British auteur Peter Strickland is back with his fifth feature, “Flux Gourmet,” and it is as striking and uncompromising as his previous body of work, which includes “In Fabric” (2018), “The Duke of Burgundy” (2014), “Berberian Sound Studio” (2012) and “Katalin Varga” (2009). “Flux Gourmet” world premieres at the Berlin Film Festival’s Encounters strand on Feb. 11.
The film follows a sonic collective trio with rocky interpersonal dynamics, who take up residency at an institute devoted to culinary and alimentary performance and have to answer to the institute’s head, who has her own opinions about their work. Their chronicler, meanwhile, is dealing with stomach problems.
“Flux Gourmet” began life as Strickland was completing “In Fabric” when a producer offered him the opportunity of making anything he wanted, provided the budget was under £1 million ($1.3 million). “When I showed them the script, they ran a mile,” Strickland told Variety. “They said, ‘Do whatever you want,...
The film follows a sonic collective trio with rocky interpersonal dynamics, who take up residency at an institute devoted to culinary and alimentary performance and have to answer to the institute’s head, who has her own opinions about their work. Their chronicler, meanwhile, is dealing with stomach problems.
“Flux Gourmet” began life as Strickland was completing “In Fabric” when a producer offered him the opportunity of making anything he wanted, provided the budget was under £1 million ($1.3 million). “When I showed them the script, they ran a mile,” Strickland told Variety. “They said, ‘Do whatever you want,...
- 2/11/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Diving into the hundreds of new theatrical releases, including large chunks of grueling, gluttonous marathons through world cinema’s greatest offerings from a variety of film festivals, and coming to a reasonable list of selections demonstrating what one deems to be ‘the best,’ remains an utterly self-involved, sometimes fruitless tradition. Who, after all, can rightly determine what is indeed ‘best’ in an art form where one person’s trash is another’s treasure? Personally, I prefer to compile a list of ‘favorite’ things, items which remain meaningless unless you put stock in its author’s general tastes.
Amidst the incessant jabbering of awards season exaggeration, it’s difficult not to be swayed by the most topical, most shiny and brand new theatrical releases courting awards voters (which is why I felt it necessary to see Inarritu’s new film twice). Nearly half of my selections appeared on my mid-year list of favored theatrical releases,...
Amidst the incessant jabbering of awards season exaggeration, it’s difficult not to be swayed by the most topical, most shiny and brand new theatrical releases courting awards voters (which is why I felt it necessary to see Inarritu’s new film twice). Nearly half of my selections appeared on my mid-year list of favored theatrical releases,...
- 12/14/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
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Here's what happened when we listened to BBC Radio 4's chilling adaptation of The Stone Tape in an atmospheric London crypt...
I’m sitting in a crypt. Specifically, I’m sitting in the 17th century crypt beneath the church of St Andrew in Holborn. Above me, busy Londoners are making their way home from work; at semi-regular intervals, I can hear the distant rumbling of Underground trains. It’s still just about daylight outside, but down here in the crypt, it’s dark. If it weren’t for the green lights on the radio headphones of the people around me, it’d be pitch black. I’m here to listen to Radio 4’s new adaptation of The Stone Tape, and it’s hard to think of a spookier or more appropriate way to do it.
This is the first of several listening events being hosted by In...
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Here's what happened when we listened to BBC Radio 4's chilling adaptation of The Stone Tape in an atmospheric London crypt...
I’m sitting in a crypt. Specifically, I’m sitting in the 17th century crypt beneath the church of St Andrew in Holborn. Above me, busy Londoners are making their way home from work; at semi-regular intervals, I can hear the distant rumbling of Underground trains. It’s still just about daylight outside, but down here in the crypt, it’s dark. If it weren’t for the green lights on the radio headphones of the people around me, it’d be pitch black. I’m here to listen to Radio 4’s new adaptation of The Stone Tape, and it’s hard to think of a spookier or more appropriate way to do it.
This is the first of several listening events being hosted by In...
- 10/25/2015
- by simonbrew
- Den of Geek
Meet some of the best directors working today, who haven't gone down the blockbuster movie route...
Ever find it a bit lame when the same big name directors get kicked around for every high profile project? Christopher Nolan, Jj Abrams, maybe the Russo Brothers? With so much focus on blockbuster films these days, getting a major franchise job seems like the main acknowledgement of success for a filmmaker. And yes, both the financial and creative rewards can be great. But there are plenty of other directors out there, doing their own thing, from art house auteurs to Dtv action specialists.
Here are 25 examples.
Lee Hardcastle
Even if you don’t know his name, you’ve probably seen Lee Hardcastle’s ultraviolent claymations shared on social media. He first started getting noticed for his two-minute remake of The Thing, starring the famous stop motion penguin Pingu. Far from just a cheap one-joke mash-up,...
Ever find it a bit lame when the same big name directors get kicked around for every high profile project? Christopher Nolan, Jj Abrams, maybe the Russo Brothers? With so much focus on blockbuster films these days, getting a major franchise job seems like the main acknowledgement of success for a filmmaker. And yes, both the financial and creative rewards can be great. But there are plenty of other directors out there, doing their own thing, from art house auteurs to Dtv action specialists.
Here are 25 examples.
Lee Hardcastle
Even if you don’t know his name, you’ve probably seen Lee Hardcastle’s ultraviolent claymations shared on social media. He first started getting noticed for his two-minute remake of The Thing, starring the famous stop motion penguin Pingu. Far from just a cheap one-joke mash-up,...
- 9/30/2015
- by simonbrew
- Den of Geek
After premiering at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, Peter Strickland‘s third feature The Duke of Burgundy went on to a limited theatrical release in January, 2015, though it ended up being a poor quarter chosen to unleash the film. Like Strickland’s previous features, Katalin Varga (still without distribution in the Us) and Berberian Sound Studio, his latest was in need of more innovative marketing strategies in order to reach an appreciative audience, though it should hopefully amass a growing field of devotees now that it’s available for home viewing.
Beginning like something that should have been called Exploits of a Chambermaid, replete with a fantastically sumptuous rendering of a vintage title sequence lifted right out of the 1970s, The Duke of Burgundy seduces us immediately. Much like his last film, the incredibly underrated Berberian Sound Studio, which was an homage to the giallo genre, his latest is a reconsideration of erotic exploitation cinema,...
Beginning like something that should have been called Exploits of a Chambermaid, replete with a fantastically sumptuous rendering of a vintage title sequence lifted right out of the 1970s, The Duke of Burgundy seduces us immediately. Much like his last film, the incredibly underrated Berberian Sound Studio, which was an homage to the giallo genre, his latest is a reconsideration of erotic exploitation cinema,...
