Watching: The Lighthouse

[white_hart]

Robert Eggers's new film, The Lighthouse, stars Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson as two lighthouse keepers trapped on a tiny, rocky island by a storm. Shot in a self-consciously artistic black and white with a minimalist and often mumbled script, it feels rather like I imagine The Rime of the Ancient Mariner might have done if it had been written by Samuel Beckett. By which I mostly mean confusing, over-long and very manpainy. It also features far more wanking than I ever wanted to see on screen, even when suggestively obscured by the arty cinematography. Not one I'd recommend.

Comments

[nineveh_uk]

Oh dear, that does not sound like a good evening. I'd already decided not to see this one after one review praising it, and that didn't even mention the wanking.

Honestly, if someone wants to make an actually original take on Flannan Isle then they should make it a comedy in which the lighthouse is visited by a time-traveling spaceship and the lighthouse keepers happily get on board to go and explore the universe. Actually, that's probably more a Doctor Who episode.

[legionseagle]

The lighthouse incident I was thinking of was the Ross Island lighthouse murder, in which reputedly the local (Kirkudbridghtshire) paper was supposed to have given the headline: "Lighthouse Keeper Found Slain: Other Keeper Missing, Police Baffled." Apparently the murderer haunts the lighthouse cottages; I met someone who was doing them up for holiday lets and apparently he used to materialise and look disapproving whenever he didn't like the choice of wallpaper.

[white_hart]

I think it's probably quite like that, really. With added wanking. Oh, and fantasising about raping a mermaid.

[tree_and_leaf]

Ouch.