Berberian Sound Studio
Tags: insanity, psychedelic, horror, psychological, atmospheric

Plot synopsis:
British sound engineer Gilderoy (Toby Jones) arrives at the Berberian film studio in Italy to work on what he believes is a film about horses. During a surreal meeting with Francesco, the film's producer, Gilderoy is shocked to find the film is actually an Italian giallo film, The Equestrian Vortex. He nonetheless begins work in the studio, at one point made to do Foley work, using vegetables to create sound effects for the film's increasingly gory torture sequences, and mixing voiceovers from session artists, Silvia and Claudia, into the score.
As time passes, and Gilderoy feels more and more disconnected from his mother at home, he begins to fear he's out of his depth. His colleagues seem increasingly rude – to both himself and to each other. The horror sequences grow ever more shocking, yet Santini, the director, refuses to admit they are working on a horror film. And, after a long passage through the bureaucracy of the film studio's accounts department, it turns out the plane ticket Gilderoy submitted for a refund can't be processed because the flight didn't actually exist.
The plot, from here on in, grows increasingly erratic. Gilderoy hears and sees things in the night. He discovers Silvia, the voiceover artist, was molested by Santini. She storms out, destroying much of their work, forcing Gilderoy to re-record the dialogue with a new actress, Elisa. As Silvia's recording sequences are revisited again, and tension grows between Gilderoy and the others, the boundaries between the blood-drenched giallo thriller and real life begin to erode. Gilderoy imagines he himself is in a film about his life – suddenly fluent in Italian and increasingly detached and vicious. After he and Francesco essentially torture Elisa during a recording session, she walks out, leaving history to repeat itself yet again, and Gilderoy to contemplate the monster he has become.

Review: 'Berberian Sound Studio' is a film about an English sound technician (Toby Jones) who is used to creating sound effects for children's TV shows, who travels to Italy to work on a horror film.
The atmosphere created by the soundtrack was electric and it felt like hearing the world with new ears when I left the picture house at the end.Don't expect a neat narrative, this film plays with your senses and your understanding of whose doing what to who and why.
You can feel that there is a good film in there somewhere, but the director and the writers failed to bring it out and Berberian Sound studio ended up a boring slow film that is better avoided.
the plot as many have mentioned revolves around a British sound engineer hired by an Italian director to work on editing a Horror Italian film, once arrived and started working on the studio, he starts to feel homesick and lost with the people around him.
the biggest problem with the film is that it repeats itself with the same sort of scenes over and over, usually of actors working in the studio and the British engineer working on the editing looking confused and depressed with an aggressive Italian sound director along side him, with no clear goal or target for the film and ending up so confusing, slow and boring.
Lynch could in a more powerful way.The story is that a shy sound-man goes to work on an Italian exploitation movie, this is to establish him as a creative person who will have to imagine things, and to establish the things he's going to imagine as of some darkness.
Technically the film has its merits, and it might be relevant for someone who has worked as a sound effects technician and editor in movies, but for the general population it is probably a waste of time.
The 1970s: Gilderoy (Toby Jones), a meek English sound mixer, travels to Italy to work on an 'equestrian' film (as it is described to him) which turns out to be a shockingly violent horror movie.
With constant exposure to the horrific images on-screen, and an increasingly unfriendly co-worker to contend with, the pressure starts to get to GilderoyAs a big fan of Italian horror and an avid supporter of home-grown movies, I really wanted to like Berberian Sound Studio, a UK production that centres around the making of a splattery supernatural giallo.
The dark, claustrophobic setting (the whole film takes place within the confines of the studio) and the nature of the film on which Gilderoy is working on make for some moody moments, but the soporific pacing, lack of scares, and completely baffling pay-off (there are several attempts at explaining matters on the film's IMDb message board, none of them very convincing) go to make the movie an excruciating test of endurance.I was equal parts bored and confused by this dismally dull and possibly pretentious snooze-fest (I watched the film over the course of three nights because I kept falling asleep) and am at a complete loss to see how this has gleaned so many positive reviews (IMDb current rating: 6.2/10).My rating: 1/10.
