Superheroes are so last year. In 2016, cannibalism is all the rage.
The Cannes film festival is where everyone who’s anyone in the film industry goes to show off their latest flick and fashion. This year, reporters noted that one on-screen theme seemed oddly prevalent: cannibalism.
At least five of the movies screened at the festival featured cannibalistic themes. Slack Bay features a family of ferrymen who feast on wealthy tourists. Characters in children’s film The Trolls live in constant fear of being gobbled up by their cousins. And even vegetarians get in on the action: Raw centers around a veggie-loving vet student who develops a taste for human blood.
So why the sudden interest in Hannibal Lecter’s favorite hobby? Because Hollywood believes that there’s no better way to depict “reality” than to show people literally eating each other.
3B Productions’ producer Jean Brehat said that “it’s a metaphor for the social struggles…the rich are eating the poor more and more.” Wow, the restaurants in L.A. have gone horribly downhill.
And of course, “hyper-capitalism” is to blame.
Petit Film’s Jean des Forets added that “cannibalism has a very strong symbolic value linked to people getting rich while others are getting poorer.” Really? Eating other people doesn’t usually indicate wealth. Healthy, happy people just don’t chew on their neighbors for dinner. Ask the Donner party. Or psychopath Jeffrey Dahmer.
The richest of the rich, at a festival dripping with excess, preaching about the ills of capitalism? The irony is too much to stomach (sorry).
It might be best for movie fans to keep their distance from their favorite A-list actors from now on. Unless they want to be lunch.