- 9/29/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
With the first half of 2015 officially coming to a close, it’s time for our mid-year list of best theatrical releases. As seems to be the trend, a bulk of these titles were selections premiering in the late fall circuit of 2014, a move sometimes granting offbeat art-house selections a bit more breathing room (though not always). Here’s a glance at what represents the best of the year thus far, including two directorial debuts, one posthumous work, and one studio feature:
10. The Salt of the Earth – Dir. Wim Wenders & Juliano Ribeiro Salgado
Premiering at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, German auteur Wim Wenders explores the prolific career of Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado, here with the help of his son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado serving as co-director. Known for capturing catastrophic events in striking fashion, the documentary finds the artist in search of something positive after decades documenting human nature at its worst.
10. The Salt of the Earth – Dir. Wim Wenders & Juliano Ribeiro Salgado
Premiering at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, German auteur Wim Wenders explores the prolific career of Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado, here with the help of his son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado serving as co-director. Known for capturing catastrophic events in striking fashion, the documentary finds the artist in search of something positive after decades documenting human nature at its worst.
- 7/6/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
With Box completed (starring filmmaker Catalin Mitulescu and actresses Fatma Mohamed and Hilda Péter who are both from Peter Strickland’s Katalin Varga and Berberian Sound Studio) and simply awaiting a film festival premiere (our Nicholas Bell is thinking Cannes is a strong possibility), Florin Şerban in already settings his sights on his third film for a 2016 shoot. Picking up grant funds, Cineuropa reports that the Romanian filmmaker should be visiting America next. The helmer who broke out at the 2010 Berlin Film Fest with a pair of awards for If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle, has been chipping away at the screenplay since Y2K.
Gist: Taking place in the during the 1990s, this is about a high-school teacher named Anton who lives in a provincial town. His dream is to emigrate to the United States.
Worth Noting: The Columbia University grad saw his debut film play well on...
Gist: Taking place in the during the 1990s, this is about a high-school teacher named Anton who lives in a provincial town. His dream is to emigrate to the United States.
Worth Noting: The Columbia University grad saw his debut film play well on...
- 3/25/2015
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
"It's a love story, really," says Peter Strickland when we caught up with him in London late last year and asked him to tell us about his latest film, The Duke of Burgundy (2014), a wonderfully kinky exploration of a sadomasochistic relationship. "It's a domestic drama that has fallen out of the hands of a sleazier genre, perhaps. But really, it's circling these ideas of consent, compromise and coercion and observing two people having very different intimate needs and is it possible to make it work." It's a more intimate beast than his previous two works, Katalin Varga (2009) and Berberian Sound Studio (2012), and it riffs on the sexploitation films of the seventies. Burgundy began life as a commission from Andy Stark and Pete Tombs of Rook Films. They wanted him to helm a remake of Jess Franco's Lorna the Exorcist (1974).
- 2/20/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
You’re just as likely to remember the ultra-immersive soundscapes as the rich visuals in Peter Strickland’s films, which after three efforts have cemented him as one of the most strikingly original filmmakers working today. After his 2009 debut feature “Katalin Varga” drew considerable acclaim, it was the giallo-influenced “Berberian Sound Studio,” starring Toby Jones as a frustrated foley artist losing his grip on reality, that truly showcased his ability to tweak genre into new, darkly comic forms. The success of “Berberian” pressed Strickland towards more ambitious material than commercial prospects. His latest, “The Duke of Burgundy”, was crafted and filmed in Hungary as a tribute to the skin and blood-drenched ‘70s films of Jess Franco and Jean Rollin, telling the tale of two lovers and bug collectors Cynthia (Sidse Babett Knudsen) and Evelyn (Chaira D’Anna) living in a remote mansion. Each day the duo stage a script of sadomasochistic trials and punishments,...
- 1/22/2015
- by Charlie Schmidlin
- The Playlist
Rooted in the plot-flouting sentiments of the 20th century avant-garde, "The Duke of Burgundy" sets out to create an intense sensory experience. Like another recent film, Alain Guiraudie's all-gay-male "Stranger by the Lake," the all-female "Duke" is a tender love story trapped in an arthouse horror movie, an elegant study of the psychological and physical debasement that accompanies desire, warts and all. Brit director Peter Strickland's third film after "Katalin Varga" and "Berberian Sound Studio" takes the relationship between middle-aged butterfly expert Cynthia (Danish actress Sidse Babett Knudsen) and her younger, more servile and punishment-seeking companion Evelyn (the wide-eyed Chiara D'Anna) to extremes. We're confined to a gothic lair that exists somewhere outside of time. Beveled mirrors, lavishly displayed butterfly specimens and baroque architecture adorn its walls and between them, the lovers engage in kinky games...
- 1/19/2015
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Thompson on Hollywood
From the director of the one-of-a-kind sonic horror Berberian Sound Studio comes the equally unpredictable Duke Of Burgundy...
British writer-director Peter Strickland’s previous film was the unique blast of sound and surrealism, Berbarian Sound Studio, a frighteningly weird period piece about the making of a lurid Italian horror film and its sound engineer’s gradual sinking into madness.
Strickland's debut saw him head to Transylvania to shoot Katalin Varga, a foreign-language revenge picture, with just £28,000 inherited from his uncle. With movies like those behind him, you can bet that what is ostensibly a drama about a commanding writer and butterfly collector, Cynthia (Sidse Babett Knudsen) and her kinky relationship with her maid, Evelyn (Chiara D'Anna) would have more going on than it first appears. Strickland’s previous fascination with the distinctive style of 60s and 70s Italian filmmaking continues here, with The Duke Of Burgundy’s fluid camerawork and...
British writer-director Peter Strickland’s previous film was the unique blast of sound and surrealism, Berbarian Sound Studio, a frighteningly weird period piece about the making of a lurid Italian horror film and its sound engineer’s gradual sinking into madness.
Strickland's debut saw him head to Transylvania to shoot Katalin Varga, a foreign-language revenge picture, with just £28,000 inherited from his uncle. With movies like those behind him, you can bet that what is ostensibly a drama about a commanding writer and butterfly collector, Cynthia (Sidse Babett Knudsen) and her kinky relationship with her maid, Evelyn (Chiara D'Anna) would have more going on than it first appears. Strickland’s previous fascination with the distinctive style of 60s and 70s Italian filmmaking continues here, with The Duke Of Burgundy’s fluid camerawork and...
- 10/15/2014
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
★★★★☆With his first two features, Katalin Varga (2009) and Berberian Sound Studio (2012), British auteur Peter Strickland has made a name for himself by exploring exploitation genres - the revenge thriller and Italian giallo - with a meticulous and innovative eye. His attention turns to seventies European erotica in his latest, the rigorously stylish, achingly sexy The Duke of Burgundy (2014), an intoxicating study of passion, thralldom and the finer aspects of using a loved-one as a human toilet. A more intimate and complete film than his previous outings, The Duke of Burgundy lingers long in the mind and cements its director's much-deserved place as one of the most exhilarating currently at work.
