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Emerald Fennell is an actress, writer and director. I actually love her as an actress, but it\u2019s cool that she\u2019s just barreled into the world of screenwriting, producing and directing. She wrote, directed and produced Saltburn<\/em>, a sort of a knockoff of Brideshead Revisited<\/em> and The Talented Mr. Ripley<\/em>, but modernized. Fennell recently chatted with the Sunday Times (via the Telegraph) about the film and how it\u2019s about the British class system, and the dysfunctional relationship which exists between the working class and the upper class.<\/p>\n The country\u2019s relationship with aristocracy and the upper classes has become less reverential: <\/strong>\u201cWe have a sadomasochistic relationship with those who not only don\u2019t care about us but don\u2019t even see us\u2026 The British class system is so stratified.\u201d<\/p>\n Saltburn is commentary:<\/strong> Saltburn is about how people can be enamoured with those who are better off, Fennell said: \u201cIt is voyeurism that is tinged with condescension. It\u2019s this cycle: \u2018I\u2019m looking at this person and I want to f\u2014 them, but that makes me feel bad about myself, so I hate them.\u2019 We can\u2019t help ourselves and have never been so voyeuristic.\u201d It is a constant tension \u201cbetween desire and revulsion\u201d and that it played out in this country in our relationship with \u201cbig houses\u201d.<\/p>\n It\u2019s about Eton-educated prime ministers:<\/strong> Fennell also mused that Britain\u2019s relationship with \u201celites\u201d had changed, blaming this \u201crightly\u201d on our government, suggesting that respect had been eroded through various Eton-educated prime ministers. \u201cOur relationship with [elites] has changed enormously, and that\u2019s rightly to do with our government. But we still look. It is more sadomasochistic when you know better. And we as a country can\u2019t stop picking that scab.\u201d<\/p>\n Her own posh background:<\/strong> Her father is the Eton-educated celebrity jeweller Theo Fennell, leading her to admit that there \u201cis always conversation\u201d about her acquaintance with the upper-class world in Britain. \u201cThe thing is, because of my job as an actress and writer I\u2019ve taken myself out of all that,\u201d she said, but added: \u201cI mean, I have to introduce myself to people with a straight face as \u2018Emerald\u2019. I\u2019ve had to get thick skinned about how absurd I am as a person.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n [From The Telegraph]<\/p>\n I think she\u2019s right about the voyeurism and sadomasochism within the stratified British class system, but I\u2019d also like to point out that, from what I can see as an outsider, sadism is a feature and not a bug of the whole British class system. The glee with which sadism is an end unto itself, that the entire system is built on punishment, cruelty and harm. As for Emerald\u2019s belief that she\u2019s \u201ctaken herself out\u201d of the posh world\u2026 I\u2019m sure she genuinely thinks that, but that\u2019s not how the British class system works. She\u2019s welcome in those elite worlds because she was born into it.<\/p>\n Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.<\/small><\/p>\n\n
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