*full disclosure: a DVD screener of this film was provided by IFC Films. Director/writer: Peter Strickland. Cast: Toby Jones, Cosimo Fusco, Antonio Mancino and Fatma Mohamed. Berberian Sound Studio is a United Kingdom shot film. This smallish film blends the English and Italian languages as one central character unhinges, strangely, before the viewer's eye. This unconventional film is a surreal and expressionistic title, whose meaning is left up to the viewer. Truly a slow burn, Berberian Sound Studio cannot easily be put into genre and the film is closest to a character study, with Gilderoy succumbing to studio pressure. This title will not be for most film fans as the Berberian Sound Studio putters into nothingness. The film begins and ends with the character Gilderoy (Toby Jones). Gilderoy has flown from England down to Italy, in order to compose sound on a film that is never shown to viewers.
- 12/15/2013
- by noreply@blogger.com (Michael Allen)
- 28 Days Later Analysis
If I actually reviewed Berberian Sound Studio last night immediately after my viewing, I would have been doing director Peter Strickland, myself, and most importantly you, the reader, and absolute disservice. Why? Because my immediate reaction would have gone something like “Um…did that…was he…where…huh?” But thanks to further deconstruction of Strickland’s crazy homage/inspired vision while I laid awake struggling with my own inner thoughts, I realized what this beautifully creepy behind-the-scenes mindf#ck actually represented, and it was like a switch flipped. Admittedly, I’m still not As in love with the film as some reviewers, mainly the ones who had it in their top 10 last year (yes, you lucky UK bastards got it first), but Strickland’s technical prowess accomplishes loads more than meets the eye.
Berberian Sound Studio tells the story of Gilderoy (Toby Jones), a sound engineer who gets flown in...
Berberian Sound Studio tells the story of Gilderoy (Toby Jones), a sound engineer who gets flown in...
- 6/18/2013
- by Matt Donato
- We Got This Covered
The Italian giallo has provided horror with some of the genre’s most memorable scenes. Names like Fulci, Argento, and Bava are just a few that have provided their exceptional skill in crafting the look and feel of the giallo motif. Those paradigms have influenced director Peter Strickland, as he has composed a film evocative of giallo filmmaking, but also purposed with a dedication to the detailed execution of a structured, element driven storytelling.
The setting is Italy in the seventies. An awkward, introverted sound engineer named Gilderoy (Toby Jones) is commissioned to work on a horror film called the “The Equestrian Vortex”. The director, Santini (Antonio Mancino), is an intimidating man who berates his crew consistently. Gilderoy works with Francesco (Cosimo Fusco), another abusive type, on the sound design for the film. The difficult work environment overwhelms Gilderoy, but more so are the terrifying and disturbing images he is fashioning the sound for.
The setting is Italy in the seventies. An awkward, introverted sound engineer named Gilderoy (Toby Jones) is commissioned to work on a horror film called the “The Equestrian Vortex”. The director, Santini (Antonio Mancino), is an intimidating man who berates his crew consistently. Gilderoy works with Francesco (Cosimo Fusco), another abusive type, on the sound design for the film. The difficult work environment overwhelms Gilderoy, but more so are the terrifying and disturbing images he is fashioning the sound for.
- 6/13/2013
- by Monte Yazzie
- DailyDead
When someone says a new movie is "made for horror fans," what they usually mean is that it's fun, fast-paced, nostalgic, and probably pretty self-deprecating or subversive. Movies like Scream, Slither, and The Cabin in the Woods are "made for horror fans" in that way.
Then there are films like Berberian Sound Studio, which is made for horror fans who take the genre very seriously. Not only does this movie hearken back to an era and location that means a lot to the history of horror films, but it also knows what seasoned viewers expect from a conventional terror tale -- and then it messes with those expectations in a series of highly compelling ways.
Set in 1970, Berberian Sound Studio is about a reputable British sound designer who arrives in Italy to begin post-production work on a new film. Unfortunately for the uncomfortable Gilderoy (Toby Jones), the project he's working...
Then there are films like Berberian Sound Studio, which is made for horror fans who take the genre very seriously. Not only does this movie hearken back to an era and location that means a lot to the history of horror films, but it also knows what seasoned viewers expect from a conventional terror tale -- and then it messes with those expectations in a series of highly compelling ways.
Set in 1970, Berberian Sound Studio is about a reputable British sound designer who arrives in Italy to begin post-production work on a new film. Unfortunately for the uncomfortable Gilderoy (Toby Jones), the project he's working...
