Robert Eggers, Canada-USA, 2019
written by Robert & Max Eggers
Robert Eggers’ ‘The Witch’ was gripping in
its use of period detail and accuracy, the kind the that reached for authentic
period dialogue to the degree that it might alienate many. There was the feeling
that Eggers really wasn’t inclined to compromise in rendering a believable period
piece that truly tried to get to the delusion and mania of the phenomenon of
witches (and all without recourse to clanging dominant misogyny).
If anything, Eggers’ follow-up ‘The Lighthouse’
is even less commercial. It’s a black comedy with farts about a couple of men
going mad in a phallic symbol (derived from Eggers’ own description, according
to Defoe*). There is a continued sense of uncompromisingly capturing the fall
into delusion and madness, with the imagery of mythology being one of its outpourings.
Two films to his resume and Eggers has approach this cornered.
Jarin Blaschke’s cinematography isn’t
afraid of the oily darkness, of the dense blacks as the camera peers down and
slides around claustrophobic interiors, with the exteriors giving precious
relief hemmed in by the storm as they are. The footage of storms and waves are
startling and violent: some of the scariest put to screen. The 1.19 aspect
ratio boxes in everything, claustrophobia being the agenda. And Defoe also mentions
“old filters”, and that they built the working lighthouse for the film*, that
he had fake teeth**, giving this as much a feel of impressively being as hand-built
and utilising old techniques similar as Mark Jenkin’s ‘Bait’. It even
reminded me a little of the tone of Phil Mulloy’s animation that feels built on
something unpleasant.
On top of this is the remarkable sound
design by Mariusz Glabinski and Damien Volpe. It’s one of foghorns and constantly
abrasive noise, and seemingly in contest with Mark Korven’s soundtrack as the
score tries to scream, drone and scratch its way onto the picture. In this way,
it reminded me of Mica Levi’s score for ‘Monos’. It’s a film that
rewards being on the loudest sound system possible.
‘The Lighthouse’ is a chamber piece,
a two-man show. Willem Defoe says that after seeing ‘The Witch’, he sought
out and befriended Eggers which led to this role. Defoe is Thomas Wake, wearing
a beard as thick as his vernacular: cranky, quick to temper, a bully, a storyteller
(or liar?), but often looking like a wounded animal, baffled by himself. One
can see him being a lovable if infuriating grouch. And if Defoe tells more of
his character with his eyes, Robert Pattinson as Ephraim Winslow seems to be acting
with his mouth, using it to its full range. It’s another fascinating Pattinson
performance, and even if Defoe has the showier role Pattinson has the arc. The speechifying
is often both impenetrable and glorious (you may want to watch it with
subtitles when you get the blu-ray/DVD), with Defoe fully relishing the monologues
flavoured by 19th Century patois. Wake is as outspoken and thin-skinned
as Winslow is introvert and seething. And then, they seem to be speaking
one another’s dialogue with perceptions starting to get murky and surreal. At
points, it even threatens to turn into a monster movie.
It's being sold as a horror, because how
else to sell it? But as reductive as that may be, one can see and feel
that the mood, the pervading dread and the descent into more-and-more craziness
is indicative of that genre, and certainly a horror audience is more likely to
be attuned to its tricks and nature. Defoe sees it as a mixture of Bergman,
Tarkovsky and Hitchcock* – the greats, then. He says,
“It’s a struggle about signing
on to a certain belief system or a certain way to live. That’s where the antagonism
starts. It’s not just a boss and his charge, or an apprentice and a master. It
runs a little deeper than that for me. The thing about it is that it’s such a
simple story, but the relationship and the strategies these characters have to
survive are so complex that different people see different things, because they
bring their own stuff to it. There’s something so elemental about the story.”**
‘The Lighthouse’ is certainly unique
and daring and all-the-more rewarding for that. It’s a mystery that serves all
the themes and theories to you might throw at it, being about machismo, madness,
isolation, alienation, man-versus-the-elements, bad work conditions, etc. Simran Hans accuses it of “frat boy humour dressed up in an expensive, arthouse jacket”, but this is
surely more part of the theme of male crudity. And with seagulls. It’s a film
with a large seagull crew, too. It’s quite the accomplishment that only adds
more evidence that Eggers is proving distinctive and someone to always watch.
And it’s often as dryly funny as it is
surreal, lest I forget to mention that.
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** Willem Defoe quoted
from ‘Picturehouse Recommends: Jan/Feb’.
