Berberian sound studio
 

I saw this at the top of a best horror of 2012 list so I had to check it out. If you are a fan of Italian Horror and Giallo then this is a must see. Very dark and strange, with almost no story, this is a real WTF movie with a non ending that may not sit well with most people. BSS is certainly one of a kind and for that alone it gets points. The music is fantastic, and a killer sound design too. There's a UK Bluray just released...
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Berber.../52807/#Review

I really liked it as well but as you said, it won't be to everyone's taste. It was a nice homage to Italian horror films of the 70's without being one. I definitely recommend it.

Looking forward to checking it out. I actually have the UK Blu-ray on route right now, so should have within in a week.

Looks pretty cool. The cover art looks pretty "Four Flies-y" Is there a US version slated for release soon? If not I'll grab the UK BD. It must have a pretty badass soundtrack...I see its being released soon with a bunch of hype surrounding it, but no mention of the US BD.

I watched Berberian Sound Studio this weekend. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. I was under the impression it was going to be a pretty straight forward giallo. But it isn’t at all. It is not a giallo in the basic sense (there is no body count), but it is very much a giallo at heart. Great atmosphere, slick, stylish lighting and camera work, interesting soundtrack, and bizarre characters. There’s this great overwhelming sense of tension throughout the film, but it never really pays off. It’s actually quite clever.

I really liked how the only killings that were happening were on screen (you never see them) for the “Equestrian Vortex”…and the camera operator was wearing black gloves insinuating the “killer” aspect of a giallo film would have. It was a quite ingenious of “adding a body count”.
I enjoyed it.

I've been reading a lot about it,look forward to checking it out !

I loved Berberian Sound Studio. It's a masterfully fine tuned work of cinema that brilliantly defies genre conventions, unfolding as a dramatic thriller that sidesteps into an almost David Lynchian world of horror. Toby Jones is brilliant in the role of Gilderoy, portraying him as a close-minded individual who doesn't deal well with culture shock nor attempting to overcome his obstacles that arise because of his work. Peter Strickland manages to create a love letter to the grandiose cinematic horror opera that is the giallo film while also exposing the world of film sound so finely detailed. Tense, brooding, and confining, Berberian Sound Studio is precise yet abstract, like a metronome out of step.

I thought this was the biggest waste of talent that I've ever seen!

A huge amount of time and effort went into making this, the sets in particular were great and the attention to detail fantastic, lighting was great, soundtrack good, acting good... they just completely overlooked one minor detail... THERE'S NO FUCKING STORY!

After the first few minutes it was literally half way through the movie before the first thing that was even remotely connected to advancing the story happened, by the end the entire story could be summed up in about one sentence.

Such a shame as there was obviously a lot of talent involved in making this.

In a way it's similar to Amer in that it could almost be a student demo movie, made to show off technical film making ability without any attempt to have a story or entertainment value.

I quite liked Amer though, this was taking it to a new level and it did nothing for me at all as far as entertainment went anyway.

What do you mean? The story is Gilderoy (a foley artist) is asked to work on an audio track for an Italian horror film, which happens to be a genre he’s not accustomed to nor does he particularly care for. Strange bizarre things occur while he’s on the job, and the audience tries to guess what the hell is going on and what exactly could happen next.

Berberian Sound Studio doesn’t need a big elaborate story to effectively play with your senses which is, more than likely, the main objective of the film.

Yes, that's the problem... you've just described the entirety of the story in 2 sentences. That's no more than a premise for a movie, but in this case it's stretched so thinly that it makes up the entire story.

It's not that I don't like "slow" movies, eg. one I know is appreciated around here is Spirit of the Beehive, which is wonderful. I'm glad others enjoyed this, but for me there just wasn't enough meat on the bones to provide entertainment.

<edit> I think my problem is that I just didn't find it that creepy or effective... you could say that Suspiria has a simple story too, but the atmosphere and set pieces are so effective that they're strong enough to carry the complete movie to the highest level. In BSS I was just bored and waiting for something (anything!) to happen, but I guess if the atmosphere alone worked for you then it would be enough by itself to make the movie a success.

I can describe hundreds of movies in two sentences…for many perhaps even in less. Take Blue Velvet for example: Kid finds a decomposing ear in field and decides to investigate how it appeared there...weird things ensue. That’s the basic, albeit fairly vague, premise of the whole movie.

I completely understand that BSS didn’t work for you…it’s one of those films that’s either going to click for a person or not. What I don’t understand is how you rationalize the idea that there is not enough story. I mean, what else were you expecting to happen?...Gilderoy falls in love with Veronica, they get married, make ugly babies and live happily ever after?

If you folks want to talk about no fucking story literally. Look at American cinema from late 90's to the present. All you get is hipster Directors who rich mommy and daddy bought them a film career. Most of the films are cgi pukefests from start to finish. Look at the garbage that passes for actors while your at it. Bunch of no talent barbie doll bimbos that can't act for shit. There is no more working class actors these days completely extinct.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...DryHumping.gif

I guess what I mean is that to have almost zero plot development in any given reel is fine, but only if the rest of the movie is exceptional in some way. The point of BSS is clearly not the story, so it sinks or swims on it's other aspects.

While very good technically, that wasn't enough for it to "work" for me and so the wafer thin story line is an obvious starting point for criticism, even though I agree there are great movies with equally thin plots.

It'll be interesting to see other comments on it here once a few more folk have seen it.

The story in Berberian is far from wafer thin. There is so much going on in that movie underneath what you could write up into one-sentence. I'll put this next bit in spoiler tags as to not disrupt those who have not seen the film since Berberian has more than one story it's telling.

Spoiler: 1) A story about an experienced sound mixer working in a situation completely foreign to him. 2) A story of a fragile and sheltered individual who's afraid of confrontation or conflict. This is deeper explored in the letters from 'Mum' and central to the mystery. 3) A story about the behind the scenes of filmmaking, and the blood, sweat, and tears that go into filmmaking. A story of a dictator not open to compromise.

It's confined locations might have it appear "simple", but there is so much subtly going on under all it's layers.

Those are indeed some of the underlying themes which imo were woefully underdeveloped, haha. I think we're gonna have to agree to disagree on this one. :)