“When the people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich.”
Late July this year, certain celebrities’ habits made headlines when a marketing company published a top 10 list of celebrities with the worst private jet CO2 emissions. Their data reveals that the celebs have emitted an average of 3376.64 tonnes of CO2 emissions in just their private jet usage in 2022 so far. That’s 482.37 times more than the average person’s annual emissions. And the year isn’t even over yet. Average flight time was a little over an hour. The biggest offender on the list was Taylor Swift, who explained in a delusional PR statement afterwards that she’s not the only one who uses her private jet, she also lends it out to family members.
While this story is quite fresh, the response to it was centuries old: Eat the rich. It originates from a quote attributed to Jean-Jacques Rousseau and was used during the French Revolution. Not so coincidentally, some suggest that the wealth gap between the top 1% and the rest before the French Revolution is comparable to today’s. Despite the fact that a starving mob of peasants won’t storm the Bastille any time soon, for September we respond to overly-decadent celebrity behaviour by showcasing even more decadent rich people habits in our Modern Classics for September: Eat the Rich.
American Psycho (2000)
September 5th at 22:00 & September 10th at 16:30
English spoken
A wealthy New York investment banking executive hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he escalates deeper into his illogical, gratuitous fantasies. Patrick Bateman is handsome, well educated and intelligent. He is twenty-seven and living his own American dream. He works by day on Wall Street, earning a fortune to complement the one he was born with. At night he descends into madness, as he experiments with fear and violence.
Fellini’s Satyricon (1969)
September 12th at 22:00 & September 17th at 16:30
Italian, Latin spoken | English subtitles
Fellini’s orgiastic odyssey through Ancient Rome is a sheer, debauched delight. Gliding seamlessly from one erotic and extravagant episode to the next, Fellini takes us on a richly symbolic journey of sex and violence that beams with colourful sights and sounds, critiquing the consumerist hedonism of capitalist modernity, whilst offering an eccentric look at one of history’s most interesting civilisations.
El ángel exterminador (1962)
September 19th at 22:00 & September 24th at 16:30
Spanish spoken | English subtitles
After a lavish dinner party, the guests find themselves mysteriously unable to leave the room… and over the next few days all the elaborate pretenses and facades that they’ve built up by virtue of their position in society collapse completely as they become reduced to living like animals…
The Queen of Versailles (2012)
September 26th at 22:00 & October 1st at 16:30
English spoken
A documentary that follows a billionaire couple as they begin construction on a mansion inspired by Versailles. During the next two years, their empire, fueled by the real estate bubble and cheap money, falters due to the economic crisis.
