2012

Director: Peter Strickland

Genre: Psychological thriller

 Have you ever been driving your car and heard someone behind you honk his horn? You look back and see that the person who honked was actually several cars away from you, and the sound wasn't directed at you. But in that tiny moment before you looked back, you said to yourself: "what the hell? I didn't do anything wrong?" And no, you didn't. The honk wasn't about you. However, the mere presence of the honk made it about you. Now, you're involved and this might cause you to pay some extra attention to how you're driving.

Perhaps this is what Berberian Sound Studio is about. A part of me would like to believe that. The other part of me ended up being very underwhelmed by this film.

There are a lot of interesting elements at work here. The sound engineer is lost in a foreign land. He's expected to work on this Italian horror film, which is a genre he's completely unfamiliar with. He doesn't have any friends here and is a very passive person. He witnesses how the director and producer exploit the actresses in the film, but he does nothing to affect the situation.

This is all interesting stuff, but none of it ever clicks together. This is probably intentional. 

The film is about sound, and thus a great deal of visual information is taken away from us. We never see the images on the screen. We only hear the torture of a witch, or the dismemberment of a priest that the actors are providing ADR for. Towards the end, the film becomes a muddled mess of reality as the sound engineer imagines himself inside the film he is creating the sound for. He is no longer out of his element and loses touch with his identity.

My major issue with the film is that it has a very subdued and dull energy to it, which leads to a middle-of-the-road reaction from the audience. The blurring of reality and fantasy comes too late in the film and doesn't get crazy enough for me. The first half of the film contains many repeating images and scenes that don't progress the plot in a significant way. It doesn't feel like a slow progression forward. It feels like walking down a street, stepping into an unexpected dip, and then continuing to walk.

I do think this film does deserve one viewing. The work of a sound designer is fun to see. The blurring of reality and fantasy has been done better, but I think that theme is always fascinating and films that attempt to do this type of storytelling should be recognized.

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