Berberian Sound Studio

2012
6.2| 1h32m| en
Details

In the 1970s, a British sound technician is brought to Italy to work on the sound effects for a gruesome horror film. His nightmarish task slowly takes over his psyche, driving him to confront his own past.

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Reviews

Konterr Brilliant and touching
Contentar Best movie of this year hands down!
CommentsXp Best movie ever!
Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
Mace I had heard very few things about Peter Strickland's Berberian Sound Studio before viewing, but based off what I had heard, I really wanted to enjoy it. The plot sounded dark and twisted and I was looking forward to a clever psychological experience. Instead, I was extremely disappointed to find that Berberian Sound Studio was a full-on art house film with very little thrills or intriguing ideas. Also excluding a real ending or buildup, Berberian Sound Studio didn't offer me anything warranting a second watch. 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. I enjoy slow-burners as well, but this film offered really no thrills or stimulation, making it drone on with no escalation of tension whatsoever. Technically, it wasn't a complete disaster with some impressive lighting and composure effects and, of course, excellent sound, but none of this really mattered when the story and characters were so dull and lifeless. One of the few great things about Berberian Sound Studio is the acting showcased by the talented cast. Toby Jones particularly did a great job portraying the awkward and anti-social sound engineer. While his character was quite boring, I can't really fault the actor for that as it seems that was the way his character was written. While many of the actors and actresses in the film do a good job, the characters they portray just seemed so flimsy and uninteresting. I cannot really stress how dull Berberian Sound Studio is. It's characterized as a drama-thriller but the thrills are virtually nonexistent. It was much more of a psychological horror film, but even then, it wasn't at all scary. So really it's just nothing. There's no thrills, no excitement, very little tension and a blatantly pretentious ending. It's well acted and is technically impressive at times, but I can't help but feel that an interesting idea was wasted on making this boring and pretentious art house. Sound Studio attempted to build upon an interesting concept, but made the mistake of putting style above substance, making the film feel incredibly hollow and lifeless. It starts off decent, but there is quite literally no structure of storytelling or cohesive narrative, all painfully leading to a supremely unsatisfying ending. It attempts to play upon the viewers senses, but I'm sure most audiences would rather be entertained than experimented on, which makes Berberian Sound Studio a failure in that regard.
ernesti I have watched many giallos and find many of them quite good. There's not so many other film genres that have so much oddities and as a distinctive feature they have very good musical scores and chilling audio effects and atmosphere.Even the old giallos were much better than this film. At least they had substance and somewhat plausible script. In Berberian sound studio there's just a man who works at the sound department and that's all. I couldn't believe how slow the film was and for the most of the time just screaming was being recorded. That appeared to be the shock effect used in this film. It's sort of tiring to realize that the film's not going to advance anywhere. It didn't appear to have an ending either.I have to say that this isn't much of a giallo homage and it's actually made in the UK, not in Italy. It's got nothing to offer for the fans of giallo. Distracting sound effects, ambient and screaming in the editing room. That's really everything what there is to this film.
Mad_Doctor_Tom I'm afraid I'll have to take bradleybean86 to task on his review of the aforementioned movie.At first, I'll admit I was a shade in BB86's camp. 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. I was first introduced to him on screen as the Judge in The Messenger The Story of Joan of Arc. Then again as the voice of Dobby in Harry Potter and The Chamber Of Secrets/Deathly Hollows.I pondered fairly early on wondering it was a spin on the Truman Show in a different guise. Far be it from me to throw any spoilers in here so I was partially, to a certain extent, correct.I said No Spoilers,so let it suffice to say, don't go into this with any preconceptions, minds are like parachutes, they work best when open. :) Watch it a your leisure, settle into your favorite spot with a good bowl of buttered popcorn, a Coke, and enjoy the journey.Then post your own thoughts on the fascinating bit of film magic.
scarletpumpernickel and Imaginary Spoiler Alert... because I foolishly imagined I knew what the end was going to be (thinking Wicker Man) and was disappointed when I didn't get it. I promoted my theory to an expectation when Sylvia asked Gilderoy if he ever wondered why they chose him... in proximity to musings about the script's need to include some sort of human sacrifice. Clearly Santini, a director so intent on realistic performances, would naturally have stumbled on the idea of putting actual people (our docile and unwitting hero perhaps) thru actual tortures for the sake of a more fantastico soundtrack. Given all the hints and innuendo pointing toward the sordid demise of their patient and long-suffering English visitor, I think filmmaker Strickland realized he was perilously close to making a snuff film, and backed off under pressure from the Italian Board of Tourism.