★★★★
Two lighthouse keepers try to maintain their sanity whilst living on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s.
Classification: 15
Into the depths of a nightmare long forgotten, Robert Eggers' stylistic follow up to The Witch is a crusty, engrossing, miserable maritime horror of madness tearing away at the very souls of its characters until they and the audience question the reality enveloping them. The Lighthouse is a beautiful vision of mythological and literary allegory through a lens of classic filmmaking as the 1.19:1 aspect ratio and black and white film stock transport audiences back in time, the whole aesthetic feeling like a classic horror film of the 1940s. Eggers' vision though feels timeless, beyond contemporary reimagining or classical tribute as the themes of madness, dread, guilt and truth all speak to our universal fears of the unknown. Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe are the two lighthouse keepers or "wickies" tasked with surviving the onslaught of Eggers' uncompromising vision and by God do they deliver some of 2019's most visceral performances. Screaming, dancing, drinking, farting, furiously masturbating, these two forgo all inhibition and cast themselves into the abyss as their characters souls become merged in their duel of psychological and emotional revelation.
Nothing, however, is revealed that easily, deeply layered and soaked in all manners of influence, Eggers' film is a hypnotizing concoction of Greek myth, Lovecraftian terror, biblical might, and literary insight, daring audiences to stare deeper into the celestial light and uncover all manners of secrets. No question is truly answered but with references to Promethean myth, the one-eyed seagull who torments Pattinson's Ephraim Winslow along with the siren calls of elegant mermaids and enveloping tentacles, it's clear that Eggers's has crafted a unique film exploring questions of purgatory and punishment. The script co-written by Max Eggers utilises period-appropriate dialogue which allows Dafoe to chew the scenery in the most delicious ways (Hark! Triton! Hark!) but grounds the audiences in this period of 1890s New England. Some of the wording may be lost in translation but the passion from each performer keeps you hooked, It's an excellent union of theatrics and cinematics as the dialogue allows the actors to really put their whole body into it, spewing and chanting epic monologues. While accompanied by Jarin Blaschke's unforgettable cinematography which keeps The Lighthouse from feeling like a stage play as the location, sets, sound design and creatures expand the scope of the character's isolation with chilling effect.
The film is equivalent to being trapped in a nightmare, except it's not yours, it's Ephraim Winslow's and Thomas Wake's. It's slow and inescapable, the routine of their day bearing down on them with rain, cold, storms, gulls and decay. While there are scenes where the actors submit to madness with howls and fury, it's the build-up of rewardless labour that chip away at their spirit, this crawling pacing that Eggers uses to immerse everyone in the misery. Pattinson's character essentially a servant to Dafoe's seniority, pushing a rickety wheelbarrow full of coal, cleaning and scrubbing, emptying chamber pots. Thomas Wake guards the light, keeps it to himself, visiting it with almost sexual gratification and it becomes a tantalising deity to both men, a spiritual enlightenment that Winslow is not worthy of as his past guilts haunt and taunt him. With his pacing Eggers' and editor, Louise Ford just builds the tension between these two, creating the most gloomy, putrid atmosphere for their bewildered thoughts to manifest into all manner of actions. The relationship is never truly defined but can be interpreted in so many ways; co-workers, roommates, a father and son or even lovers. When Winslow's real name is revealed to be Thomas Howard, making the two characters an older and younger man with the same name, one begins to wonder if Dafoe's Wake is even real or just another punishment for Howard's crimes. Are they the same man? what is truly real? as Eggers' makes it clear that our mere human senses are not enough to determine the reality before us.
"You smell like piss, you smell like jism, like rotten dick, like curdled foreskin, like hot onions fucked a farmyard shit-house. And I'm sick of yer smell. I'm sick of it! I'm sick of it, you goddamned drunk" is one of the many incredible lines a furious Robert Pattinson hurled out to Willem Dafoe and by god, if Craig Lathrop's production design doesn't deliver on replicating that unbearable description. You can feel the atmosphere of the film soaking into your soul; damp, old, broken and sodden in brine, the island they filmed on is a gorgeously miserable location and the structures built for the film feel as if they have stood for aeons. That's right, Lathrop and the production team built the actual lighthouse for the production from its cold metal spiral staircase to its gorgeous art deco glass reflection, nothing about Eggers' vision is left to chance, every speck of this madness is a result of his design. The beautiful cinematography captures it all, making it feel all the more decrepit extending to the actor's makeup and the use of shadows. Both characters caught in their morally grey pasts and secrets with Blaschke's camera work not only utilising techniques to make The Lighthouse reminiscent to old horror or Ingmar Bergman's filmography but to make their torment feel all the more immortal.
What lives on long after viewing The Lighthouse is the brilliant, haunting sound design, Eggers' film drills deep into its audience's brain and the work of Mariusz Glabinski, Damian Volpe and their entire sound team is the point of that drill bit. From the unending groan of the foghorn, a constant death knell to the character's sanity to the squawks of the gulls, vicious storms and the divine calls from creatures unknown The Lighthouse is a true spectacle of auteur artistry for the eyes and ears. Accompanied by Mark Korven's heavy score, bearing down itself like a storm on Pattinson and Dafoe with creeping atmosphere and ominous beckoning, nothing about the film feels contemporary and Korven's work just deepens this connection to the eldritch terrors. Once again I would like to really just mark down that Pattinson and Dafoe truly capture something unique in their performances; an indescribable release of emotions made all the more haunting by Eggers' and co's production work. Dafoe who has many truly evocative performances of the avant-garde with Lars Von Trier (Watching his genitals be mutilated in 2008's Antichrist and then ejaculate blood is burned into my retinas) but this is truly some of his best work and he feels so lived in as a crusty, old sea captain that he is an extension of the timeless immersion. Pattinson who for the last decade has worked on the indie scene with Cronenberg, Michôd, and the Safdie Brothers to break away from his blockbuster vampire image, with this performance has broken any shackles left from that era to microscopic dust. Toe to toe with Dafoe and unleashing the unfiltered disgrace and anger to his enigmatic character with mesmerising, rebellious furore, Pattinson has become one of the most versatile actors working today and I greatly anticipate what potential within him is still to be unlocked.
It's weird as hell in the best, bold and most beautiful ways and you'll know pretty quickly if The Lighthouse is for you as the fog clears and reveals our forsaken characters approaching the cursed monument. It's a film that doesn't pull its punches or spoon feed you any clarity, Eggers' tosses you into this maelstrom but the path to understanding the horrors within is there. Like a bright light in a fog, distant but clear and whatever you discover along the way of the two Thomas' descent makes that light all the more irresistible marking a cinematic experience that will never quite leave you.
Director: #RobertEggers
Screenwriter: #RobertEggers and #MaxEggers
Cast: #WillemDafoe, #RobertPattinson
Release Date: January 31st 2020
Trailer:
Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews
Images and Synopsis from the Internet Movie Database
コメント