The Lighthouse (2019 film)
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 Keeping secrets, are ye?
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The Lighthouse is a 2019 film directed/produced by Robert Eggers from a screenplay he wrote with his brother Max Eggers. It stars Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson as nineteenth-century lighthouse keepers in turmoil after being isolated at a remote New England outpost by a wild storm. The film has defied categorization in the media, and interpretations range from horror films to psychological thrillers and character studies.
Summary
Two lighthouse keepers try to maintain their sanity while living on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s.
Why It Can Keep Secrets
- Much like other films distributed by A24, it has a unique and well-written story and plot. In this case, the whole plot and story is about two lighthouse keepers who lose their grip and slowly go insane. It is well-written, showing that it can be a film where it's just a plot with mainly two characters (who are lighthouse keepers) written for its story, immersing the audience in its atmosphere with what the film does at its best.
- Adding onto this, the plot slowly and gradually builds up in tension and suspense throughout, just like a typical psychological horror.
- Instead of the photography being color as with most films today, it uses a black-and-white color filter to set the 1890s theme, giving excellent aesthetics as if this film was made long ago, despite being released in the 2010s (specifically, 2019); nevertheless, it makes you feel like you're watching a movie from a long time ago.
- Top-notch cinematography with camera angles and lighting gives a unique depth to their image quality and the camera momentum that takes its depth and time to make it focus well. Also, the aspect ratio is unique since it uses the 1.19:1 aspect ratio and, given its location, such as being filmed at a lighthouse (hence, the title), and using the outside and inside locations with a black-and-white color filter, makes the whole thing unique and sets it back a long time; consequently, it is utterly top-notch to the point where it was nominated for an Academy-Award for Best Cinematography, alongside Joker (which also released in 2019 and is an excellent film like this, also has perfect/top-notch cinematography and was released two weeks earlier than this). Overall, it gives a ton of nostalgia to classic films such as Psycho.
- Incredible acting performances by Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson. In fact, Robert Pattinson's performance is a vast improvement over Twilight; Willem Dafoe's performance is also excellent, with the way they move and talk, and as said above, losing their grip and slowly going insane, throughout also helps to add to the film's content and plot as if they can understand each other well.
- Superb directing by Robert Eggers, who perfectly cast the actors and set everything up amazingly to create this film with all the fantastic aspects one can reasonably think of; moreover, he also keeps the charm of what made his film, The Witch, excellent, so it's nice to see him do this again for this film, but this one goes more unique with its photography, unlike The Witch.
- The visuals are spectacular because of the black-and-white filter, making the entire movie feel like it was set in the 1890s, helping the story create a mood and tone for the film, which can also convey depth. The visuals of the lighthouse are also superb, as they function like an actual lighthouse in real life.
The Only Bad Quality
- Thomas Howard's distorted screaming in the lantern lighthouse room at the end can come off as grating; consequently, the screaming near the end sounds ear-splitting due to the amount of distortion used there.
Reception
The Lighthouse received widespread acclaim. It has been praised for Dafoe and Pattionson's performances, cinematography, visuals, and Eggers' direction. On Metacritic, it has an 83/100, indicating "universal acclaim".[4]
Videos
References
- ↑ https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-lighthouse-cannes-review/5139661.article
- ↑ https://www.screendaily.com/features/robert-eggers-on-why-his-actors-endured-physical-misery-whilst-making-the-lighthouse/5145631.article
- ↑ https://m.the-numbers.com/movie/Lighthouse-The-(2019)#tab=summary
- ↑ https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-lighthouse-2019/critic-reviews/
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