- 9/13/2014
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Peter Strickland's followup to Katalin Varga (2009) and Berberian Sound Studio (2012) has seen its world premiere in Toronto and it's Noel Murray's "favorite movie of this year’s Tiff… (so far)… Where Berberian Sound Studio used Italian giallo thrillers as a way to explore the human mind’s ability to turn sounds and thoughts into threats, The Duke of Burgundy considers the complications of romantic relationships, via a deconstruction of 1970s softcore Eurotica. Sidse Babett Knudsen and Chiara D’Anna play Cynthia and Evelyn, variations on the classic kinky lesbian lovers from old French and British sexploitation films." And so far, most critics are enthralled. » - David Hudson...
- 9/9/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
Peter Strickland's followup to Katalin Varga (2009) and Berberian Sound Studio (2012) has seen its world premiere in Toronto and it's Noel Murray's "favorite movie of this year’s Tiff… (so far)… Where Berberian Sound Studio used Italian giallo thrillers as a way to explore the human mind’s ability to turn sounds and thoughts into threats, The Duke of Burgundy considers the complications of romantic relationships, via a deconstruction of 1970s softcore Eurotica. Sidse Babett Knudsen and Chiara D’Anna play Cynthia and Evelyn, variations on the classic kinky lesbian lovers from old French and British sexploitation films." And so far, most critics are enthralled. » - David Hudson...
- 9/9/2014
- Keyframe
Retrospective to include films from Danis Tanovic, Cristi Puiu, Mira Fornay and more.
A total of 50 films are to make up the retrospective Eastern Promises: Autobiography of Eastern Europe at the 62nd San Sebastian Film Festival (Sept 19-27).
The line-up includes movies produced since 2000 in the countries that lived under Soviet influence after the Second World War and include some that were never released theatrically in Spain.
Several directors of films in the retrospective will attend the festival to present their works including Sarunas Bartas (Lithuania), Kristina Buožytė (Lithuania), Marian Crisan (Romania), Mira Fornay (Slovakia), Bohdan Sláma (Czech Republic), Malgorzata Szumowska (Poland) and Anna Viduleja (Latvia).
A book will be published to accompany the retrospective with contributions from journalists and critics across Europe.
The titles are:
Kruh In Mleko / Bread And Milk
Jan Cvitkovic (Slovenia) 2001
A modern classic of Slovenian cinema, the tale of a man who went out for bread and milk and lost himself to alcohol...
A total of 50 films are to make up the retrospective Eastern Promises: Autobiography of Eastern Europe at the 62nd San Sebastian Film Festival (Sept 19-27).
The line-up includes movies produced since 2000 in the countries that lived under Soviet influence after the Second World War and include some that were never released theatrically in Spain.
Several directors of films in the retrospective will attend the festival to present their works including Sarunas Bartas (Lithuania), Kristina Buožytė (Lithuania), Marian Crisan (Romania), Mira Fornay (Slovakia), Bohdan Sláma (Czech Republic), Malgorzata Szumowska (Poland) and Anna Viduleja (Latvia).
A book will be published to accompany the retrospective with contributions from journalists and critics across Europe.
The titles are:
Kruh In Mleko / Bread And Milk
Jan Cvitkovic (Slovenia) 2001
A modern classic of Slovenian cinema, the tale of a man who went out for bread and milk and lost himself to alcohol...
- 8/8/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Earlier today we brought you the full lineup of Tiff 2014's Midnight Madness programme, and we're back with the 11 films that comprise the fest's Vanguard lineup, which includes Alleluia, Shrew's Next, Spring, and the latest from Takashi Miike.
A few of the films on this list don't fall in the pure horror category, but we've included them as well just because they sound so damn intriguing!
From the Press Release:
The Toronto International Film Festival's Vanguard programme seduces audiences with a sensory experience full of mystery and boundary-busting madness with bold international films that walk the razor’s edge. International programmer Colin Geddes brings together the work of some of the most audacious auteurs in the world to present a cinematic adventure that takes audiences to the dark, dangerous places that both unnerve yet intrigue them.
“The Vanguard programme presents the intersection between genre and arthouse to showcase intrepid works that fearlessly defy convention,...
A few of the films on this list don't fall in the pure horror category, but we've included them as well just because they sound so damn intriguing!
From the Press Release:
The Toronto International Film Festival's Vanguard programme seduces audiences with a sensory experience full of mystery and boundary-busting madness with bold international films that walk the razor’s edge. International programmer Colin Geddes brings together the work of some of the most audacious auteurs in the world to present a cinematic adventure that takes audiences to the dark, dangerous places that both unnerve yet intrigue them.
“The Vanguard programme presents the intersection between genre and arthouse to showcase intrepid works that fearlessly defy convention,...
- 7/29/2014
- by Debi Moore
- DreadCentral.com
While a certain “freshness” might be lacking in the Midnight Madness programme, the Vanguard section (and Wavelengths to be unveiled next month) is where there might be more cerebral bang for the buck and programmer Colin Geddes has a nice canvas to paint on with the bunch announced below. Running down the list we find a must see in the Cannes sensation Alleluia (Fabrice Du Welz), which had the entire Ioncinema team in awestruck mode, and then we have Berberian Sound Studio‘s Peter Strickland breaking out the world premiere for The Duke of Burgundy (see pic above). After penning several Ulrich Seidl items over the years (Import/Export, Paradise Trilogy), Veronika Franz might outclass The Shining for most creepiest young child twin set with Severin Fiala for the Venice Film Fest selected Goodnight Mommy. Takashi Miike is naturally invited back to the fest with his latest, and Spring, which...
- 7/29/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Concert movie Björk: Biophilia Live is to receive its European Premiere at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
Directors Peter Strickland and Nick Fenton will be on hand for the gala presentation of Björk: Biophilia Live at the 49th Kviff (July 4-12).
Icelandic artist Björk came out with the Biophilia project in 2011. Beyond her eighth full-length album, the project also includes performances, interactive applications, and educational programs. These have now been augmented by a film of the concert created at London’s Alexandra Palace where Björk completed the Biophilia tour; the singer cooperated on the project with Fenton and Strickland.
In addition to Björk, the film features an Icelandic choir, Austrian percussionist Manu Delago, and numerous unusual instruments. The performance is rounded out with collages referencing tectonic plates, DNA, the Moon, mushrooms, and various other objects of scientific interest. The resulting film illustrates songs and concepts from the Biophilia project, plus other well-known...
Directors Peter Strickland and Nick Fenton will be on hand for the gala presentation of Björk: Biophilia Live at the 49th Kviff (July 4-12).
