BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO
(June 2012)
"It's like putting tracing paper over the horror movie, taking its highs and lows and getting the same response from the audience without actually showing anything horrific.”
-- Peter Strickland
Writer/director
Peter Strickland’s second feature, Berberian
Sound Studio is one of those titles whose “horror” status some may
question, so I’m mentioning it here, outside of the ¡Qué horror! crush.
In it, we’re
transported to Italy, 1976, where Toby Jones plays British sound engineer Gilderoy,
who’s been hired to work on Il Vortice
Equestre (The Equestrian Vortex),
what turns out to be a lurid giallo chockfull
of torture and violence, which we quickly discover, is not quite Gilderoy’s cup
of tea.
“Horror was the starting point but I
would never call it a horror in a million years. I guess the rule was to bounce off that
genre – to immediately say, no blood, no murder – but still make it scary. What
was exciting about that genre was it has its own history, rules and regulations
that you can manipulate and mess around with. There’s something very gratifying
in taking a template and turning it into something very personal.”
-- Peter Strickland
Not only does the
film, A) send a knowing nod to the heyday of giallo, and B) give a
behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of old school analogue sound
recording (and by extension, display just how vital sound design is to the entire
cinematic experience), but also, C) manage to do the job many a full-on contemporary
horror movie fails to pull off--build a sense of true disquiet and dread.
And what are
some of the weapons Strickland has in his arsenal to achieve said sense?
Vegetables, homesickness, difficulties in the work environment, and Jones’ fine performance.
Tellingly, we
are never shown a single frame of Il
Vortice Equestre, save for its brilliant opening credits (courtesy of
Julian House). We’re left to imagine what atrocities Gilderoy is forced to view
in order to do his job, the sound of vegetables being shredded and stabbed, and
the putrescent texture of their decaying remains exquisitely heightening our fevered
imaginings.
Berberian Sound Studio is an enigmatic experience that proves
that tone is such a crucial element of the horror genre and can succeed in
disturbing an audience far more effectively than gallons of fake blood and
gore.
“Genre is a starting point for me, that
is my personal taste. I love to screw around with it. Of course, there were
many giallo references, but it's more about people
making giallo, rather than becoming
so itself. We pay lip service now and again in the way we use certain shots,
certain zooms, but we wanted to depart from it too. It was the bombastic, rock
and roll element that drew me. I mean, I don't see Argento's Suspiria as cinema: it's more like psychedelia to me. I'm not interested in
showing horror. But I am interested in the effects of it. Berberian Sound Studio is a meditation on sound as much as it is a
meditation on violence.”
-- Peter Strickland
Parting Shot: Berberian Sound Studio took home the
following awards from 2012’s BIFAs: Best Director; Best Actor (for Toby Jones);
Best Technical Achievement – Sound Design (Joakim Sundström and Stevie Haywood);
and Best Achievement in Production.
The film was
also nominated for Best Screenplay; Best Technical Achievement –
Cinematographer (Nic Knowland); and Best British Independent Film (the award
for which was ultimately taken home by Rufus Norris’ Broken).
(Berberian Sound Studio UK quad courtesy
of impawards.com.)
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