WEIRD FILMS
Berberian Sound Studio 15
(UK/2012) 92 minutes
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY
Peter Strickland
STARRING
Toby Jones|Antonio Mancino|Guido Adorni
PETER STRICKLAND is a British film-maker who seems to have found his niche in making weird films, so his name is likely to crop up again in this strand. Berberian Sound Studio is his second feature and concerns Gilderoy, a British sound engineer, played by the Toby Jones, who travels to Italy to work on a Santini film called The Equestrian Vortex. Gilderoy soon discovers that this is not the film about horses he had expected, but an intense Italian giallo film. Not a 'horror' film, you understand, but a 'Santini film', as Santini himself makes very clear to his unassuming new recruit from the home counties.
We never see the meat of The Equestrian Vortex, only see the vegetables being stabbed and shredded and pulled apart as Gilderoy shows his skills as a Foley artist in addition to those as a sound recordist and mixer.
What seems a fairly straightforward, if unexpected, assignment for Gilderoy gets progressively difficult as relationships between the film-makers become increasingly tetchy ... until Gilderoy himself seems to be unhinged from reality ... until reality itself is difficult to identify amongst the tangle of tape and celluloid on the cutting-room floor.
What happened? What didn't happen? It's hard to say. But you'll have hours of fun comparing different theories and interpretations with your friends.
6 April 2022 WEDNESDAY 19:30
Playhouse Main Screen