Sirius @ Severus Beef Summarized

Through Thomas’s Eyes

Inspired by the fic Divine Revelations of Love by Piersanti.

Read it here

savedd thiss

a lot of analysis of "Saltburn" that i see on the internet focus on the text/subtext and maybe the symbolism but i'd like to focus on how messages can be conveyed by the visual elements of the film.

after your first viewing of the film, you've probably asked yourself a lot of questions, including: did Ollie genuinely like Felix (and all his plans derailed dramatically) ? or was Felix a mean to an end from the beginning (and Ollie's mistaken his obsession with Felix, more precisely what he represents (i.e. coolness, wealth, injustice etc) for genuine affection) ?

first and foremost, let's talk about the ratio used all throughout the film which is 1.33:1. so not a perfect square - that would be 1:1 - but here's a screenshot of my computer while i was playing the film on my media player so you can see the biiiig black stripes to the left and right.

such a square-ish ratio - especially compared to larger ratios, the hollywood standard being 1.85:1 - allows paying attention to the characters instead of the background in wide shots or floor shots and offers 'intimate' close-ups because little to no background is to be see as you get closer to the characters. the main drawback and that we cannot capture imposing backgrounds with it. it just doesn't fit.

the scene where Felix shows Ollie around the house illustrates perfectly the paradoxes of the film. Saltburn is central to the film and yet just a background.

the camera never moves away from Felix, not even when Ollie looks left and right. to add insult to injury, the narrow frame prevents us from looking at anything else even if we wanted to.

"some fucking hideous Rubens" said Felix. Rubens that...we will never see. same for the maze Felix will die in: we'll see it later.

of course, the previous scene depicted Ollie as insignificant compared to the castle but i think this scene is here to establish Duncan as the gatekeeper of the castle in a very literal sense. as if the gates of the castle had taken on a human form in the form of Duncan.

but the moment Felix comes in, all eyes on him.

for me, the message is clear: before the death of Felix, we don't care about the castle . there's not even a single room of that castle that you could describe extensively. do you know what Ollie's and Felix's rooms look like? and the dressing room? etc. Ollie was genuinely obsessed with Felix and he had to improvise when he died that aspect of him is not part of any scheme. in contrary i think the moments when Ollie's sexually excited by Felix (cf bathtub scene, grave scene) are Ollie's rare moments of vulnerability when his real personality slips through. he cold-bloodedly killed all the members of the Catton family except Felix he genuinely cried for.

that's why i do not subscribe to the view that every single thing Ollie does is part of a scheme from the get-go. sometimes, Ollie improvises and his obsession for Felix is not a mean to an end.

god grant us a pope who dances

i think one of the reasons i go so hard for severus snape is because i truly do not think the fandom really understands the gravity of what it meant to be a spy for the order/double agent death eater.

from the pieces we see of what they are like...? dangling the muggles upside down in their pajamas at the quidditch world cup? torturing people into insanity using the cruciatus curse? that absolute nightmare of a scene in the opening of the deathly hallows? the way voldemort slaughtered people after the absolute failure at malfoy manor? i could go on. snape snaps at harry for using voldemort's name multiple times.

the very fact that severus snape used to be a death eater greatly shames him. he is ashamed and is repentant. we see this in his scene with 'mad eye moody' in 'goblet of fire'.

it's funny because the fandom seems to understand just how awful the death eaters were which is why they can't forgive snape for being one (which isn't a very good reason considering how much they project and love regulus) but simultaneously diminish and understate the impact it must have had on snape to rejoin such a nightmare.

Snivellus

She conc on my clave till I pontificate idk

Speech.

I feel like Harry and Petunia could have bonded over how much they hated Snape! Pity it never came up.

Maestra de inglés lesbiana!!!! 🗣️🗣️🗣️

personally i believe that snapes doe patronus was actually his own because this is literally him: