Directed by:
Peter StricklandScreenplay:
Peter StricklandCinematography:
Nicholas D. KnowlandComposer:
BroadcastCast:
Toby Jones, Cosimo Fusco, Antonio Mancino, Fatma Mohamed, Chiara D'Anna, Tonia Sotiropoulou, Eugenia Caruso, Susanna Cappellaro, Suzy Kendall, Hilda Péter (more)Plots(1)
A sonic descent into the darker recesses of cinema as a naïve sound engineer from Dorking, UK loses his grip on reality as he takes a job on an Italian horror film in the '70s. As actresses overdub one ear-shredding scream after another, and as knives and machetes repeatedly hack away at innocent vegetables during effects recordings, Gilderoy has to confront his own demons in order to stay float in an environment ruled by exploitation both on and off the screen. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (4)
Berberian Sound Studio is a British co-production that is interesting in how it works with sound, even though it is certainly not the only thing that makes this stand out. There is also the movie's structure, which breaks down much like the protagonist's psyche. It gets to the point that in the end, you do not really know what you are watching anymore, and yes, this can be an element that will bug you as well as the fact that almost nothing happens.
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Heads of cauliflower have never been so terrifying! A shy English sound engineer with an apparent fixation on his mother finds himself in the very unwelcoming environment of a recording studio full of sexually potent Italians. While you’re waiting to see if the narrative takes the direction of a psychosexual thriller or gore horror, an unclassifiable ode to the absorbing power of giallo films (of which we see nothing but hear everything) begins to unfold and as the minutes pass, you realise that ebb and flow between real horror and merely playing at it will persist until the end. ___ Due to the fact that is gallop a kind of giallo turned on its head with the picture inside and the sound out, we are forced to put our imaginations to work much more than when watching a standard horror production. All of the sounds are amplified, including the footsteps and the clatter of the typewriter and the projector, which is set in motion again and again by a mysterious hand clad in a black glove. The hand of the killer? If so, who is actually being murdered? The vocal cords of tormented actresses? What is the murder weapon? Sound? And mainly, who is the killer? Gilderoy, the only one who perceives what the sounds actually convey and gets so caught up in them that it ceases to be clear who is projecting and who is being projected? Or is he simply not a sufficiently confident character (see his inability to “commit” a crime with a sexual connotation) to persist on the film strip? The protagonist gets his voice (or, more precisely, his sound) only after one of the women is fully under his power and he becomes a true SOUNDMASTER. He finally gains control over his soundtrack. ___ As a screenwriter, Strickland perhaps relies too much on suggestion and being thoroughly enigmatic. With respect to the smoothness of the transitions between scenes (the ominous SILENZIO sign serves as a punctuation mark) and atmosphere, however, this strictly interior plunge into the clutches of madness can boldly be compared to, for example, The Cremator (the only exterior scene, a completely unexpected surreal interlude, is perhaps the most shocking moment of the film). The sound studio’s staff also shares with The Cremator an exceptional appetite (instead of wreaths and coffins, freshly butchered melon is offered) and a sense of humour as black as the smoke from a crematorium (though in terms of content, films such as The Conversation and Blow Out would be more suitable for comparison). ___ By shifting the emphasis from the visual to the aural (and thus demystifying what makes modern horror movies so scary), this is a very original, idea-rich work that, with headphones on, provides an unforgettable psychological experience that evokes memories of the viewer’s first experience with Lynch. Appendix: if you are interested in the captivating intermingling of fiction and reality, I also recommend watching the in many ways related Spanish cult film Arrebato. And by the way – did you also get the impression that Christoph Waltz plays the director Santini? 90%
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The weirdest (non)horror of the year. The plot could be summarised as follows: “English soundmaster Toby Jones goes to an obscure Italian sound studio to work on an obscure Italian horror film by an obscure Italian filmmaker and things become weird”. On top of that, the narrative structure in the last act begins to break down together with the protagonist’s mind, so the initial normal lack of plot turns into an almost Lynchesque lack of plot. An yet, you get absorbed into the perfect atmosphere built almost exclusively on sounds. This is not for bloodthirsty and lewd viewers. Not even for me is this the type of horror I would like to watch often, but it’s without doubt a very interesting and distinctive film. But it didn’t amaze me. 7/10
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I always enjoy Strickland’s expressionistic works, but I also always find something lacking in the complexity of their presentation, some sort of connection between their intellectual outcome and reality. Having the ability to do anything is certainly a creative luxury, but a film, despite any creative flights of fancy, should be made primarily for viewers, who will find in it their own truths, enticements, anxieties, parallels of thought, etc. That’s why Lynch, for example, is better at this sort of thing. Berberian Sound Studio is about the possible effect that working with sound has on the psyche of a sound engineer. The clash of cultures in artistic expression. British understatement and refinement versus the Italian temperament and sensuality. And cruelty. If you are familiar with the horror genre, you know the difference between Hammer’s English production and the work of Italian butchers... Strickland presents a promising subject here and, for cinephiles in the attractive setting of film post-production, he develops the story in the right ways with increasing psychological pressure, but he doesn’t bring it to a satisfying climax. What pleased me most here was the presence of the hypnotic actresses from his later films. And, of course, the carefully mixed, brutally expressive multi-channel sound.
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