Berberian Sound Studio

[BlodwynPig]

No sympathy for the main character? Since when is that a necessity outside of Dullywood?

[BlodwynPig]

well, I fucked that up. What a silly sausage stupid cunt I am.

No sympathy for the devil.

[Bored of Canada]

No sympathy for the main character? Since when is that a necessity outside of Dullywood?

Slightly off-topic, but I feel that making the protagonist sympathetic is vital in creating an effective film. Especially a thriller, such as Berberian[nb]Christ. Never gonna spell that one right, am I?[/nb] Sound Studio or Kill List.

If you can't sympathise with the protagonist, even to a small degree, then there won't be any tension, 'cos who gives a shit if they succeed/survive.
Alex De Large and Travis Bickle are nasty characters, but their films are compelling classics because you understand their actions, or they (at the very least) have an endearing personality/sense of humour. I sympathised with the main fella from Kill List because of a lot of small factors. Such as his heartfelt and naturalistic relationship with Michael Smiley's character, and the less frequent but still sometimes happy moments he shared with his wife. But I fully understand if you'd disagree with that, and I totally understand those who hated Kill-List.

Kill-List and Berbarian Sound Studio are both incredibly decisive films because of their rubbish endings.
Except I really liked Kill List, because I felt the filmmaker offered me enough narrative to keep me satisfied, but not too much that it lost it's mystery.
Barbarian Sound Studio's ending didn't succeed in that. The ending made me realise that the whole film was underdeveloped, and there wasn't any substance behind it.
Don't try and salvage your experience by applying some huge significance to it in retrospect. It might make the film more meaningful in your mind, but you were likely hugely disappointed when you actually EXPERIENCED the film, which I feel is the most important thing.

I mean, it's a beautifully made film with FUCKING SPECTACULAR sound-design, but that ending just left me cold to the entire film. I mean, at least Kill List ended with

Spoiler alert

a knife fight and child-murder.

[close]

Someone pointed out that it was based on a short-film in the original Bradley Sound Studio thread and it really shows. Enough cool ideas and gimmicks to make a really effective 8 to 30 minute short film, or even an interesting music-video, but the writer/s didn't develop it enough for a full-feature.

In conclusion, that film, eh? What a load of wank.

[Mark Steels Stockbroker]

Something I considered was that

Spoiler alert

a dissolution of reality and boundaries would occur and Gilderoy would "enter" the film and try to "save" the females.

[close]

[BlodwynPig]

Slightly off-topic, but I feel that making the protagonist sympathetic is vital in creating an effective film. Especially a thriller, such as Berberian[nb]Christ. Never gonna spell that one right, am I?[/nb] Sound Studio or Kill List.

If you can't sympathise with the protagonist, even to a small degree, then there won't be any tension, 'cos who gives a shit if they succeed/survive.
Alex De Large and Travis Bickle are nasty characters, but their films are compelling classics because you understand their actions, or they (at the very least) have an endearing personality/sense of humour. I sympathised with the main fella from Kill List because of a lot of small factors. Such as his heartfelt and naturalistic relationship with Michael Smiley's character, and the less frequent but still sometimes happy moments he shared with his wife. But I fully understand if you'd disagree with that, and I totally understand those who hated Kill-List.

Kill-List and Berbarian Sound Studio are both incredibly decisive films because of their rubbish endings.
Except I really liked Kill List, because I felt the filmmaker offered me enough narrative to keep me satisfied, but not too much that it lost it's mystery.
Barbarian Sound Studio's ending didn't succeed in that. The ending made me realise that the whole film was underdeveloped, and there wasn't any substance behind it.
Don't try and salvage your experience by applying some huge significance to it in retrospect. It might make the film more meaningful in your mind, but you were likely hugely disappointed when you actually EXPERIENCED the film, which I feel is the most important thing.

I mean, it's a beautifully made film with FUCKING SPECTACULAR sound-design, but that ending just left me cold to the entire film. I mean, at least Kill List ended with

Spoiler alert

a knife fight and child-murder.

