Berberian Sound Studio review

There were three main reasons why I wanted to watch Berberian Sound Studio from the moment I heard about it. One was a lot of positive reception around film and cult review websites and magazines. Two was it was supposed to be a homage to the Giallo genre, only ironically, without showing any imagery and focusing purely on sound. Three was Toby Jones – ever since playing the Dream Lord in, yep, you guessed it, Doctor Who, he’s been an actor that I've been very keen to check out more of. (Not realising that actually, I had already seen a couple of film’s he’d been in, or at least, his voice – I am of course referring to his role of Dobby in the Harry Potter movies.) Hearing about a film he actually had a lead role in really got my attention. And what a role he was given: the typically repressed English soundman working on an Italian horror.

I’ve put off writing this review because there’s so much for me to write about, in a case like this. This isn't your typical horror, or at least, anything along the lines of most of the kind of horror films that Hollywood releases these days. There aren't any jumpy scares, no violent deaths of stupid characters, no psychopathic maniacs, none of that. Instead, this is a horror that wants its audience to think, to feel, and to empathise with its main character. In all these aspects, I felt it was very successful. 

The story is of a sound engineer, Gilderoy, who has been hired to work on a highly violent horror movie in Italy. As he continues to work on it, the film starts to deeply affect him in numerous ways, and the longer the film goes on, the more Gilderoy loses his grip on reality.

One film that sprang to mind while watching this was Roman Polanski’s The Tennant (which Jean, a very good friend of mine recommended to me - any credit for my craving for deep and thoughtful psychological horror should be given to him, as before I'd more than likely have avoided such films, if I'm honest, so thank you again, Jean). The protagonists of both films are foreigners to the country, always made to feel excluded, not just through cultural differences but through personal differences, too. This is a world where Gilderoy simply doesn’t belong in the slightest, something that’s made clear from the very beginning: a typical, deeply repressed Englishman among a film crew of highly emotional Italians, a man who takes his Catholic faith very seriously working on an exploitation movie that forces him to watch an ugly side to it, a man who didn’t even know what kind of film he would be working on until the day he arrived and saw the horrific images. “I didn’t know I’d be working on this type of film…” he quietly says. From that moment on, you know that it will not be a film that would be easy for him to work on.

“A new world of sound awaits you.” There are a number of really wonderful quotes that sum up how wonderful this movie is, and this is one of them. For we see none of the images that Gilderoy sees, only hear, with the occasional description of some truly horrific acts. But the sound is the key thing. Chopped melons become sliced heads and severed limbs, blenders become chainsaws, cooking fat becomes horrifically burned skin. This wonderful use of sound imprints some truly disturbing imagery when really showing us nothing, and it’s wonderful use is something I truly appreciate in a film such as this.

Oddly enough though, while the sounds do give us the clear image, the shots are also important. Now just how the sounds are made, but also including some really nice tributes to the giallo genre in numerous ways - extreme close up of eyes and mouths, cut from mouth to red sauce in blender and, my particular favourite, a close-up of a hand in a black glove while simply turning on the projector. It’s clear that the director, Peter Strickland, is a massive fan of the genre. This is not a giallo movie, nor is it intended to be, but it’s certainly effective in being a respectful tribute to the genre, and kudos must be given to the cinematography for adding to that.

As the film goes on, tension and uneasiness builds as Gilderoy grows to be more and more uncomfortable with the images that he (but not we) sees. It truly becomes difficult for him to work on the film while continuing to see such horrific images that don’t just offend him but also deeply, deeply disturb him on numerous levels – as an Englishman, as a Catholic, as simply himself. He doesn't want these horrific acts to happen, even trying to stop the sounds from happening so the images don’t happen, but it’s no use – whether the sound happens or not, the image of the horrific act still happens. Over and over again until he adds his part. And that’s the worst thing – it’s not being forced to watch such graphic violence, it’s being, as the producer of such a work says, a “part of it”. Gilderoy is adding his own part to the violence and the suffering, the vital part, the sound, and that is something he cannot bear to live with.

Inevitably, he tries to quit, to leave, to escape, but it’s no use. “There’s no reason to escape.” The man is effectively trapped, far from all that he loves in every possible way, and there’s nothing that he can do about it. This feeling of entrapment is, again, another theme that instantly reminds me of Polanski in many of his films.

Despite all this darkness, there’s still a nice amount of humour in the film, but fortunately not the kind that goes against the themes and dark tone of the story. Rather, it is an awkward humour that empathises even more the differences between Gilderoy and his Italian colleagues, as Gilderoy finds it difficult to get on with them at all, whether due to a barrier in language or in culture. The humour in these instances only help to add to the feeling of isolation that Gilderoy is going through.

Eventually, for Gilderoy, and for us, reality and fantasy become blurred. He’s no longer just a part of the Italian horror he’s working on, he’s a part of his own, and the last act of the film involves surreal dream sequences and even dubbing in Italian, as Gilderoy’s life becomes a film that he’s uncomfortable to watch.

As I said, this was a film that I had been eager to watch since the moment I heard about it, and sure enough, it did not disappoint. At times, there were moments that were almost too bizarre, particularly the very end, but perhaps these will be more rewarding with understanding on repeat viewings. In any case, this was a horror that I deeply, deeply enjoyed, a wonderful break from all the typical sensationalist horror that Hollywood is making these days. 9/10