The film-maker Ruben Östlund, known for his biting satires of bourgeois life, was born in Styrsö, Sweden, in 1974. He studied film in Gothenburg and made three features before breaking out with 2014’s Force Majeure, which won the jury prize at Cannes. His latest films, The Square (2017) and Triangle of Sadness (2022), both won the Cannes Palme d’Or and this year Östlund served as the festival’s jury president. Ruben Östlund: A Curzon Collection, featuring his complete filmography on DVD and a moral-dilemma card game, is out now.
1. Book
Three novels by Thomas Korsgaard
This is one of my greatest reading experiences of the past 10 years: a fantastic trilogy by a young Danish author that’s starting to get attention outside Denmark. The books – Hvis der Skulle Komme et Menneske Forbi, En Dag Vil Vi Grine af Det, Man Skulle Nok Have Været Der – chart the upbringing of a young, working-class man called Tue in the Danish countryside and then Copenhagen. It’s the unsexy working class, not romanticised at all – the father works in a mink farm, the mother gambles. Korsgaard has an extraordinary way of portraying social situations, like when Tue gets invited to the home of a wealthier family. They’re real page-turners, too.
2. Theatre
Through a Glass Darkly at the Royal Dramatic theatre, Stockholm, from 22 September
KonstAB is a Swedish artist collective that’s very political, often focusing on the question of how one creates art in a capitalist society. They put on three plays in Gothenburg a few years ago that were completely wild and fearless. Now they’ve been invited to the Royal Dramatic theatre in Stockholm to do a stage version of Ingmar Bergman’s film Through a Glass Darkly. I’m not sure it’ll have anything to do with the original movie, but let’s see. It’s going to be a very interesting contrast.
3. City
Bologna
I thought I had experienced most of Europe by now and there wasn’t much left to surprise me, but then I went to Bologna – I was invited to do a 10-day masterclass this summer at the International Film-making Academy. It’s a really beautiful city with great restaurants and one of the oldest universities in the world, which creates a very vibrant atmosphere and a strong community feeling. For a few weeks every summer, they put thousands of seats in the main square and have free, open-air screenings [Il Cinema Ritrovato]. What a fantastic idea!
4. Film
Anatomy of a Fall (dir Justine Triet, 2023)
This won the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year [UK release is 10 November]. It’s a beautiful film when it comes to portraying the dynamics of a relationship where both partners are creators and one – in this case the woman – is more successful than the other. It has a tragic event at its centre that leads to a court case, but I particularly enjoyed the relationship and the fact that the gender of the two characters isn’t an issue. It’s a very precise film and very entertaining.
5. Music
Ludwig Göransson: Can You Hear the Music? (from the Oppenheimer soundtrack)
Ludwig Göransson is a young Swedish composer who worked with Christopher Nolan on the soundtrack for Oppenheimer. I haven’t seen the film yet but clips featuring this beautiful track keep popping up on social media. It has a bombastic quality and a really concentrated energy – it has the same epic quality as Hans Zimmer’s score for Interstellar. With this soundtrack, Göransson has really stepped up a level, he’s up there with Zimmer now. Once you hear this track, you won’t forget it.
6. Museum
This is a great contemporary art museum in Milan that also contains a cinema with an interesting selection of films. The museum itself is architecturally a very beautiful place to be. One thing that I especially appreciated when I was there is that they have recreated Jean-Luc Godard’s recording and editing studio from his house in Switzerland. It’s now a permanent piece in the museum. It’s nothing spectacular, but it’s nice to see the objects that he had in that room and what he was working with, as it says something about his character.