Icelandic artist Björk came out with the Biophilia project in 2011. Beyond her eighth full-length album, the project also includes performances, interactive applications, and educational programs. These have now been augmented by a film of the concert created at London’s Alexandra Palace where Björk completed the Biophilia tour; the singer cooperated on the project with Fenton and Strickland.
In addition to Björk, the film features an Icelandic choir, Austrian percussionist Manu Delago, and numerous unusual instruments. The performance is rounded out with collages referencing tectonic plates, DNA, the Moon, mushrooms, and various other objects of scientific interest. The resulting film illustrates songs and concepts from the Biophilia project, plus other well-known...
- 7/2/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
The Duke of Burgundy
Director: Peter Strickland
Writer: Peter Strickland
Producer: Andy Starke
U.S. Distributor: IFC Films
Cast: Chiara D’Anna, Sidse Babett Knudson, Fatma Mohamed
One of the best titles from 2012 happened to be Peter Strickland’s giallo homage, Berberian Sound Studio starring Toby Jones, which received a limited stateside release this past summer. The British filmmaker, whose directorial debut was the superb 2009 Romanian set Katalin Varga is thankfully already at work on his latest, a relationship based period piece which sees him reuniting with Italian actress Chiara D’Anna. Details are limited, but the first one-sheet debuted quite recently after the film was announced to be in post-production.
Gist: A woman who studies butterflies and moths tests the limits of her relationship with her lover.
Release Date: While Varga premiered in Berlin, Studio got its release at Edinburgh, then Locarno. If it’s ready in time, we...
Director: Peter Strickland
Writer: Peter Strickland
Producer: Andy Starke
U.S. Distributor: IFC Films
Cast: Chiara D’Anna, Sidse Babett Knudson, Fatma Mohamed
One of the best titles from 2012 happened to be Peter Strickland’s giallo homage, Berberian Sound Studio starring Toby Jones, which received a limited stateside release this past summer. The British filmmaker, whose directorial debut was the superb 2009 Romanian set Katalin Varga is thankfully already at work on his latest, a relationship based period piece which sees him reuniting with Italian actress Chiara D’Anna. Details are limited, but the first one-sheet debuted quite recently after the film was announced to be in post-production.
Gist: A woman who studies butterflies and moths tests the limits of her relationship with her lover.
Release Date: While Varga premiered in Berlin, Studio got its release at Edinburgh, then Locarno. If it’s ready in time, we...
- 3/5/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Our pick of the best homegrown movies due to be released over the next 12 months
Posh
Tally ho and off to bally old Oxford where The Riot Club - a fictionalised version of the Boris 'n' Dave-endorsed Bullingdon Club - make sport of bullying and humiliation. Based on the play by Laura Wade, Lone Scherfig's version has Max Irons, Douglas Booth and Hunger Games star Sam Clafin among the toffs making trouble for the owners of a rural pub. Promises an evening's entertainment laced with drink, sex and violence. Chin up, chin up and play the game. 19 September
Pride
Based on a true story set in the midst of the Thatcher years. Tony award-winning theatre director Matthew Warchus's film follows a group of gay and lesbian activists who decide to raise money for the families of striking miners. Faced with a National Union of Mineworkers too embarrassed to take money from them,...
Posh
Tally ho and off to bally old Oxford where The Riot Club - a fictionalised version of the Boris 'n' Dave-endorsed Bullingdon Club - make sport of bullying and humiliation. Based on the play by Laura Wade, Lone Scherfig's version has Max Irons, Douglas Booth and Hunger Games star Sam Clafin among the toffs making trouble for the owners of a rural pub. Promises an evening's entertainment laced with drink, sex and violence. Chin up, chin up and play the game. 19 September
Pride
Based on a true story set in the midst of the Thatcher years. Tony award-winning theatre director Matthew Warchus's film follows a group of gay and lesbian activists who decide to raise money for the families of striking miners. Faced with a National Union of Mineworkers too embarrassed to take money from them,...
- 1/2/2014
- The Guardian - Film News
You watch the trailers for a film like Fast & Furious 6 and you possibly think to yourself, .That looks cool.. But how many times have you watched a trailer and walked away talking about how it sounded. Well that.s bound to happen every time someone watches the above trailer for the psychological thriller Berberian Sound Studio, courtesy of IiTunes Movie Trailers. Don.t let the arcane sounding title dissuade your immediate interest. This is the kind of film that doesn.t pop up in America all that often. Well, it was directed by English director Peter Strickland . his second feature after 2009.s Katalin Varga. But I mean this isn.t the kind of film that gets made in English very often. Slow-burn throwback thrillers keen to rattle the ears as much as the eyes are a rarity anywhere, really. Toby Jones, who will be busy with The Hunger Games:...
- 5/15/2013
- cinemablend.com
#5. Beyond the Hills – Dir. Cristian Mungiu (Romania)
Romanian auteur Cristian Mungiu returns with this doozy of a film concerning two friends who grew up in an orphanage together. One has become a nun at a convent in Romania while the other lives as a barmaid Germany in less than satisfactory conditions. When the barmaid comes to fetch the nun because she cannot live without the other (their relationship was more than platonic), conflict ensues, as well as the damaging ignorance of religious fervor.
#4. Berberian Sound Studio – Dir. Peter Strickland (UK)
Peter Strickland has fast become one of the most interesting filmmakers out there. After his excellent 2009 debut, Katalin Varga, he returns with this ode to giallo filmmaking. Toby Jones plays a sound engineer working for an Italian studio. Working on a new film in Italy, he may start to lose his grip on sanity, or is life simply imitating art?...
Romanian auteur Cristian Mungiu returns with this doozy of a film concerning two friends who grew up in an orphanage together. One has become a nun at a convent in Romania while the other lives as a barmaid Germany in less than satisfactory conditions. When the barmaid comes to fetch the nun because she cannot live without the other (their relationship was more than platonic), conflict ensues, as well as the damaging ignorance of religious fervor.
#4. Berberian Sound Studio – Dir. Peter Strickland (UK)
Peter Strickland has fast become one of the most interesting filmmakers out there. After his excellent 2009 debut, Katalin Varga, he returns with this ode to giallo filmmaking. Toby Jones plays a sound engineer working for an Italian studio. Working on a new film in Italy, he may start to lose his grip on sanity, or is life simply imitating art?...
- 12/31/2012
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Berberian Sound Studio; Grabbers; Code Name Geronimo – the Hunt for Osama Bin Laden; A Few Best Men
While the press has been full of doom-and-gloom stories about the "British film industry" (whatever that is) dying on its feet, 2012 proved to be yet another year in which the UK punched above its weight thanks to the work of adventurously non-parochial film-makers like Peter Strickland. In the extraordinary (anti)revenge thriller Katalin Varga (2009), writer/director Strickland unravelled a mythical archetype against the backdrop of the Carpathian mountains. Now, with Berberian Sound Studio (2012, Artificial Eye, 15), he turns his eye towards Italy and the evocatively vivid giallo-inflected horrors of Mario Bava, Dario Argento et al, which set the stylish template for a generation of saleably derivative American 70s schlockers.
The brilliantly versatile Toby Jones (whose Christmas TV performance in The Girl gave Anthony Hopkins a run for his money in the forthcoming Hitchcock) stars as Gilderoy,...
While the press has been full of doom-and-gloom stories about the "British film industry" (whatever that is) dying on its feet, 2012 proved to be yet another year in which the UK punched above its weight thanks to the work of adventurously non-parochial film-makers like Peter Strickland. In the extraordinary (anti)revenge thriller Katalin Varga (2009), writer/director Strickland unravelled a mythical archetype against the backdrop of the Carpathian mountains. Now, with Berberian Sound Studio (2012, Artificial Eye, 15), he turns his eye towards Italy and the evocatively vivid giallo-inflected horrors of Mario Bava, Dario Argento et al, which set the stylish template for a generation of saleably derivative American 70s schlockers.
The brilliantly versatile Toby Jones (whose Christmas TV performance in The Girl gave Anthony Hopkins a run for his money in the forthcoming Hitchcock) stars as Gilderoy,...
- 12/30/2012
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
Berberian Sound Studio
Review by Andrew McArthur
Stars: Toby Jones, Tonia Sotiropoulou, Susanna Cappellaro, Cosimo Fusco, Layla Amir | Written and Directed by Peter Strickland
Director Peter Strickland (Katalin Varga) presents us with the truly unsettling look at the power of sound in his latest feature, the Toby Jones led, Berberian Sound Studio. Set in the 1970s, the film follows British sound technician, Gilderoy, as he works in Italy on a gruesome horror film. Soon Gilderoy’s work on this dark feature slowly begins to bleed into his everyday life.
Berberian Sound Studio is certainly not a horror film, instead more of a psychological thriller reminiscent of Hammer Films “Mini-Hitchcocks”. This completely absorbing and brooding drama manages to be unsettling, rather than scary. Strickland’s direction immediately emphasises a sense of foreboding, with the distinctive use of the sounds created in the studio capturing Gilderoy’s troubling mental state.
The vibrant...
Review by Andrew McArthur
Stars: Toby Jones, Tonia Sotiropoulou, Susanna Cappellaro, Cosimo Fusco, Layla Amir | Written and Directed by Peter Strickland
Director Peter Strickland (Katalin Varga) presents us with the truly unsettling look at the power of sound in his latest feature, the Toby Jones led, Berberian Sound Studio. Set in the 1970s, the film follows British sound technician, Gilderoy, as he works in Italy on a gruesome horror film. Soon Gilderoy’s work on this dark feature slowly begins to bleed into his everyday life.
Berberian Sound Studio is certainly not a horror film, instead more of a psychological thriller reminiscent of Hammer Films “Mini-Hitchcocks”. This completely absorbing and brooding drama manages to be unsettling, rather than scary. Strickland’s direction immediately emphasises a sense of foreboding, with the distinctive use of the sounds created in the studio capturing Gilderoy’s troubling mental state.
The vibrant...
- 12/27/2012
- by Guest
- Nerdly
“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
Hot off what has turned out to be a great 2012 — his sophomore film, the Locarno & Tiff presented Berberian Sound Studio has just picked up four British Independent Film Award wins including Best Director (it was nominated four seven total), and now Peter Strickland will team with Ben Wheatley’s production banner Rook Films on The Duke of Burgundy. Tipped as a dark melodrama, Berberian Sound Studio‘s scream queen Chiara D’Anna will also join this project set to begin shooting in 2013 – thus making the film his third official feature. It had been reported that the larger in scope The Beginning of Spring was a possibility.
Gist: Chiara D’Anna (Berberian Sound Studio) plays an amateur lepidopterist (study of moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies) whose wayward desires test the limits of her lover’s tolerance.
Worth Noting: Strickland is quoted as saying “after damaging...
Gist: Chiara D’Anna (Berberian Sound Studio) plays an amateur lepidopterist (study of moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies) whose wayward desires test the limits of her lover’s tolerance.
Worth Noting: Strickland is quoted as saying “after damaging...
- 12/12/2012
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
His debut, Katalin Varga, was a Romanian language rape revenge flick, his second was a love letter to cinema foley with the most unfriendly title ever (Berberian Sound Studio) and now Peter Strickland’s third feature, The Duke Of Burgundy, due to begin shooting next year, will apparently be about an amateur lepidopterist (butterfly collector). The Duke of Burgundy, is a dark melodrama following the female moth fanatic (Chiara D’Anna from Berberian) and the conflicts between her desires and those of her...
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- 12/12/2012
- by Rosie Fletcher
- TotalFilm
Peter Strickland ("Berberian Sound Studio," "Katalin Varga") has selected "The Duke of Burgundy" at Rook Films as his third directorial effort. The BFI Film fund is set to finance the project.
Chiara D’Anna will play an amateur lepidopterist whose wayward desires test the limits of her lover's tolerance. Ben Wheatley is set to produce and shooting kicks off early next year.
Strickland's 'Berberian' scored four awards, including Best Picture, at the British Independent Film Awards a few days ago. Wheatley is the filmmaker behind the acclaimed "Kill List" and the just released "Sightseers".
Source: THR...
Chiara D’Anna will play an amateur lepidopterist whose wayward desires test the limits of her lover's tolerance. Ben Wheatley is set to produce and shooting kicks off early next year.
Strickland's 'Berberian' scored four awards, including Best Picture, at the British Independent Film Awards a few days ago. Wheatley is the filmmaker behind the acclaimed "Kill List" and the just released "Sightseers".
Source: THR...
- 12/12/2012
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
The British Independent Film awards showcase the best of a brilliant and burgeoning industry
Low-budget film is the boiler room of invention in the UK's film industry. It is the burning heart of creativity, the place where the next generation of iconoclastic film-makers is working to turn British film on its head. This is not just another idle whispering echo of "the British are coming", but a slow, steady build-up of a significant array of immensely talented directors, writers and producers with vast understanding of cinema. They have been honing their talent for years in TV, music promos, commercials and are hungry to work in their own country, telling stories that break all the rules.
Some argue that an industry such as film is cyclical – that there are good times when there's more money, more opportunity and, therefore, more likelihood for a film or two to hit with audiences; and then times are bad,...
Low-budget film is the boiler room of invention in the UK's film industry. It is the burning heart of creativity, the place where the next generation of iconoclastic film-makers is working to turn British film on its head. This is not just another idle whispering echo of "the British are coming", but a slow, steady build-up of a significant array of immensely talented directors, writers and producers with vast understanding of cinema. They have been honing their talent for years in TV, music promos, commercials and are hungry to work in their own country, telling stories that break all the rules.
