The Lighthouse (2019) 🌊💡
“If I had a steak, I would fuck it”
This is writer-director Robert Eggers’ follow-up feature to his slow-burn horror debut The VVitch and it’s… something. Many many think pieces packed with adverbs and adjectives have been written about this project, but it’s hard to capture the experience of this movie with only words. The premise centers around two men (William Dafoe and Robert Pattinson) tasked with the upkeep of a lighthouse who become stranded after a storm, but there’s a lot more to it — like ominous seagulls, a terrifying mermaid, flatulence, and a lot of phallic semiotics.
Using a combination of old film stock, modern filters and antique camera lenses, Eggers’ and DP Jarin Blaschke created some of the most intense, unique tableaux I’ve ever seen in modern cinema. The sequences are vivid and visceral, despite the use black & white film, and the multiple close-ups + the 4:3 aspect ratio create an eerie claustrophobic vibe. Because the film stock wasn’t sensitive to reds, all of the blood develops as dark inky black, and pink skin tones look ashen, making faces look like images etched in metal.
The Lighthouse was shot under grueling conditions out in Cape Forchu, Nova Scotia, and the crew had to reckon with massive winds, rain and cold. Pattinson and Dafoe both fully committed to their roles, and reportedly avoided each other during the 30+ day film shoot. Together they convey an intense loneliness, a deep need to be seen, and a hatred of their own neediness. Eggers’ wrote what is ostensibly a condemnation of toxic masculinity with his brother Max, and dug into some serious research about 19th lighthouse upkeep. Their writing, alongside the excellent performances, make a movie written in 19th century English enthralling, and also strangely quotable. Dafoe cackling “Why’d ya spill yer beans?!” still echoes in my brain.
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