Triptych review

By Terry Sherwood

My days in University Art History class learning the iconography of religious works such as the Ghent Altarpiece.  Oddly I still remember that plus the r bits of info after all these years. The term Triptych refers to three-panel works of art symbolizing the holy trinity.  Hence the title of this short film by Sophia Ray which is certainly not holy struck me as different.  Essentially the film  Triptych concerns a sophisticated high-end art dealer Margaux (Emma Suki) who is haunted by evils from her past that threaten to destroy her existence and life. 

Bubbling with European sensibility from the first frame the picture is heady stuff to do effectively in a short time.   It achieves it with Giallo influences, some of the look of the excesses of Ken Russell, the stylistic movement in sections of Last Year at Marienbad, colour splashes and the oddly brilliant fashion of Dario Argento’s original Suspiria even with the use of high-pitched audio tones.  The evil in the form of bespeckled old man Nikolai Rubik (Stoyan Radev) invades the fibre of  Margaux.

The focus is on the three-panel work of Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights.   Very briefly each panel in the work left is the Garden of Eden.  The center is naked figures in a utopia existence often unspoiled and pre-moral. The third right figure is Hell and descent into the decay of the mind with fever dreams of various imperfect beings and objects. Nikolai controls Margeaux in some chilling moments as the film progresses, she transforms from a cultured standoffish ruthless art dealer to a wanton, panting woman with no control yet in moral decay.  

Destroy the Triptych and end the personal disintegration is what Margeaux must do utilizing another art movement that of auto-destruction by Gustav Metzger.  Destruction is part of the creative process as you return the work to its original state Pete Townshend of The Who mentions Metzger in Art when referring to the band’s destroying high-priced gear onstage. 

Triptych The film gets caught up with some deep themes, however, that does not stop one from enjoying it. The changes both Moral and physical and one could say spiritual ate the crux of the story and in full display on the screen.   Some brilliant dance movements with party guests. The entire cast looks scrumptiously decadent throughout the world of the film. One destroys to cleanse or return to the beginning before e evil swallows you up and puts you in your version of hell.  Margeaux’s journey is one to watch and let flow over in all its au couture seediness.