Some argue that an industry such as film is cyclical – that there are good times when there's more money, more opportunity and, therefore, more likelihood for a film or two to hit with audiences; and then times are bad,...
- 12/9/2012
- by Katherine Butler
- The Guardian - Film News
Between 2009’s brutal thriller “Katalin Varga” and this year’s audio-based horror-thriller “Berberian Sound Studio,” British director Peter Strickland has found himself receiving no end of critical praise. The latter, his most recent feature, was released in the U.K. towards the end of August and has played to North American audiences at Tiff, Fantastic Fest, and most recently the New York Film Festival, to a generally positive reception. Well, thanks to that success, Strickland is celebrating signing with a major agency, CAA, and while that’s great news for Strickland, it isn’t that interesting for the rest of us. What is interesting though, is the news that accompanies his new agency deal: Deadline report that Strickland currently has a few projects in development, and that one of them is an adaptation of Penelope Fitzgerald’s novel “The Beginning of Spring.” The 2003 novel was shortlisted for the...
- 10/18/2012
- by Joe Cunningham
- The Playlist
A small blurb on Deadline about an joining CAA pretty much confirms that the helmer behind personal favorites Katalin Varga (2009) and this year’s Edinburgh/Locarno/Tiff preemed Berberian Sound Studio is moving into the sought after talent sphere. Filmmaker Peter Strickland might now make The Beginning of Spring film project number three.
Gist: Based on Penelope Fitzgerald’s 1988 novel, The Beginning Of Spring centers on Frank Reid, a struggling printer in Moscow. On the eve of the Revolution, his wife returns to her native England, leaving him to raise their three young children alone. How does a reasonable man like Frank cope? Should he listen to the Tolstoyan advice of his bookkeeper? And should he, in his wife’s absence, resist his desire for his lovely Russian housemaid? How can anyone know how to live the right life?
Worth Noting: In a sit down with ScreenDaily, Strickland mentioned a...
Gist: Based on Penelope Fitzgerald’s 1988 novel, The Beginning Of Spring centers on Frank Reid, a struggling printer in Moscow. On the eve of the Revolution, his wife returns to her native England, leaving him to raise their three young children alone. How does a reasonable man like Frank cope? Should he listen to the Tolstoyan advice of his bookkeeper? And should he, in his wife’s absence, resist his desire for his lovely Russian housemaid? How can anyone know how to live the right life?
Worth Noting: In a sit down with ScreenDaily, Strickland mentioned a...
- 10/17/2012
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
The European Film Academy and Fipresci have announced the five nominations for this year’s Discovery Award / Prix Fipresci and making the cut we find Angelina Nikonova’s outstanding Twilight Portrait (Venice and Tiff in 2011 – pic above) which will measure itself against Mads Matthiesen’s Teddy Bear (Sundance 2012 – read review), Boudewijn Koole’s Kauwboy and Jan Speckenbach’s Reported Missing (2012′s Berlin Film Fest) and Rufus Norris’ Broken (Critics’ Week opener in Cannes this year – see our coverage). The 25th European Film Awards will take place in Malta on 1 December 2012. Since this specific award has existed, previous winners include some worthy winners in 1997′s Bruno Dumont (La vie de Jésus), 2003′s Andrei Zvyagintsev (The Return), 2008′s Steve McQueen (Hunger), 2009′s Peter Strickland (Katalin Varga), 2010′s Samuel Maoz (Lebanon) and last year, 2011′s Hans Van Nuffel (Oxygen).
10 Timer Til Paradis (Teddy Bear)
Denmark, 92 min
Directed by: Mads Matthiesen
Written by: Mads Matthiesen...
10 Timer Til Paradis (Teddy Bear)
Denmark, 92 min
Directed by: Mads Matthiesen
Written by: Mads Matthiesen...
- 10/17/2012
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Another day, another Toronto Film Festival director inks with a major agency. CAA has signed Peter Strickland, who wrote and directed Berberian Sound Studio, the surreal dramatic thriller with horror undertones that stars Toby Jones and was acquired by IFC Films right before its North American premiere in Toronto. Strickland made his debut on Katalin Varga, a film that won the Discovery Award at the 2009 European Film Awards. He is developing several projects including an adaptation of Penelope Fitzgerald’s novel The Beginning Of Spring. Strickland is repped in the U.K. by The Agency. Here’s the trailer for Berberian Sound Studio: Related: Gersh Signs Toronto Helmer Trio...
- 10/17/2012
- by MIKE FLEMING
- Deadline
Aspiring filmmakers should take note of British helmer Peter Strickland -- with a few shorts under his belt and a small wad of cash (about £25,000 which was spent mostly on film stock), the director headed to Hungary and shot an atmospheric, deeply nuanced movie and spent the next two years tweaking the edit and soundsphere. “Katalin Varga” was born, and though its distribution left something to be desired, the movie itself was one of the most impressive feature debuts in a long time -- cheaply shot on celluloid yet highly masterful, absent were the hiccups or generous shots of people-talking-in-apartments that are contained in most first feature attempts. And with that, Strickland was able to move onto another original project, “Berberian Sound Studio.” Toby Jones stars in the psychological horror, playing an introverted post-production engineer named Gilderoy who is hired for a rather rough Italian giallo. Homesick and completely out of his.
- 10/13/2012
- by Christopher Bell
- The Playlist
10:15 am – Today, four features: Blondie, In the House, Reality, and Post Tenebras Lux. Yesterday’s batch (with the Bloor Hot Docs venue messing up my schedule), yielded some decent features, the best of which was Berberian Sound Studio. With this and his first film, Katalin Varga, Peter Strickland proves himself to be one of the most exciting new directors to keep an eye. Dark, compelling, and intriguing—loved his latest. As for The Iceman, rather run of the mill but features a great performance from Michael Shannon—it’s always nice to see Ms. Ryder, though she doesn’t get much to do here. And Brian De Palma’s remake of Alain Corneau’s last film, Passion, wasn’t a terrible film, but it wasn’t altogether great either. And it’s not better than the original, which was already kind of like a pulpy thriller reworking of Working Girl.
- 9/12/2012
- by IONCINEMA.com Contributing Writers
- IONCINEMA.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
In a quiet week Total Recall and The Watch posted respectable figures, but Berberian Sound Studio lost out to The Imposter
The winners
The last weekend of the school summer holiday has never exactly been a premium release date in the UK: over the past couple of years we've seen such venerated classics as Fright Night, Apollo 18 and Dinner for Schmucks dumped on to the market. So this year's batch of end-of-summer releases, while hardly eliciting critical hosannas or audience stampedes, is certainly no worse than usual. Between them, new releases Total Recall and The Watch kicked in £4.7m in box-office, pushing aside Brave to grab the top two spots in the weekend chart.