- 6/5/2013
- by Scott Weinberg
- FEARnet
Written and directed by: Peter Strickland
Featuring: Toby Jones, Cosimo Fusco, Fatma Mohamed, Eugenia Caruso, Antonio Mancino, Tonia Sotiropoulou
A fond tribute to giallo, a hymn to analogue recording equipment, a vehicle for the irresistible Toby Jones – on paper at least, Berberian Sound Studio looks like it might be the best movie ever made. Peter Strickland's second feature is certainly a delight for the senses, indulging the audience in the intensity and theatricality of 1970s Italian horror, aural and visual details heightened for maximum effect. Unfortunately, the delicate plot threads spiral out of control in the third act, leaving the audience awash with all the delicious possibilities (mysteriously disappearing technicians, dead chaffinches, actresses taken ill, an unseen intruder lurking within the studio) that never come to pass. Nonetheless, this arthouse horror movie offers some noble, rather than the usual guilty, pleasures to genre aficionados.
The title of the fictional studio,...
Featuring: Toby Jones, Cosimo Fusco, Fatma Mohamed, Eugenia Caruso, Antonio Mancino, Tonia Sotiropoulou
A fond tribute to giallo, a hymn to analogue recording equipment, a vehicle for the irresistible Toby Jones – on paper at least, Berberian Sound Studio looks like it might be the best movie ever made. Peter Strickland's second feature is certainly a delight for the senses, indulging the audience in the intensity and theatricality of 1970s Italian horror, aural and visual details heightened for maximum effect. Unfortunately, the delicate plot threads spiral out of control in the third act, leaving the audience awash with all the delicious possibilities (mysteriously disappearing technicians, dead chaffinches, actresses taken ill, an unseen intruder lurking within the studio) that never come to pass. Nonetheless, this arthouse horror movie offers some noble, rather than the usual guilty, pleasures to genre aficionados.
The title of the fictional studio,...
- 6/4/2013
- by Karina Wilson
- Planet Fury
“Berberian Sound Studio” was easily one of the most talked about horror films of 2012, having generated much discussion at a variety of international genre festivals, including Frightfest in London, where it won the Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor Awards. The film was directed by British helmer Peter Strickland, who rather oddly shot his 2009 debut feature “Katalin Varga” entirely in Hungarian, and has been pitched as a nightmarish and baffling mix of Lynch and Argento. Set in 1976, it stars top drawer Brit character actor Toby Jones (“Tinker Tailor Solider Spy”) as Gilderoy, a mild mannered English sound engineer who arrives in the run down Italian studio of the title to work on a gruesome exploitation pic called ‘The Equestrian Vortex’ by Giallo director Santini (Antonio Mancino). The poor sensitive fellow soon finds himself having to work out how to recreate noises of torture and dismemberment using vegetables, and exposed...
- 12/18/2012
- by James Mudge
- Beyond Hollywood
There are many aspects to making a film – the actors, the script, the director, the music – but there is another aspect many people forget about: the sound mix. The process of combining an actor’s dialogue and the music with the ambient noises and sound effects is an art in its own right, but when doing so for a film filled with murders and hauntings, this process becomes all the more compelling and off-putting. The Berberian Sound Studio is located in Italy, and English sound engineer Gilderoy (Toby Jones) makes the trip to help create the mix for a pulp film from the eccentric director, Santini (Antonio Mancino). On the surface, a man coming to a new country may seem like a story about learning from different cultures and their various creative personalities, but the narrative takes a decidedly sinister turn when the sounds Gilderoy is creating for the film seem to follow him from his recording...
- 11/4/2012
- by Allison Loring
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Berberian Sound Studio (2012) “Berberian Sound Studio” was easily one of the most talked about films of the festival, both before and after its packed screening. The film was directed by British helmer Peter Strickland, who rather oddly shot his 2009 debut feature “Katalin Varga” entirely in Hungarian, and is a nightmarish and baffling mix of Lynch and Argento. Set in 1976, the film stars top drawer Brit character actor Toby Jones (“Tinker Tailor Solider Spy”) as Gilderoy, a mild mannered English sound engineer who arrives in the run down Italian studio of the title to work on a gruesome exploitation pic called ‘The Equestrian Vortex’ by Giallo director Santini (Antonio Mancino). The poor sensitive fellow soon finds himself having to work out how to recreate noises of torture and dismemberment using vegetables, and exposed to madness and sexuality both onscreen and off, starts to (possibly) lose his mind. “Berberian Sound Studio” was...
