![]() ![]() The problems set in during the final fifteen minutes, when the house of cards finally collapses and our protagonist finds himself in a set of alien circumstances that do little to illuminate what we've already seen of him. Berberian Sound Studio is a far cry from generic shock horror, though, instead a sinister character piece as portrayed masterfully by Jones and facilitated through a series of increasingly oppressive interpersonal encounters. This movie has no aspirations toward true giallodom, instead borrowing giallo's delightfully squishy sound design (what do you think that produce is for?) and baroque low-key lighting to grant style to a mostly conventional narrative. Toby Jones plays a sensitive introvert who, having only designed sound for nature documentaries, finds that his new overseas gig producing gory sound effects for an Italian horror movie exacts a high emotional and mental toll. Berberian Sound Studio, arriving three years after staid but enjoyable Ameror Dario Argento's God-awful Giallo, mostly manages to avoid this. Despite the fact that Italy's wackiest subgenre is characterized by arrhythmic narrative structure, unpredictable editing, and shot after non-sequitur shot, films attempting to pay their dues to such a singular cinematic phenomenon often employ these techniques too academically. None of these intrigue me more than the giallo homage. It’s a great transition from screen to stage.Since horror is so dependent on culturally recursive imagery, often scaring us with things that we know we'll be scared of, it proves itself a fertile ground for namechecking, parody, and homage. ![]() The production works well in the confines of the Donmar – the claustrophobia of the piece, which plays out uninterrupted for 90 minutes or so, compounded by the size of the room. The set is a thing of beauty too – a small voice booth in one corner where the actresses have to scream (or not), and a production desk with faders and reel to reel recorders that give a great sense of location. Either way, the mixing works really well and creates a disturbing atmosphere. The sound design and music by Ben and Max Ringham is absolutely superb – elements seem to be being done live, while other aspects are pre-recorded. A lack of comprehension with his colleagues, the long hours he spends in the studio working, the need to work faster than he’s used to, and the weight of the film that they’re working on – including the uncertainty about how the film should end.īrooke conveys this really well, beginning as a comic figure out of his depth, before the madness begins to envelop him. The sense of alienation of Gilderoy begins to affect him. Gilderoy’s prized possession is his Nagra reel-to-reel tape recorder, with which he is able to conjour a soundscape for the film, as well as listen to audio tapes sent from his mother who he lives with back at home. In Berberian Sound Studio, actresses including Sylvia (Lara Rossi) dub the voices while two foley effects men, both called Massimo – ‘that’ll be easy to remember’ – rush around adding physical sound effects, often to great comic effect. Many films of the period were indeed shot with the sound completely replaced in post. Instead, we hear only the post-dubbing sound. As with the original film, a projector booth screens footage from the film that the audience will never see. The play keeps the action within the confines of the studio where Gilderoy will be working. ![]() The story is broadly speaking the same, with Tom Brooke playing the reserved Gilderoy, arriving in a new country, with no understanding of the language. Now the Donmar Warehouse is showing an adaption by Joel Horwood and director Tom Scutt. The Equestrian Vortex, is of course a “giallo” movie – a slasher horror film from the seventies, and Gilderoy begins to feel ever more uncomfortable as he understands what he’s working on. He believes that he was employed because of his sound recording and mixing on a documentary about wildlife around Box Hill in Surrey. Set in the seventies, Toby Jones starred as Gilderoy, a sound mixer who has been employed to work on an Italian film called The Equestrian Vortex. Berberian Sound Studio was a very fine 2012 horror film made by Peter Strickland. ![]()
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