts to conjure the “gothic” look of “Saltburn,” the hybrid psychological horror and dark comedy just screened at the Camerimage cinematography festival in Torun, Poland.
The film’s tight Academy aspect ratio, for one thing, was an idea that arose only after meeting with Fennell, who wrote the over-the-top story of a strange, middle-class Oxford student, Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan), infiltrating the world of the filthy rich one sunny summer.
Meanwhile, the shooting location, a properly gloomy and stodgy estate, seemed to call out for the boxy cinematic frame they chose, says Sandgren, who spoke at Camerimage’s main screening hall. The mansion’s beveled ceilings, arches, ancient walls and blood-red floors indeed seem to close in on all sides as the family of Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi) reluctantly admits the novel interloper into their midst.
Fennell’s sophomore feature after 2020’s “Promising Young Woman,” also stars Carey Mulligan, this time as an eccentric house guest the family has become bored with, building on strong performances by Rosamund Pike and Richard Grant as Catton’s parents, who seem equally charmed and uneasy about their son’s new best friend, Quick.
“Saltburn” has been building buzz since its premiere this year at Telluride, where Fennell’s reputation for over-the-top storytelling was advanced. “Saltburn” producer Margot Robbie, who knew Sandgren for his camerawork on 2022’s “Babylon,” urged him to meet with Fennell, the cinematographer recalls.
The meeting was fortuitous. “Emerald is such a funny, witty, special person,” Sandgren says, “and she has a very dark sense of humor.”
Thus, despite the exploration of gritty, consuming obsessions in “Saltburn,” the weeks spent filming on location at the properly old-school British Drayton House, Northamptonshire, had their light moments.
“We were laughing every day, for sure,” Sandgren says. “The whole crew. We had so much fun.”
The small crew working closely and with an indie budget, created a film with a look and feel wholly apart from Sandgren’s past work on box office hits such as “La La Land,” which won him an Oscar, Bond film “No Time to Die” and space race story “First Man.”
But the visuals of “Saltburn” were not the first consideration, he says, when sitting down with Fennell to conceive the film. Rather, he says, it always depends on the impact felt when reading the script and then, when meeting the director, “how it feels and if you connect.”
Being “interested and intrigued” are the essential elements for him, more so than any specific visual look – at least at the early stages. “We try to figure out what the film’s about,” Sandren says, adding that he often will eschew any visual references until the director can sum up for him their idea in one sentence.
“It’s about how to convey an emotional story. If you start with that, the look will come.”
In this case, Fennell’s ideas ranged from baroque paintings, to vampire themes and the odd Hitchcock motif – all of which led them to create a film that feels both lush and chilling, at first on the Oxford campus where Quick is desperate to fit in, then at the Catton estate, where he’s hopelessly out of sorts – and yet cunningly forming schemes.
Another theme that was down to Fennell’s vision was the voyeuristic sense that lets the audience “look into this old house,” Sandgren says. And, despite the sense of being enclosed, the filmmakers also embraced wide-angle filming to capture the grandeur and opulence of their subject. “We went back and forth,” he recalls.
Working on Kodak film was another point the two agreed on, Sandgren says, adding that the medium’s reaction to red light in some key scenes inside the family home was particularly well-suited to the growing sense of horror of “Saltburn.” So were close-ups of characters feeling extremes of emotions, with sweat, hair and bodily detail helping to build on the descent into obsession.
It all worked out well to propel the journey into darkness, Sandgren says, growing into other scenes of seduction that push boundaries. All of which just enriches the bloody cocktail of “Saltburn,” he says, noting, after all, “Vampires are sexual beings.”
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Terrorist organization Hezbollah rained rockets down on Israeli territory this week as cease-fire negotiations between Hamas and Israel continue to deteriorate.
Over 50 rockets struck the Golan Heights during a Wednesday attack that injured one individual and destroyed two houses – part of a deadly exchange still ongoing between the Lebanese group and Israel.
“Hezbollah continues to indiscriminately fire projectiles toward Israel,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement Wednesday. “Just now, approx. 50 projectiles were fired and some fell in the town of Katzrin.”
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A man works next to a destroyed home after rockets struck in Katzrin, in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Israel claims the attack was a response to their successful strike on a weapons storage facility in Lebanon. That strike reportedly killed at least one person.
“There was no other target in the area other than a civilian neighborhood and kids on their summer vacation,” Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said following the attack. “Attacks against our civilians will not go unanswered.”
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A home destroyed by rockets in Katzrin. Hezbollah launched more than 50 rockets, hitting a number of private homes in the area. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Israel has controlled the Golan Heights since capturing it at the end of the Six Days War.
Israel maintains the Golan Heights is necessary for national security and the territory was officially annexed in 1967. The United States has recognized it as Israel’s territory since 2019.
Israel and Hezbollah have consistently exchanged missile strikes since October of last year, when the Hamas-led terrorist attack on the Jewish state initiated the ongoing conflict. Hamas and Israel have been unable to finalize a cease-fire deal, despite extensive assistance from United States diplomats.
A Lebanese army soldier passes in front of a car that was hit by an Israeli strike in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)
Speaking to reporters from Israel, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that a proposal put forward last week by the White House in coordination with leaders from Qatar and Egypt looked to “bridge the gaps” between the warring parties and has been “accepted” by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“He supports it,” Blinken said. “It’s now incumbent on Hamas to do the same.”
“The parties – with the help of the mediators, the United States, Egypt and Qatar – have to come together and complete the process of reaching clear understandings about how they’ll implement the commitments that they’ve made under this agreement,” he added.
Fox News Digital’s Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.
A new strain of bluetongue, a potentially fatal disease for sheep and cattle, has been detected across Europe after first exploding in Dutch farms.
The French department of Isère has been hit by an epidemic of a new variant of bluetongue disease.
The virus is carried by small midges and can cause mouth ulcers, difficulty breathing and fever in sheep and cattle. In serious cases, it can be fatal.
Thirty-one animals have been infected, according to the French government, with local authorities suspecting around a further hundred cases.
In Poliénas, sheep farmer Cédric Ruzzin has seen 55 of his 150 animals die.
“These animals are affected. They’ve lost weight, they’re drooling and swelling. I have animals with fevers of over 40,” Ruzzin said.
Officials suggest that farms and local government were late to recognise the new strain of the virus, meaning it had already spread into herds of cattle before it could be prevented.
“You can’t treat the disease itself. We can only try to alleviate the symptoms and get the animals over the hump,” Aurore Tosti, Director of Isère Health Defence Group said.
The virus has also been detected in the regions of Nord, Aisne and Ardennes — heightening concerns that it could be a symptom of a larger outbreak.
The new strain reportedly first appeared across Dutch farms, and has since caused outbreaks in Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg, as well as France.
In Belgium, over 500 farms have been impacted by the new strain of the virus since it was first recognised in October 2023.
Belgium’s Federal Minister for Agriculture David Clarinval has called for the sector to be recognised as one in “crisis” as a result of the impact of bluetongue cases.
The French government has responded by distributing 6.4 million doses of vaccine to areas most hit by the new strain, called the BTV3 serotype. Out of the vaccines distributed, 1.1 million will be given to sheep and a further 5.3 million have been reserved for cattle.
Regulated zones have also been put around areas affected in an attempt to contain the outbreak.
For Tosti, however, the solution has come too late for some farms. “Vaccination is the solution, but we’re too late. Unfortunately it’s a disease we can be pretty helpless against it once it’s in the herd, because all we can do is treat the symptoms, ” she told Euronews.
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