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Saltburn: Early 2000s Setting Had The Effect Of "Humanising Everyone"

Saltburn director and writer Emerald Fennell says the early 2000s setting had "the crucial effect of undercutting the glamour and humanising everyone."

No one think about the fact that we are approaching the point where a film taking place in the early 2000s could be considered a "period piece," we're going to just breeze right by that and move on. Saltburn is a film that leans into its period and takes advantage of it in many ways. Not just because this was the time before indoor smoking bans and, as writer and director Emerald Fennell put it to Empire recently, "nothing makes something feel more like a period drama than seeing someone light up in a pub." She isn't wrong; it feels like it was a lifetime ago that "smoking sections" were a thing. It isn't just the fact that people were smoking indoors that drew Fennell to this period, but the style and way people were expressing themselves was unique and something fun for her to explore.

"The bulk of the film is set in 2006/7. The classic Gothic framing narrative required it to be set in the recent past," Fennell writes, "but it also had the crucial effect of undercutting the glamour and humanising everyone. 2006 was the time of sideburns, patchy fake tans, bad hair extensions, BlackBerrys, and tiny glittery scarves — no matter how sexy or rich you were, it was hard to pull off."

There are a bunch of different ways Saltburn is going to use that time period to help inform the rest of the story and Fennell that so much time was spent trying to make sure everything looked like it fit just right from "marveling at the horror of the mid-'00s shoe-boot" to "trying to work out the most embarrassing gap-yah tattoo for Felix ("carpe diem")," which all tracks if you were a pre-teen or order in the early 2000s. We all thought we would get a carpe diem tattoo, and some of us probably did. Fennell explained, "By the end of production, the art department had what they called 'Emerald's Shit Table' because if a shot looked too artful, it would usually require the addition of a packet of Nik Naks or a poster of Kelly Brook." What a delightful way of putting it. We also got the final character poster and a full-cast poster. The full-cast poster is a bit more generic in terms of looks, but the running paint makes it at least a little interesting to look at.

Saltburn: Summary, Cast List, Release Date

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman) brings us a beautifully wicked tale of privilege and desire. Struggling to find his place at Oxford University, student Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) finds himself drawn into the world of the charming and aristocratic Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), who invites him to Saltburn, his eccentric family's sprawling estate for a summer never to be forgotten.

Saltburn is written and directed by Emerald Fennell and stars Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, Alison Oliver, Archie Madekwe, and Carey Mulligan. It will be produced by Emerald Fennell, p.g.a; Margot Robbie, p.g.a; Josey McNamara, p.g.a, and will be released limited on November 17th, and on November 22nd, it will released wide.

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