The movie was also super knowledgeable about all of the equipment and methods used in creating sound in film back in the seventies.Now, what brings me to write this review is to just give fair warning to the person that decides they want to shell out the money to see this on the big screen as I did at my local art-house theater (these are hard times, and so when you don't feel like you got what you paid for, it does indeed hurt).
I was attracted to see this film by the idea that it was a movie about the sound studio of some 1970's Italian grind-house horror film.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy art house films and I can appreciate the themes and ideas that make it one, but Sound Studio was just so tedious in it's delivery that I was having a hard time caring about what I was seeing.
A number of times I found myself checking my watch, but in between I was absolutely riveted to the beautiful cinematography and incredible sound work.Is it an outright horror film?
BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO, is centred on a British sound engineer Gilderoy (Jones), who previously works on projects such as pastoral documents, arrives in Italy to work in a new project from Italian director Giancarlo Santini (Mancino) in the titular studio, which he has no idea is a spooky giallo about witches, anyway he stays and engages in working with the obnoxious producer Francesco (Fusco), but due to the barrier of language and the rude behaviour received from his new colleagues, Gilderoy is incapable of blending in with the team and begins to question his professional competence, hallucinations and dreamlike sequences ensue, what is the real deal to bring him to the studio?
Is he one of the characters in the giallo flick or an unwitting guinea pig of a bigger but secret project?Everything will end in a befuddling concussion and here is my main gripe, it is a 93-minutes film, stuffed with minute details towards the omnipresence of sound (both lifeless objects and human voice including screaming and post-dub process), and striking shots of various apparatus and items (mainly vegetables) used to create specific sound in a claustrophobic working environment, lumbers drearily until the last 15 minutes or so (the most banal part is the stereotyped depiction of the Italian crew), the storyline finally begins to project an uncanny angle which piques curiosity, but as if Strickland doesn't have a clear train-of- thought of what has happened, the picture comes to a halt abruptly, provokes the frustration due to one's unquenched satisfaction mixed with a sense of deception, obviously something rotten is festering (other than the vegetables), but there are so little clues being offered for us to conjecture a plausible upshot.
After a futile effort to purchase a tailor-made bed or a human toilet (I cannot even imagine what it is), Evelyn's request escalates to be locked up in an antique chest with hands tied up for the night as a punishment she enjoys, their relationship is under severe strain, until a corny set piece of betrayal opportunely emerges (by cleaning other woman's boots).Meritoriously Strickland doesn't resort to hyperbole, he sticks to the eerie atmosphere, picturesque location, tonal device, to decipher Cynthia's incubus and Evelyn's controlling nature, butterflies and specimens are deployed with staggering beauty and the finale, a rotation to the beginning, is a hymn celebrating the delicate equilibrium between two lovers, love demands sacrifice, both parties can take one step back and strive to re-connect from the very start, that is a profound meditation on the nature of love, however cinematically contrived the story is, this end-note remarkably hits the bull's eye.Both films feature strong leading performances, Toby Jones in BSS, is an outsider awkwardly boxed up in a bizarrely sonic space, helplessly struggles to get a grip with his own sense while forcibly keeping the appearance of sobriety, and his stern look during a prolonged close-up is a defiant testimony of the perseverance from an unattractive character thespian, if the camera lingers on him longer, he can be an attention-grabber too.Danish actress Sidse Babett Knudsen, mostly known for Susanne Bier's Oscar-nominated foreign picture AFTER THE WEDDING (2006, 7/10) expresses in fluent English and lights up the screen with a sympathetic presentation of a woman plagued by her lover's gruelling quest to challenge the limbo of human lust.