- 9/9/2012
- by James Mudge
- Beyond Hollywood
Berberian Sound Studio
Written by Peter Strickland
Directed by Peter Strickland
UK, 2012
Unless someone conjures up The Gaffer Murders, Peter Strickland’s Berberian Sound Studio must be the most affectionate fictional feature-length tribute to a specific technical discipline of filmmaking ever made. Too often, movies about making movies are happy to stick to generalities and well-worn tropes; the demanding director, the exiled writer, the beleaguered star, the starlet no one takes seriously. Strickland takes the opposite tack, luxuriating in the minutiae of moviemaking as a means to investigate not only our relationship with screen violence, but the dynamics that lurk within those who seek to conjure it.
Its ostensible hero, Gilderoy (Toby Jones), is a British sound engineer brought to Italy in what appears to be the 1970s to work on a horror film directed by the enigmatic Santini (Antonio Mancino). As Gilderoy begins work on the film, whose graphic...
Written by Peter Strickland
Directed by Peter Strickland
UK, 2012
Unless someone conjures up The Gaffer Murders, Peter Strickland’s Berberian Sound Studio must be the most affectionate fictional feature-length tribute to a specific technical discipline of filmmaking ever made. Too often, movies about making movies are happy to stick to generalities and well-worn tropes; the demanding director, the exiled writer, the beleaguered star, the starlet no one takes seriously. Strickland takes the opposite tack, luxuriating in the minutiae of moviemaking as a means to investigate not only our relationship with screen violence, but the dynamics that lurk within those who seek to conjure it.
Its ostensible hero, Gilderoy (Toby Jones), is a British sound engineer brought to Italy in what appears to be the 1970s to work on a horror film directed by the enigmatic Santini (Antonio Mancino). As Gilderoy begins work on the film, whose graphic...
- 9/6/2012
- by Simon Howell
- SoundOnSight
With his weird, giallo-inspired drama about an English sound engineer coming apart in Italy, director Peter Strickland confirms himself as a serious British film-making talent
Three years ago, British film-maker Peter Strickland grabbed us with his debut, Katalin Varga, an eerie revenge drama unfolding in the central European countryside. Arresting as it was, nothing in that movie could have given us any clue to this quite extraordinary followup: utterly distinctive and all but unclassifiable, a musique concrète nightmare, a psycho-metaphysical implosion of anxiety, with strange-tasting traces of black comedy and movie-buff riffs. It is seriously weird and seriously good.
Toby Jones plays a mousy sound engineer called Gilderoy from Dorking in the 1970s; he has taken a job in a post-production studio in Italy, the Berberian sound studio of the title. These facilities are presumably in Rome, but there is to be no high-minded cinephile swooning over the history of Cinecittà and the like.
Three years ago, British film-maker Peter Strickland grabbed us with his debut, Katalin Varga, an eerie revenge drama unfolding in the central European countryside. Arresting as it was, nothing in that movie could have given us any clue to this quite extraordinary followup: utterly distinctive and all but unclassifiable, a musique concrète nightmare, a psycho-metaphysical implosion of anxiety, with strange-tasting traces of black comedy and movie-buff riffs. It is seriously weird and seriously good.
Toby Jones plays a mousy sound engineer called Gilderoy from Dorking in the 1970s; he has taken a job in a post-production studio in Italy, the Berberian sound studio of the title. These facilities are presumably in Rome, but there is to be no high-minded cinephile swooning over the history of Cinecittà and the like.
- 8/30/2012
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
The first trailer for Berberian Sound Studio has arrived, giving you a better look at this Toronto International Film Festival entry starring Toby Jones and directed by Peter Strickland.
Jones (The Mist) plays Gilderoy, a man hired to orchestrate the sound mix for the latest film by Italian horror maestro, Santini (Antonio Mancino). As time and realities shift, Gilderoy is lost in a spiral of sonic and personal mayhem, and has to confront his own demons in order to stay afloat.
Read more...
Jones (The Mist) plays Gilderoy, a man hired to orchestrate the sound mix for the latest film by Italian horror maestro, Santini (Antonio Mancino). As time and realities shift, Gilderoy is lost in a spiral of sonic and personal mayhem, and has to confront his own demons in order to stay afloat.
Read more...