It's worth noting, however, that both saw their figures inflated by significant previews: two days' worth in the case of Total Recall (£959,000 of the £2.49m total) and four days for The Watch (£1.43m of the...
The winners
The last weekend of the school summer holiday has never exactly been a premium release date in the UK: over the past couple of years we've seen such venerated classics as Fright Night, Apollo 18 and Dinner for Schmucks dumped on to the market. So this year's batch of end-of-summer releases, while hardly eliciting critical hosannas or audience stampedes, is certainly no worse than usual. Between them, new releases Total Recall and The Watch kicked in £4.7m in box-office, pushing aside Brave to grab the top two spots in the weekend chart.
It's worth noting, however, that both saw their figures inflated by significant previews: two days' worth in the case of Total Recall (£959,000 of the £2.49m total) and four days for The Watch (£1.43m of the...
- 9/4/2012
- by Charles Gant
- The Guardian - Film News
Peter Strickland's thriller about a home counties sound engineer hired by a 70s Italian horror studio is one of the films of the year
One of the most remarkable British movies of the past couple of years, Berberian Sound Studio is a psychological thriller set entirely in the Kafkaesque offices of a sleazy Italian film company in the 1970s. It brings together a gifted trio of independent British film-makers: producer Keith Griffiths, who has been behind a dozen or more daring, offbeat pictures, including most recently the Cannes Palme d'Or winner Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives; the cinematographer Nic Knowland, whose numerous credits since the late 1970s include Tony Palmer's Shostakovich biography Testimony and the Quay brothers' Institute Benjamenta; and writer-director Peter Strickland, a truly European director who made his feature debut in Hungary three years ago with Katalin Varga.
The low-budget Katalin Varga,...
One of the most remarkable British movies of the past couple of years, Berberian Sound Studio is a psychological thriller set entirely in the Kafkaesque offices of a sleazy Italian film company in the 1970s. It brings together a gifted trio of independent British film-makers: producer Keith Griffiths, who has been behind a dozen or more daring, offbeat pictures, including most recently the Cannes Palme d'Or winner Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives; the cinematographer Nic Knowland, whose numerous credits since the late 1970s include Tony Palmer's Shostakovich biography Testimony and the Quay brothers' Institute Benjamenta; and writer-director Peter Strickland, a truly European director who made his feature debut in Hungary three years ago with Katalin Varga.
The low-budget Katalin Varga,...
- 9/1/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
A very strange proposition indeed, Berberian Sound Studio is not the sort of film you expect from a British director. But Peter Strickland is not your normal British director. His first feature, Katalin Varga, was a Carpathian-set revenge drama that could have been made by some Hungarian auteur of the 1960s. His follow-up is entirely different: neither a horror film, although it is about that genre, nor what you would normally think of as an art film. Instead, it's a singular hybrid – perplexing, bracingly creepy, entirely its own thing.
- 9/1/2012
- The Independent - Film
It’s Friday, so you know what that means – another round-up of what films are hitting cinemas this weekend; and this week it’s a mixed bag – from the hilarious The Watch to the less than stellar Total Remake Recall, along with a handful of Frightfest flicks: The Possession, Berberian Sound Studio, [Rec] Genesis and Cockneys Vs Zombies.
Nationwide Releases The Watch
An outrageous comedy in which four everyday suburban guys (played by Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill and Richard Ayoade) come together to form a neighbourhood watch group, but only as an excuse to escape their humdrum lives one night a week. But when they accidentally discover that their town has become overrun with aliens posing as ordinary suburbanites, they have no choice but to save their neighbourhood – and the world – from total extermination. The Watch Review
Total Recall
For a factory worker named Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell), even...
Nationwide Releases The Watch
An outrageous comedy in which four everyday suburban guys (played by Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill and Richard Ayoade) come together to form a neighbourhood watch group, but only as an excuse to escape their humdrum lives one night a week. But when they accidentally discover that their town has become overrun with aliens posing as ordinary suburbanites, they have no choice but to save their neighbourhood – and the world – from total extermination. The Watch Review
Total Recall
For a factory worker named Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell), even...
- 8/31/2012
- by Phil
- Nerdly
The head of the department that turned out Tyrannosaur and The Deep Blue Sea hopes for more success with The Imposter
With her open manner, easy smile and unshowy dark shift, Katherine Butler cuts a welcoming figure – hardly the default image of the hardnosed studio executive. Look closer, though, and you realise the pattern on her dress comprises clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades. Butler is a gambler, then. As head of Film4's low-budget feature department, she has to be.
"You're always going to fail," she says matter-of-factly, cradling a paper cup of fizzy water in one of the goldfish-bowl conference rooms at Channel 4's Horseferry Road headquarters. "You're going to win some and lose some. What you have to do is swallow really hard and say: 'With risk comes failure as well as success and if we're doing the films for the right reasons then you can learn from mistakes and move on.
With her open manner, easy smile and unshowy dark shift, Katherine Butler cuts a welcoming figure – hardly the default image of the hardnosed studio executive. Look closer, though, and you realise the pattern on her dress comprises clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades. Butler is a gambler, then. As head of Film4's low-budget feature department, she has to be.
"You're always going to fail," she says matter-of-factly, cradling a paper cup of fizzy water in one of the goldfish-bowl conference rooms at Channel 4's Horseferry Road headquarters. "You're going to win some and lose some. What you have to do is swallow really hard and say: 'With risk comes failure as well as success and if we're doing the films for the right reasons then you can learn from mistakes and move on.
- 8/30/2012
- by Ben Walters
- The Guardian - Film News
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
There has been a steady stream of trailers being released this week for movies that are premiering at Tiff, and one of the ones that caught my eye is for Peter Strickland's Berberian Sound Studio. The movie takes place in the '70s and stars Toby Jones as Gilderoy, a British sound engineer who is hired to work for an Italian horror director. As he finds himself required to create sounds for increasingly violent and disturbing imagery, he slowly starts to lose his own grip on reality. The trailer clearly sets this up as a dual purpose film, one that plays as both a tense psychological thriller and also a love letter to giallo films and Italian cinema. For a sophomore film it looks to be quite accomplished; Strickland previously directed a movie called Katalin Varga which was very well-received back in 2009. Berberian Sound Studio is also opening this weekend in the U.
- 8/30/2012
- by Sean
- FilmJunk
Sold-out shows announce the arrival of Bart Layton's docu-drama, while Keith Lemon bears fruit despite a juicing from the critics
The winner
Arthouse cinema bookers have lamented that this summer lacked a big specialist release to rank alongside past summer hits Coco Before Chanel or La Vie en Rose. May offered The Raid and Moonrise Kingdom, and June delivered The Angels' Share and Killer Joe, but July and August failed to contribute a big winner, leaving the space occupied by commercial auteur titles such as Magic Mike and The Dark Knight Rises.
