The Lighthouse
Directed and co-written by Robert Eggers, whose previous film was The Witch, The Lighthouse is another film that touches on the supernatural, and also isolation and madness. Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson are two lighthouse keepers on an island off the coast of Maine, and one, or both of them, is going crazy.
Dafoe is the senior man, who refuses to let Pattinson into the very top of the lighthouse, where the lamp is. This, of course, makes Pattinson obsessed with it. Dafoe also has Pattinson doing the most menial of chores, and is prone to break into fits of anger. But the two have a grudging tolerance for each other, spending the evenings getting rip-roaring drunk and singing songs.
I won't go further with the story, which suffice it to say leads to violence. There are numerous classical allusions, especially to the myth of Prometheus and Coleridge's Rime Of The Ancient Marine (Dafoe tells Pattinson it's unlucky to kill a seabird, and so we know what will happen there). There is also a mermaid, which may or may not be real.
Technically The Lighthouse is brilliant. The black and white cinematography by Jarin Blaschke is breathtaking (interestingly, the aspect ratio is 1:1, making it seem like an old film). The music by Mark Korven is thrilling. And the sound design, featuring an incessant foghorn, gets under the skin.
But I came away completely confused. It's one thing to play with the parameters of time and space, but another to make a viewer feel stupid. Part of the problem is that the actors' accents are so thick that subtitles are required. Dafoe sounds like it's Pirate's Day, while at various times Pattinson sounds either Irish, English, or from Brooklyn.
Eggers is a director of great visual gifts but could use some help with story, as The Lighthouse is completely muddled. It did get to me, but I wish I understood it better.
Comments
Post a Comment