Analysis: Force Majeur by Ruben Ostlund
Fragility is cast against heroism, masculinity against the victim of its own force, avoidance contra expectations and motherly instincts against survivalism. Biological essentialism perhaps, mere survival mechanisms, potentially. Either way, what we ought to do is more complex than the Kantian imperative. Can there be a universal ethical principle when faced with imminent danger?
When rationality doesn’t have time to kick in, can we truly ‘act according to our maxim’? And when actually faced by forces of nature that unrepentantly crash into our life, are we ready to put our hero’s cape on for the safeguarding of our progeny? Or to defend a universal ethical standard? Or perhaps to play the hero for clout? After all, we’re all victims of our own societal and biological expectations.
That’s precisely why the only resolution to the inadequacy we constantly feel inside is to use tragicomedy: as an act of salvation, both in the eyes of society and to ourselves. No wonder Ebba fakes her own distress feigning a fall on the slopes, no surprise Thomas enacts a whole sob story and plays victim - they both give in to the expectations each other wants to hear. There is no united front, there is no maxim, the only thing at play here is the tragicomical weakness of humankind towards the unwavering forces of nature, even more tragicomical when the natural catastrophe is human generated and supposedly controlled, and thus artificial!
Resolution of conflict is achieved not via morality but via tragicomedy, perhaps to pretend and thus to ‘act as expected by the maxim of the other in a given situation’ (ie: spousal disagreements) trumps over the sanctity of a supposed universal moral code of conduct. Is it more ethical to use melodrama to keep a family together or should one stick to an unforgiving imperative of righteousness and end up with a broken family? The interesting question here is: can there be an ethical case for the use of dramatic licence to get out of an ethical dilemma? It surely seems so.