Review of Berberian Sound Studio (2012) by Rob B — 19 Sep 2015

Berberian Sound Studio has absolutely everything it needs during the first act, to seal this brilliantly crafted horror in the hall of fame, sadly every quirky moment or wonderfully original idea soon gets abused and makes for a slightly deflating second half.

The film takes place in the 70's, when a lonely sound engineer is flown to Italy in order to complete the soundtrack for a repulsive and frighteningly violent horror film. Detached from his usual work ethic and with a womanizing director and power hungry producer on his back, Gilderoy, soon finds the film taking a toll on his mental health, as he is forced to continue the project.

The film feels extremely fresh, yes its a nod to the golden age of horror, but the idea itself of making a psychological thriller out of the sound recording process of a horror movie is genius and extremely inventive.

The film is full of little moments from close up shots of melons being destroyed by hammers to goblin voice over work, that not only stands out but hypnotizes the audience. Toby Jones puts in a sterling performance as Gilderoy, a frail, timid and past his prime artist, who is clearly forced into a situation due to his financial background.

He pulls off the character flawlessly, really showing a great range of depth in his performance. One scene in particular, where Gilderoy loses his nerve and tries to shout at finance for not refunding his plane ticket, is not only painfully hilarious but completely heart breaking.

It says a lot for Jones, who is a wildly under rated actor. The rest of the cast do their job, however their characters arent really laced with the same substance Gilderoy is. Everyone else plays a stereotype and extremely one note stereotypes at that.

Luckily the focus is mostly always on Jones and the work he pulls out here is tremendous. The setting itself is stunning, the interior of the sound studio is brilliant, very of its time, down trodden, homey, it catches the perfect tone the movie needs and has its own character, most notably the sound studios comic timing with power cuts.

The cinematography and lighting is also absolutely off the hook. The film looks utterly polished, stylistic and totally pays homage to the european horror film feel, its frenetic pace continually keeps you on your feet, especially with some striking visuals and a wonderful edit, at times Berberian really starts to haunt you as a viewer.

This genuinely has so much going for it, that I was extremely upset by the end of the film, it just cannot live up to its own expectations. The films biggest flaw is that is has no fitting conclusion, I am all for ambiguity, however Berberian leaves you on such an unfinished note that its really hard to find comfort in its abrupt ending.

It also doesnt help that by the time it does it, you have only started to feel like the meat of the piece is really getting unveiled. About an hour and a quarter in the real gritty exposition begins and the film starts to weave a psychotic tale, only to just fizzle out in the last 15 minutes, it never goes anywhere.

Another issue is its over reliance on a unique style, for the first 45 minutes it is brilliant to observe all the wonderful close up and inventive work done with sound and recording and its shown in a really inspiring manner, the problem is that it never builds as much as your want it to and never offers too many updates, it becomes monotonous after a period of time to see the same shots and content over and over again.

The film feels like its building up to something, with rhythmic tension, lush visuals, a wonderful score and inventive editing, even the performance of Jones makes you feel like something really bad is going to happen, Berberian how ever just doesnt go anywhere and the conclusion isnt fitting at all.

Its heart braking as within the first hour I was gearing up for this to be a brilliant new horror film, its still really good, it just cant seal the deal and it really damages its overall reputation. Worth a watch but deflating.