Now, however, arrives The Imposter, a plucky underdog contender delivering £345,000 over the four-day holiday weekend, including previews of £29,000, from just 49 sites. Joint distributors Revolver and Picturehouse report sold-out shows in the Clapham and Hackney Picturehouses and Ritzy Brixton, in London, and in other cities such as Brighton, Norwich, Exeter and Bath. Bart Layton's true-crime investigation has...
The winner
Arthouse cinema bookers have lamented that this summer lacked a big specialist release to rank alongside past summer hits Coco Before Chanel or La Vie en Rose. May offered The Raid and Moonrise Kingdom, and June delivered The Angels' Share and Killer Joe, but July and August failed to contribute a big winner, leaving the space occupied by commercial auteur titles such as Magic Mike and The Dark Knight Rises.
Now, however, arrives The Imposter, a plucky underdog contender delivering £345,000 over the four-day holiday weekend, including previews of £29,000, from just 49 sites. Joint distributors Revolver and Picturehouse report sold-out shows in the Clapham and Hackney Picturehouses and Ritzy Brixton, in London, and in other cities such as Brighton, Norwich, Exeter and Bath. Bart Layton's true-crime investigation has...
- 8/29/2012
- by Charles Gant
- The Guardian - Film News
Peter Strickland follows cult festival hit Katalin Varga with this dark love letter to the Italian horror films of the 60s and 70s. Toby Jones is Gilderoy, a meek, renowned sound engineer invited to Rome to work on a violent witchcraft movie. But, as culture shock and homesickness take hold, the power of the images the English gent must endure take their toll.
- 8/29/2012
- Sky Movies
★★★★★ British director Peter Strickland follows up his acclaimed debut feature Katalin Varga (2009) with the eerie and aurally-disturbing Berberian Sound Studio (2012), a tale that blurs the lines of reality, set within a sleazy Italian post-production studio in the 1970s. Toby Jones plays Dorking-born protagonist Gilderoy, an English sound mixer who unwittingly departs from his Surrey home to take up a role as a sound engineer on a new Italian giallo feature, 'The Equestrian Vortex'.
Read more »...
Read more »...
- 8/29/2012
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Berberian Sound Studio
Review by Andrew McArthur of The People’s Movies
Stars: Toby Jones, Tonia Sotiropoulou, Susanna Cappellaro, Cosimo Fusco, Layla Amir | Written and Directed by Peter Strickland
Director, Peter Strickland (Katalin Varga) presents us with the truly unsettling look at the power of sound in his latest feature, the Toby Jones led, Berberian Sound Studio. Set in the 1970s, the film follows British sound technician, Gilderoy, as he works in Italy on a gruesome horror film. Soon Gilderoy’s work on this dark feature slowly begins to bleed into his everyday life.
Berberian Sound Studio is certainly not a horror film, instead more of a psychological thriller reminiscent of Hammer Films “Mini-Hitchcocks”. This completely absorbing and brooding drama manages to be unsettling, rather than scary. Strickland’s direction immediately emphasises a sense of foreboding, with the distinctive use of the sounds created in the studio capturing Gilderoy’s troubling mental state.
Review by Andrew McArthur of The People’s Movies
Stars: Toby Jones, Tonia Sotiropoulou, Susanna Cappellaro, Cosimo Fusco, Layla Amir | Written and Directed by Peter Strickland
Director, Peter Strickland (Katalin Varga) presents us with the truly unsettling look at the power of sound in his latest feature, the Toby Jones led, Berberian Sound Studio. Set in the 1970s, the film follows British sound technician, Gilderoy, as he works in Italy on a gruesome horror film. Soon Gilderoy’s work on this dark feature slowly begins to bleed into his everyday life.
Berberian Sound Studio is certainly not a horror film, instead more of a psychological thriller reminiscent of Hammer Films “Mini-Hitchcocks”. This completely absorbing and brooding drama manages to be unsettling, rather than scary. Strickland’s direction immediately emphasises a sense of foreboding, with the distinctive use of the sounds created in the studio capturing Gilderoy’s troubling mental state.
- 8/26/2012
- by Guest
- Nerdly
It’s enough to forget that the director of Diner, The Natural, and Rain Man made a new film. More surprising, however, is letting slip the fact that it’s a found footage horror extravaganza. Everyone can get in on the fad these days, but I can’t keep track.
Barry Levinson will premiere his genre jump, The Bay, when the Toronto International Film Festival kicks off in just a few short weeks; naturally, we have our first look. Nothing about these shots necessarily communicates the found footage aesthetic — i.e., no Hud or blinking “Record” lights — or anything past “people get sores on their body.”
But Nyff, in announcing it as part of their midnight lineup, provide this rundown:
“Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson (Rain Man, Wag the Dog) takes an unexpected turn towards eco-horror in this creepfest produced by found footage pioneer Oren Peli (Paranormal Activity) about a outbreak...
Barry Levinson will premiere his genre jump, The Bay, when the Toronto International Film Festival kicks off in just a few short weeks; naturally, we have our first look. Nothing about these shots necessarily communicates the found footage aesthetic — i.e., no Hud or blinking “Record” lights — or anything past “people get sores on their body.”
But Nyff, in announcing it as part of their midnight lineup, provide this rundown:
“Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson (Rain Man, Wag the Dog) takes an unexpected turn towards eco-horror in this creepfest produced by found footage pioneer Oren Peli (Paranormal Activity) about a outbreak...
- 8/24/2012
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
Berberian Sound Studio is a twist on 70s horror movies, but without a drop of gore on screen. The film's director explains how he tried to create a spell with sound
Peter Strickland, a slight, olive-skinned man of 39, speaks with the accent of London commuter towns. "What's interesting about sound," he says, "is that to do it properly, it's the one part of a film that still needs a human touch. So even now you have sound effects of people doing terrible things to vegetables. And meat." The smile fades. "Although I'm vegetarian, so I didn't want to get involved with that."
In a small cubicle at a film company office, Strickland is discussing his second movie as writer-director, Berberian Sound Studio – about a mousy English sound engineer uneasily employed on a seedy 70s Italian horror flick. His own manner is closest to that of a science teacher with a varied life outside the classroom,...
Peter Strickland, a slight, olive-skinned man of 39, speaks with the accent of London commuter towns. "What's interesting about sound," he says, "is that to do it properly, it's the one part of a film that still needs a human touch. So even now you have sound effects of people doing terrible things to vegetables. And meat." The smile fades. "Although I'm vegetarian, so I didn't want to get involved with that."
In a small cubicle at a film company office, Strickland is discussing his second movie as writer-director, Berberian Sound Studio – about a mousy English sound engineer uneasily employed on a seedy 70s Italian horror flick. His own manner is closest to that of a science teacher with a varied life outside the classroom,...
- 8/23/2012
- by Danny Leigh
- The Guardian - Film News
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
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