[close]

Someone pointed out that it was based on a short-film in the original Bradley Sound Studio thread and it really shows. Enough cool ideas and gimmicks to make a really effective 8 to 30 minute short film, or even an interesting music-video, but the writer/s didn't develop it enough for a full-feature.

In conclusion, that film, eh? What a load of wank.

Good subjectivity. Wrong conclusion. This was pure art with a backdrop of Argento style horror. It never set out to be the Baader-Meinhof Complex. Much better to have that ending than tying up some loose ends with a lazy half-assed conclusion. The ethereal quality of the final scene aches for a conclusion, yes, but is all the better for its dissolution into itself.

[Gamma Ray]

Maybe so, in which case it's just not my kind of film. I watched it the other day and though it's undeniably well made, by the end I felt like the film version of one of those 4chan 'WTF am I reading' image macros. I pretty much agree with this guy's review:

Berberian Sound Studio is the Turner Prize of the horror film industry. Some people will lavish praise on its endless daring and invisible meanings, while others will stare at it in disbelief, wondering why anyone should care ... [it's] divisive, vastly-intelligent, avant-garde nonsense / utter genius. Watch it and decide for yourself. Whatever the case, it is a deeply unique experience.

I'm more in the avant-garde nonsense camp though that's not surprising considering my attitude to a lot of art. Still, I like the fact people are making this kind of nonsense, at least it's exploring something different even if I havnae a clue what.

[Funcrusher]

Good subjectivity. Wrong conclusion. This was pure art with a backdrop of Argento style horror. It never set out to be the Baader-Meinhof Complex. Much better to have that ending than tying up some loose ends with a lazy half-assed conclusion. The ethereal quality of the final scene aches for a conclusion, yes, but is all the better for its dissolution into itself.

100x this^^^

BSS is fine, brilliant in fact, just the way it is, ambiguous, unresolved and deeply unsettling.

[Phil_A]

I'm with the

Spoiler alert

"he never even goes to Italy"

[close]

crowd here.

That's why

Spoiler alert

he can't get a refund on his plane tickets

[close]

- they don't exist.

Like Argento in DEEP RED/PROFONDO ROSSO, Strickland actually gives the game away with a visual that nobody notices, in this case

Spoiler alert

the shot where the camera moves over the soundman's coloured charts and notes for THE EQUESTRIAN VORTEX  - right in the middle of all of this paperwork is a chart for the amateur British nature documentary, the film he is really working on.

[close]

Finally got around to seeing this, really, really liked it. I thought the build-up of atmosphere and tension throughout was masterful. One of my favourite parts was the abrupt, deafening silence during the

Spoiler alert

knife attack

[close]

scene, completely disconcerting as it runs contrary to what the language of film has taught us to expect. As the whole thing is concerned with the conventions and artifice of film sound, it's a very interesting move to have the most dramatic moment play out with no sound at all.

I agree mostly with the comments about the underwhelming ending, although I don't think it spoils the whole film, as I felt it was compelling enough up till that point for it not to matter. But yeah, if felt like they definitely could've gone further with it. It seemed to be on verge of descending into full on psychedelic madness, but didn't quite get there.

Another possible clue for the

Spoiler alert

"never went to Italy" theory is the house he's staying in. If Gilderoy is so cash-strapped he's desperate for the air fare money, how could he afford to rent a big place like that? He'd be in some cheap hotel, surely. We never see him travel between the two locations, and the only time he does leave the house, he immediately finds himself back in the studio again. Also, all his recording gear is there, he couldn't have humped all of that with him over from England. Best guess - his mum's definitely dead, and that's probably her house he's in.

[close]

Ahh, I've just realised something else!

Spoiler alert

When he hears the doorbell ringing late at night, it's the exact same sound as on his "Mum's doorbell" recording. It is her house.

[close]

[Mark Steels Stockbroker]

Anyone seen Sleepwalker, btw?

[DukeDeMondo]

Anyone seen Sleepwalker, btw?

Aye, I saw it at the Horse Hospital ahead of its DVD release. Brilliant film.