Fantastic Fest 2012: Capone sounds off on the flawed BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO, starring Toby Jones!!!
Published at: Sept. 22, 2012, 5:32 p.m. CST by Capone
Hey everyone. Capone in Austin for Fantastic Fest 2012.
I can't think of a situation where I would miss a movie starring Toby Jones, and I'm glad I got a chance to see his latest, BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO at Fantastic Fest, because it's a film that starts strong but fades frustratingly into near invisibility. But throughout its running time, Gilderoy (Jones) remains a quiet, tightly wound bundle of nerves as a Britich audio engineer for the movies who is called in by a famous Italian director (Antonio Mancino) to work on his latest, ultra-disturbing film. And it drives Gilderoy to the brink of insanity.
One of the wisest decisions of director Peter Strickland is to never show us a frame of the film he's made. We hear descriptions of the characters--I particularly liked the horny goblin--and appalling actions and displays of gore--hot pokers come into play, with the appropriate amount of sizzling flesh to accompany their use--but Strickland allows our minds to fill in the visuals. So the odds are that the more you love horror, the more disturbing this movie will be for you. The action rarely leaves the recording studio, with a variety of colorful Italians coming in and out, challenging the sensibility of the reserved sound man. Verbally abusive producers, lovely voice actresses, and goofy foley artists populate the studio and provide amusing foils for Gilderoy's work ethic. That part of BERBERIAN is fantastic.
But as the disturbing nature of the movie (called THE EQUESTRIAN VORTEX) takes its toll on Gilderoy, he starts having disturbing dreams and visions, and the film shifts from a story about giallo post-production into a fever dream of an uptight Brit trying to get reimbursed for his airfare to Italy. If the film had stuck to that story, it might have been something of a minor masterpiece. I loved watching actresses practicing their screams, Jones stabbing into cabbages to approximate the sound of a knife going into a sexy witch, or dropping melons to get that "hitting the ground hard" sound just right. But as it, BERBERIAN gets lost as if it didn't quite know how it wanted to end, and things simply go "Pfffft!"
In a way, things that are near misses are more frustrating than the ones that are flat-out terrible, and BERBERIAN certainly is not unwatchable. It's a fascinating little work that many will probably get a kick out of for about 75 percent of the time. The film certainly works as an authentic behind-the-scenes snapshot, but it's difficult to imagine anyone giving this one a pass with an ending this deafeningly weak. Upon reflection, it's a closer call than you might think, but I can't quite recommend this ambitious but flawed work.