I had had the pleasure of watching Berberian Sound Studio at first in Thessaloniki film festival, and I was greatly satisfied and surprised with the real cinematic freshness this films brings in the fields of horror movies and art cinema(if there is such a field) at the same time.Genuine and enigmatic, it does not succumb to the trendy ways in which directors usually manipulate their material these days,and does not seek to impress for nothing, but creates its own universe with completely original means, despite the fact that it is certainly referring to a certain era, that of the Italian Giallo, reproducing a feeling that belongs to that era, but at the same time creating something new.I consider this film one of the best I have watched over the last five years and a very serious candidate for the list of the ten best movies of the decade, when the moment comes.I understand that it is not for all tastes-as I realized by the reactions of many spectators-but I believe it's a film worth fighting for that will have its place as a classic in the future.In the meantime, I can't wait to watch the new film by Peter Strickland in this year's Thessaloniki film festival, all the more as his films do not seem to have release in Greece beyond the festival.At least Berberian sound studio never did, so I bought it from Amazon to watch it again and again..
'Berberian Sound Studio' begins as a banal comedy, a 1970s set story about an inadequate Englishman abroad, working as a sound-man in an Italian horror movie studio.
On a simple level, it's an homage to the great, art-inspired Italian horror movies of the seventies (films with evocatively ridiculous names like Lizard in a Woman's Skin, Iguana With the Tongue of Fire, and my all-time favorite title, Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key), but it's a bloodless one.
I can understand how a lot of the frustration I've heard mentioned with this film stems from these dashed expectations, and that's because it sort of plays around with and teases the audience by disingenuously making the genre of the film within the film that the main character (a reserved, mild-mannered, and tightly-wound sound editor played by Toby Jones) a 1970s Italian Nunsploitation/Torture/Black Magic Horror film.
Berberian Sound Studio started out a bit slow for me, but as I tend to be a bit cerebral when it comes to certain genres of motion pictures I saw the premise and the promise of what turned out to be a good thinking man's movie.I was quickly engrossed into Toby Jones' character the sound engineer, Gilderoy and was quickly captivated thereafter by the story.Toby known by most flick fans from his character Dr. Arnim Zola in Captain America: The First Avenger and CA: The Winter Soldier.
A sound engineer's work for an Italian horror studio becomes a terrifying case of life imitating art.This is the sort of film that jaded horror fans will love.
Indeed I felt this to the point that even as it ended I felt like I should have enjoyed it more and thus started to rationalize myself towards that position, but it isn't the case because while I appreciated aspects of this film, generally I found it pretty dull and lacking a sharp edge.The plot is that a British sound engineer comes to Italy for a project and finds himself doing ADR and Foley for a film containing a lot of graphic violence; as he works he finds his grip on his sense slipping, with his days spent not understanding what is being said around him and acting out violent acts on vegetables while watching women be brutalized on film over and over again.
It stars the hapless Toby Jones as a mild-mannered sound engineer who travels to Rome to work on the soundtrack of a sinister giallo film and soon finds himself getting sucked into the movie's mystique and repellent atmosphere.Technically, this film is a gem, with excellent sound design and good visuals; for a film set almost entirely in a sound studio, it's atmospheric and engaging, and it helps that the underrated Jones gives an excellent turn in a rare leading role.
The problem with BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO, then, is that it's one of those 'style over substance' movies where there's very little meat behind what's up on screen.This feels almost like one of those films that's made up as it goes along.
Berberian Sound Studio seems to gather inspiration from the Italian giallo films of the 1970's without actually being one itself.
The film centers around an English sound engineer called Gilderoy who travels to Italy to work on the soundtrack of a horror/giallo film.
The most admirable aspect of Berberian Sound Studio is that it uses the giallo style of film making to tell a story that is outside the original scope of the genre.
The rest is the same entirely surface scare formula - and a recording studio is perhaps the least scary place to watch people scream for a movie - as theyre doing it to create a film.Toby Jones is clearly a good actor, and can play reactions at several levels of subtlety, and its fleetingly interesting to see how sound effects are made.
I don't know who wrote the summary, that Gilderoy begins working in the sound studio of a horror movie when life begins to terrifyingly imitate art.
