BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO (2012)

Studio:       IFC Midnight
Director:    Peter Strickland
Writer:       Peter Strickland
Producer:  Keith Griffiths, Mary Burke
Stars:     Toby Jones, Cosimo Fusco, Antonio Mancino, Fatma Mohamed, Tonia Sotiropoulou

Review Score:

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Summary:

A British sound engineer descends into madness while working on an Italian giallo/horror film. 

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

British film Foley artist Gilderoy arrives at the Berberian Studio in Italy to work on the new Giancarlo Santini film, “The Equestrian Vortex.” Receptionist Elena greets Gilderoy coldly by claiming not to speak English. Gilderoy meets Francesco Coraggio in the sound studio. Gilderoy asks about reimbursement for his plane ticket, which Francesco indicates will be taken care of later. Francesco introduces Massimo and Massimo, who demonstrate how they use various produce to make sounds for the film. Confused by the movie’s title, Gilderoy did not realize he would be working on a horror film.

As work begins, Gilderoy asks again about flight reimbursement. Francesco refers him to Elena. Elena reluctantly takes Gilderoy’s receipt. Gilderoy reads a letter from his mother that includes a mention of chiffchaffs nesting by his shed. In the sound booth, Francesco is dismissive of actress Silvia’s suggestions. Gilderoy continues listening to audio from the film in the room where he is staying and takes time to put a spider outside.

Santini finally makes it into the studio and greets Gilderoy. Santini objects to Gilderoy’s classification of the film as “horror.” Later, Silvia listens to her playback with Gilderoy. Francesco then warns Gilderoy about Silvia. Gilderoy listens to Silvia’s recording back at his place.

When Massimo and Massimo are ill, Gilderoy must do the sound effects himself. During a power outage at the studio, Gilderoy entertains the crew by demonstrating how he makes UFO sounds with a light bulb. Gilderoy asks again about his reimbursement, which offends Francesco. Gilderoy asks Elena directly and she puts him on the phone with Accounts, where he is also ignored. Francesco scolds Gilderoy for messing with engineer Lorenzo’s faders. Disturbed by the content of the film, Gilderoy loses focus and Francesco has to convince him to stay involved with the project. Gilderoy reads another letter from his mother with an update on the chiffchaffs. Santini has another conversation with Gilderoy about the themes of his film.

During another power outage, Silvia warns Gilderoy about Santini. She also convinces him that he needs to be rude and demanding if he wants his reimbursement. Gilderoy demands that Elena put him back on the phone with Accounts, but Accounts tells him that there was no record of the flight from Heathrow that Gilderoy was supposedly on. While talking to Gilderoy, Silvia reveals sexual abuse by Santini. She pledges to destroy Santini’s film.

Santini, Francesco, and Gilderoy discover that Silvia sabotaged all of her audio, and that of a second actress, by trashing the sound tapes. The parts are recast. That night, Gilderoy’s doorbell rings while he sleeps. The doorknob is tried repeatedly, prompting Gilderoy to grab a knife. When he opens the door, he finds himself back in the sound studio, watching what just happened as part of the film onscreen. The celluloid burns and the film becomes a nature documentary that Gilderoy previously worked on.

Gilderoy reads a letter from his mother telling him that the chiffchaffs all died from having their heads ripped off. Gilderoy goes to sleep. He finds himself reliving the moment when he first met Francesco, Massimo, and Massimo. Gilderoy speaks Italian and watches himself as a character onscreen. In the sound booth, the new actress asks to practice her lines. The dialogue is the same as the text from the letters sent by Gilderoy’s mother. When the actress has difficulty screaming properly, Gilderoy distorts the sound in her headphones to induce pain at Francesco’s urging. The technique causes her to quit the production. The power goes out again. Gilderoy becomes mesmerized by a pulsing light on the movie screen.

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Review:

“Berberian Sound Studio” saunters confidently out of the gate, with a calculating stride that hypnotizes through imagery and deliberate pacing.  Then along the way, it starts wandering after tilting its head up to the sky, mesmerized by its own daydreaming quality.  Before long, this loss of orientation results in a lot of banging into walls and tripping over attempts at style that serve artistry more than they serve narrative.

Toby Jones is Gilderoy, an English expatriate who has taken a job crafting post-production sound on an Italian movie titled “The Equestrian Vortex.”  To his unexpected chagrin, Gilderoy discovers too late that the film has little to do with horses.  In the tradition of Italian giallo/horror films with misleading animal titles like “Don’t Torture a Duckling” and “Four Flies on Grey Velvet,” “The Equestrian Vortex” is really about witches undergoing torturous interrogations.

Gilderoy was already out of his element by being in a country where he does not speak the language, and where the crew is quick to greet him coldly.  With no other outlet for his already uncomfortable isolation, Gilderoy becomes consumed by the assignment at hand.  Before long, his hours are reluctantly spent reviewing tapes of hideous screams, plunging knives into produce, and simulating the sound of hair being torn out.  Gilderoy finds himself changing in strange ways as he succumbs to the maddening effects of being a stranger swallowed by a strange world.

Sumptuous visuals bathe in colored lights and crisp close-ups tighten the world of the sound studio with a boa-like constriction.  The cinematography and carefully plotted editing mirror the gradual descent of Gilderoy, and it works magnificently to cast the audience under its spell, both willingly and unwillingly.

“The Equestrian Vortex” is a mystery unto itself.  With only the title sequence ever depicted onscreen, the horrors repeatedly pummeled into Gilderoy’s senses are open to imagination.  His days are filled with the film’s warbling goblins, poultry tunnels, and witches prodded with hot irons.

The actual story of “Berberian Sound Studio” is another vortex altogether.  The film has an intentionally mysterious plot that alludes to several interesting possibilities while painting the viewer directly into Gilderoy’s canvas of slowly swirling madness.  Gilderoy’s initial aversion to horror grows into fascination.  His reluctance to stab lettuce heads for a sound effect turns into a blade-thrusting passion.  Even his off hours away from the film are unable to escape the influence of his experience.  Dreams are plagued with strange visions.  His behavior turns from meek and demure to irritable and demanding.  And when the Accounts department informs him that there was never a flight from Heathrow to Italy on the day he traveled, making it impossible for him to even be right where he is standing, his identity crisis has come full circle.  Fiction and reality suitably blurred, the atmosphere is sufficiently primed.  And then…

Nothing happens.  None of these threads are fully explored.  The film does not come to a sensible ending so much as it simply stops before feeling as though it even reached a climax.  “Berberian Sound Studio” crafts a house of cards undone not by the weight of one more spade, but by a willful swipe of an arm.  Writer/director Peter Strickland seemingly aims for the waking dream state of a David Lynch film.  Instead, he creates a hollow shell with a veneer of visual artistry, but without a searing brand of meaningful purpose.

What started as a promisingly moody thriller ends up as a meandering letdown.  “Berberian Sound Studio” has the appearance of knowing where it was going and what it wanted to be, and then seems to find itself without a firm identity before reaching the midway point.  The film is still modestly enjoyable as a treat for the eyes and ears, particularly for giallo fans that also appreciate a peek behind the curtain at the art of post-production sound.  If only the meat of the film had as much to chew on, “Berberian Sound Studio” could have made more of a lasting impression.

Review Score:  55

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