- 8/21/2012
- shocktillyoudrop.com
British writer/director Peter Strickland will have the chance to show off his new horror project 'Berberian Sound Studio' next month at Tiff 2012 and in preparation for the screening comes a handful of new stills from the film. Toby Jones ('The Mist') stars as sound engineer Gilderoy whose latest job working on the mix for Italian director Santini becomes his doorway into 'personal mayhem'. The Brit flick co-stars Antonio Mancino, Cosimo Fusco, Susanna Cappellaro, Eugenia Caruso, Chiara D'Anna and the sexy Greek star Tonia Sotiropoulou ('Skyfall'). The Toronto International Film Festival kicks off in just 30 days time but you can head below right now for the new stills....
- 8/7/2012
- Horror Asylum
UK helmer Peter Strickland stepped behind the camera for a slice of cinema called Berberian Sound Studio. An odd title that I suspect will change into something more generic if/when it gets U.S. distribution. But don't let its moniker turn you off, the film is set against the backdrop of a Italian horror production in the late 1970s.
Toby Jones (The Mist) plays Gilderoy, a man hired to orchestrate the sound mix for the latest film by Italian horror maestro, Santini (Antonio Mancino). As time and realities shift, Gilderoy is lost in a spiral of sonic and personal mayhem, and has to confront his own demons in order to stay afloat.
The film will play to Toronto International Film Festival audiences next month and we've got a peek via a handful of images.
Read more...
Toby Jones (The Mist) plays Gilderoy, a man hired to orchestrate the sound mix for the latest film by Italian horror maestro, Santini (Antonio Mancino). As time and realities shift, Gilderoy is lost in a spiral of sonic and personal mayhem, and has to confront his own demons in order to stay afloat.
The film will play to Toronto International Film Festival audiences next month and we've got a peek via a handful of images.
Read more...
- 8/7/2012
- shocktillyoudrop.com
"Don't be afraid. A new world of sound awaits you." One of the many interesting films showing at Tiff next month is this intriguing, eerie psychological thriller of sorts, starring Toby Jones, who you should recognize from Captain America or Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy or The Mist. Berberian Sound Studio is about a fellow named Gilderoy who starts to lose his own mind when he's hired to orchestrate the sound mix for the latest film by Italian horror maestro, Santini, played by Antonio Mancino. This looks both aurally and visually unsettling, yet oddly fascinating, the perfect festival film to catch when you can. Take a look! Here's the first trailer for Peter Strickland's Berberian Sound Studio, debuted on YouTube by Tiff: In this tense and moody psychological thriller set in 1976, timid British sound engineer Gilderoy (Jones) begins to lose his grip on reality when he's hired to work for...
- 8/5/2012
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Artificial Eye have exclusively sent us the official U.K. poster for Berberian Sound Studio.
Directed by Peter Strickland (Katalin Varga), Berberian Sound Studio premiered earlier this year at the Edinburgh International Film Festival to rave reviews (read ours here) and is guaranteed to make a lasting impression.
With a screenplay constructed by Strickland himself, the film stars Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) amongst a scattering of lesser known, yet equally as impressive actors, namely Antonio Mancino (Blue Dress), Cosimo Fusco (Angels & Demons) and Tonia Sotiropoulou (Cool).
Gilderoy (Jones), a reserved and modest British sound engineer, is hired by Italian director Santini (Mancino) to provide the score to his latest film. However, as Gilderoy immerses himself more and more in the work, he soon finds the macabre scenario having a truly nightmarish effect on his mind.
Berberian Sound Studio is scheduled for a nationwide U.K. release on August 31. Prior to that,...
Directed by Peter Strickland (Katalin Varga), Berberian Sound Studio premiered earlier this year at the Edinburgh International Film Festival to rave reviews (read ours here) and is guaranteed to make a lasting impression.
With a screenplay constructed by Strickland himself, the film stars Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) amongst a scattering of lesser known, yet equally as impressive actors, namely Antonio Mancino (Blue Dress), Cosimo Fusco (Angels & Demons) and Tonia Sotiropoulou (Cool).
Gilderoy (Jones), a reserved and modest British sound engineer, is hired by Italian director Santini (Mancino) to provide the score to his latest film. However, as Gilderoy immerses himself more and more in the work, he soon finds the macabre scenario having a truly nightmarish effect on his mind.
Berberian Sound Studio is scheduled for a nationwide U.K. release on August 31. Prior to that,...
- 8/2/2012
- by Jamie Neish
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
He rarely leads an ensemble, but Toby Jones pops up in more major films than most of Hollywood’s top stars. In just the last year he’s been seen (and heard) in Captain America: The First Avenger, The Adventures of Tintin, The Hunger Games, Snow White and the Huntsman, My Week with Marilyn and most recently, Red Lights. The actor is now set for a leading role in a new psychological thriller Berberian Sound Studio.
