Ruben Östlund would like permissions to use cameras… like for guns

The director of The Square and Without Filter has a very radical idea for regulating what we see on our screens.

Like his two Palmes d'Or in Cannes, for The Square (2017) and Without filter (2022), Ruben Ostlund signs sordid and comic satires around the bourgeoisie with good ideas, consumer society and vanity. Whether we like it or not, he has his own style and always questions our relationship with the world and our relationships with others.

On the occasion of the upcoming release in Great Britain of the award-winning documentary at the Sundace Film Festival, Fantastic Machineof which he is executive producer, the Swedish filmmaker delivers to the British media The Guardian, an “unfiltered” interview on society, screens… and the camera – this “fantastic machine“.

According to Östlund, the impact that a camera, and by extension films, has on our perception of the world should not be taken lightly. Whether in the media or in cinema, images dictate our vision. Also why not regulate the use of the camera?

“I have an idea. What if we were allowed to use a camera only if we had a permit? We definitely need one for firearms – at least in developed countries. The camera is a powerful tool.”

An idea that can be considered radical, but which the former president of the jury of the Cannes Film Festival justifies in this way:

“Films change the world, and it's important to take that into account when you're in the business. In the entertainment industry, there's this strange feeling that if you're dealing with fiction, then it's not okay. not have an impact on the world. You really have to fight for people to understand what kind of effect the images we consume have.”

Already, last year, during his masterclass at the Festival des Arcs, he confided during an interview for First the importance of the seventh art in the perception of the world and the collective experience that we have in a cinema. He also revealed some information about his fourth feature film, The Entertainment System is Down which, already, announced a reflection on our relationship to screens and therefore to the camera:

“It happens on a very long-haul flight, and shortly after takeoff, the passengers learn to their horror that the video system doesn't work. I wanted to find a framework that would allow me to analyze what smartphones have done to us do.”

Following Ruben Östlund's proposal on authorization to use a camera, some Internet users, who obviously did not appreciate his films, wondered if he would not be the first not to obtain this authorization.