Monkey status: There is one chimpanzee-bonobo hybrid and one very convincing human portrayal of chimpdom
Ruben Östland’s 2022 tour de force Triangle of Sadness has an island-set third act that may have had keen monkey-spotting cinephiles keeping their eyes and bananas peeled for a simian cousin or two swinging through the palm trees in the background.
But with production of this section actually taking place on the Greek island of Euboea, any background extras of the furrier variety would have had to have been shipped in from abroad. The only wild monkeys on the European continent is a small population of Barbary macaques in Gibraltar.
A quick eye down Östland’s filmography doesn’t inspire much confidence that he casts many non-human primates. Force Majeure (2014) is set in the French Alps, a locale notoriously unloved by monkeys. Meanwhile, 2017’s The Square is set in Stockholm, a city of frigid temperatures and a stiflingly-long commute to any of the jungle environs favoured by apekind.
So it’s with some satisfying surprise to find that not only does The Square feature a chimpanzee character living inexplicably in a central Stockholm (but Berlin-filmed) apartment, but also a lengthy scene spotlighting the ability of Planet of the Apes performer Terry Notary to all-but-literally transform himself into an ape in front of an unwitting audience.
First and foremost, the film is a cutting satire of the contemporary art scene, focused on the day-to-day curatorial travails of Claes Bang’s Christian.
As the head of one of Sweden’s foremost art institutions, Christian finds himself pulled in multiple directions at once – aging playboy, failing father, steward of the gallery’s reputation and shepherd to a flock of elderly art patrons.
During a night-time tryst with an arts journalist played by Elisabeth Moss, Christian comes face to face with an unexpected room-mate of hers, played by a chimpanzee.
Speaking with IndieWire, Claes Bang minced no words on his disdain for his simian co-star.
“Shooting with that monkey was terrible. That’s a wild animal. In a flat. In Berlin. On a rainy day in October,” he said. “I was terrified of that monkey. I hated that monkey.”
According to reports, handlers were on set stationed in every corner of the room in case something went wrong, but it was not enough to calm Bang.
Perhaps he was thinking of Travis – the chimpanzee star of The Man Show and The Maury Povich Show, who viciously attacked a woman in 2009 for handling his favorite Tickle Me Elmo toy.
The victim – 55-year-old Charla Nash – went on to need a face transplant and became a likely influence for the Gordy scene in Jordan Peele’s Nope.
The room-mate Bang was so afraid of was played by Tiby, a female bonobo-chimpanzee hybrid with a small handful of French and German film credits. The Square is probably her highest-profile work, although she did play the titular character in a 2005 French TV movie named Carmen.
Nowadays, Tiby lives with her owner in Salbris, France, and appears to have retired from the silver screen.
Nevertheless, her appearance in The Square has enshrined her permanently in the canon of great movie ape surprises, right alongside the inhuman antics of Terry Notary.
Is there a monkey in it? 