Premiering at Toronto next month, the film from Peter Strickland gives Jones his own Blow Out-esque role as he plays a sound engineer working for a horror maestro. While it looks a bit more over-the-top and chaotic than Brian De Palma‘s masterpiece, I can’t complain when this fantastic character actor is given a chance to lead. Check out the first trailer and new photos below for the film also starring Cosimo Fusco,...
Premiering at Toronto next month, the film from Peter Strickland gives Jones his own Blow Out-esque role as he plays a sound engineer working for a horror maestro. While it looks a bit more over-the-top and chaotic than Brian De Palma‘s masterpiece, I can’t complain when this fantastic character actor is given a chance to lead. Check out the first trailer and new photos below for the film also starring Cosimo Fusco,...
- 8/1/2012
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
Gilderoy (Toby Jones), a reserved and modest British sound engineer, is hired by Italian schlock director Santini (Antonio Mancino) to score his latest film, slyly titled The Equestrian Vortex. Upon his arrival, he’s immediately intimidated by the Italians and baffled as to their unique approach to a variety of things, particularly the tools they use to create the film’s score and the lack of interest they have in reimbursing his travel expenses. As he attempts to put cultural differences aside and adopt a thrifty approach to his work than he’s familiar with, he soon finds the macabre scenario in which he’s landed in is having more of an effect on him that he could have anticipated.
Hinged on its ability to deconstruct and satirise those fundamental aspects of horror that evoke the necessary reactionary emotions in the audience, Berberian Sound Studio is more certifiable perplexity than straight-up horror-thriller,...
Hinged on its ability to deconstruct and satirise those fundamental aspects of horror that evoke the necessary reactionary emotions in the audience, Berberian Sound Studio is more certifiable perplexity than straight-up horror-thriller,...
- 6/30/2012
- by Jamie Neish
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Peter Strickland's unsettling film about a sound engineer creating noises for a trashy horror flick is confidently sinister
Three years ago, without fuss, a young British director pulled off an astonishing coup de cinema. Peter Strickland ploughed three years and £28,000 of inheritance into shooting a film in a Hungarian-speaking part of the Romanian region of Transylvania. The result: Katalin Varga, a spare, unsentimental drama about the aftermath of a rape, which won universal acclaim and the Silver Bear at Berlin.
The same singularity of focus and confidence that informed Katalin Varga can be seen in each frame of his followup. Berberian Sound Studio is a different endeavour – Varga was a pastoral fable, full of long shots and stark storytelling; this is a whip-crack 70s-set genre riff made by a cineaste for sympathetic souls – but both movies share a strange, unsettling rootlessness. They're stories set on shifting sands, despite a superficial specificity.
Three years ago, without fuss, a young British director pulled off an astonishing coup de cinema. Peter Strickland ploughed three years and £28,000 of inheritance into shooting a film in a Hungarian-speaking part of the Romanian region of Transylvania. The result: Katalin Varga, a spare, unsentimental drama about the aftermath of a rape, which won universal acclaim and the Silver Bear at Berlin.
The same singularity of focus and confidence that informed Katalin Varga can be seen in each frame of his followup. Berberian Sound Studio is a different endeavour – Varga was a pastoral fable, full of long shots and stark storytelling; this is a whip-crack 70s-set genre riff made by a cineaste for sympathetic souls – but both movies share a strange, unsettling rootlessness. They're stories set on shifting sands, despite a superficial specificity.
- 6/29/2012
- by Catherine Shoard
- The Guardian - Film News
#35. Berberian Sound Studio Director/Writer: Peter StricklandProducers: Mary Burke (Submarine), Illuminations Films' Simon Field and Keith Griffiths (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives)Distributor: Rights Available (Match Factory) The Gist: Berberian Sound Studio is one of the cheapest, sleaziest post-production studios in Italy. Only the most sordid horror films have their sound processed and sharpened in this studio. Gilderoy (Toby Jones), a shy and nondescript sound engineer from the UK is hired to mix the latest giallo film by horror maestro, Santini (Antonio Mancino) and he soon finds himself caught up in a forbidding world of bitter actors, capricious foley artists and confounding bureaucracy...(more) Cast: Toby Jones toplines. List Worthy Reasons...: The Silver Bear (2009 Berlin Film Festival) and The European Film Academy's Discovery of the Year award winning Katalin Varga announced that the arrival of helmer Peter Strickland. I have a penchant for films about...
- 1/7/2012
- IONCINEMA.com
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