BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO
FILM | MOVIE | BRITISH | HORROR
WRITER: PETER STRICKLAND
DIRECTOR: PETER STRICKLAND
STARRING: TOBY JONES
IFC FILMS UNLIMITED
RATING: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
If Kafka were to have written movies…
He would have written a movie like Berberian Sound Studio.
Now if you know me, you know that calling a movie Kafkaesque, and calling this movie Kafkaesque is an understatement, is all I really need to say about it since, you know me, I am pretty much a slave to anything ol’ Franz has put to paper.
But I’m also a slave to the word count so, for the sake of it, I guess I should say a few things more.
How about this…
Even though BSS was released waaay back in 2012 to a less than stellar reception — worldwide it generated a less than meager $32K at the box office — it is the best movie I’ve seen this year.
But hold that thought…
Later today I’ll be heading to the local flick factory to watch Once Upon A Time in Hollywood and I have high hopes for it. Especially since Mr. Personality himself, aka Bret Easton Ellis, just called it the best movie of the year.
High hopes, indeed.
%!@#$@#$!!!!
To hell with it.
I’ve been trying to write this damn post all morning and WordPress keeps getting locked up in a bloody interminable autosave that devours whatever I write.
I was going to say how much I like Toby Jones, comparing him to other such actor’s actors favorites of mine such as Paul Giamatti and Richard Jenkins; and I was going to tell you how Colin Bates — you remember Colin right? of LEAVE fame? LEAVE, the short film I wrote and executive produced and which is now available on Amazon Prime? You remember he was Sally Salihovic, the smart ass second-in-command. That’s right, you remember… don’t you? — worked with Toby recently on some French film and couldn’t say enough about nice Toby is and how much he enjoyed working with him. I even had a nice photo of Toby to share…
And I was going to tell you how beautiful the cinematography of BSS is…
And how original and fresh its story is…
And I was going to explain to you in detail why it is in fact so hauntingly and enjoyably Kafkaesque…
And I had many other interesting and smart things in mind to share with you about the fantastic flick as part of this cursed post…
But I’m not going to do that now.
Because WordPress is not my friend and I’m afraid if I don’t hurry and get this damned post published it will continue to do evil things to me.
So this is all there is.
Thanks WordPress.
An interesting side note …
I hadn’t seen anything about this movie before. I watched the trailer because there was an avant garde singer named Cathy Berberian who was married to the Italian composer Luciano Berio, He wrote a lot for her, but I think the most famous was a piece by John Cage: Aria with Fontana mix, for voice and electronic tape. https://youtu.be/a15xkowPEPg (Sorry there is no video of her doing it.) I was wondering if the movie was about her, but it isn’t as far as I can tell from the trailer. She was an amazing singer who worked in a sound studio and screamed a lot, and made a lot of funny noises. She later composed.
Yeah, I did a cursory search after watching the flick to try to understand where the “Berberian” came from because I don’t remember the movie itself making any reference to or explanation for it. Def no mention of Cathy B. Listened to the vid you linked and another of hers. Must be who Yoko Ono draws her inspiration from. It’s a strange world out there…