Berberian Sound Studio centers on Gilderoy (played by Toby Jones), a British foley artist working on the audio track for an Italian giallo film, The Equestrian Vortex, takes a wrong turn as life starts to imitate art.Berberian Sound Studio subverts the usual visual experience of watching a horror film and shows you the creation of a horror film in sequences where you see the foley effects, voice and music being added to a film that is omitted from the audience.
Berberian Sound Studio is a film I would highly recommend to serious film buffs but not advise a casual movie-goer to venture out and watch as very little happens in this psychological horror flick ...
It is not a film for everyone and this isn't a bad thing -- we all have different tastes and likes.Toby Jones (The Mist, The Hunger Games, Snow White and the Huntsman) stars as Gilderoy, a masterful British foley artist (sound effects) who has come to Italy to work on the audio track of the film, The Equestrian Vortex -- a seedy, grisly, bloody and pulpy giallo film (a genre of Italian mystery films known for cheap and erotically-charged horror-fiction).
The film is set in a sound recording studio for movie audio effects and dubbing.
So, this sound engineer goes to Italy to act as an effect expert on an Italian horror film.
well, does it drive him mad, or is what we are watching real (within the content of the film) or is itself a film being made about this sound engineer who goes to Italy to act as an effect expert on an Italian horror film.Now, there are some good things to be said about this film - Toby Jones as said sound engineer, about whom the film may be about or not as the case may be, is very good, and the use of sound is well done - but, having laid out a most promising situation, and apparently leading to a shock ending, the film suddenly disappears up its own backside.
The films director Santini (Antonio Mancino) hires Gilderoy (Toby Jones), an English sound engineer who had previously worked on children's television programmes and natural history documentaries.Gilderoy assumes that the Italian film was about horses, but when he is greeted by the films producer Francesco (Cosimo Fusco) he discovers that the film is actually a horror movie.
The claustrophobia of working and sleeping in the studio brilliantly feeds into Gilderoys state of mind, the ever dependable Jones giving yet another fine performance.Sound is at the heart of the film, from its production to recording and mixing.
You never get to see any of the actual horror film, but you still feel you are watching it through listening to the dialogue and sound effects of the production.
Its a clever manipulation, further still by seeing the violence within the horror film through Gilderoys eyes.Director Peter Strickland doesn't just concentrate on the analogue sound of the 70′s but pays a great homage to many films of the time, not least the Italian Giallo films which 'The Equestrian Vortex' is based upon and made famous by the likes of Dario Argento, Mario Bava and Lucio Fulci.
As things get more and more strange, one starts to realize that some of the things going on might be just him dreamingThis film is meant to be a homage to the atmospheric Italian horror movies of the 70s, the so called giallos.
I really wanted to like this film.Actually, I wanted to love it - I'm a big horror fan and a sound engineer, so I was really looking forward to seeing Berberian Sound Studio.It started off so promisingly, it was an excellent premise, looked beautiful and obviously (as you would expect) the sound design was superb.*Warning, spoilers after this point*Around half way through I started to wonder when something was going to happen.
"Berberian Sound Studio" tells the story of a conservative British sound engineer, who finds himself trapped in the production of a rather obscene Italian horror movie.
Toby Jones' sound man travels to Italy to work on a horror film, and slowly becomes overwhelmed by his experiences.Unfortunately this does not happen to the viewer.
Sound effects technician Gilderoy travels to Italy to work on what appears to be a horror film.
We may not see the film he is working on but the sound effects and screaming combined with the claustrophobic way the action stays in the studio and Gilderoy's small room create an uncomfortable feeling I almost expected it to turn into a horror film rather than just a film about the making of one there are certainly uncomfortable moments.Toby Jones does a great job as Gilderoy; a man totally out of his comfort zone; conveying his disturbance with his expression rather than always giving voice to them.
But I was pleasantly surprised at the plot execution, for the first hour anyway.A man, Gilderoy, works as a sound engineer for an Italian horror film, but you never actually get to see any graphic scenes.