The Lighthouse

Ce film combine une forme « nerd », d'excellents acteurs et la témérité du réalisateur à expérimenter et à avoir l'ambition de faire quelque chose d'inédit. Une bande-son merveilleusement captivante, presque inquiétante, avec le bourdonnement profond d'un phare. Une composition en noir et blanc soignée au format 4:3 à la manière des films d'horreurs du début du siècle dernier. L'atmosphère déprimante d'un endroit éloigné, brumeux, venteux, humide et malodorant. Et le conflit entre deux personnalités masculines pour lesquelles toute ces circonstances ne jouent pas du tout en leur faveur. Leurs discours enivrés ne sont pas tellement stimulants, mais ils caractérisent bien les personnages et l'époque. (08/01/2020)

In its reconstruction of 19th-century life and visual style of old films, The Lighthouse is an unprecedented curiosity made with great care and, in one view, makes perhaps as much sense (and is thus as carelessly blind) as a drunken sailor who has read Moby Dick and a few paragraphs of Greek mythology (particularly the story of Prometheus) and psychoanalysis (you reach the id only after pacification of the controlling superego). The plot stands on water, the relationship between the two men on alcohol. Instead of drama or any character development, there is only the building of an atmosphere which, in the end, leads to nowhere and serves no purpose; it is not legitimised by any unifying theme to which the film would adhere. It simply just is. The vagueness, eccentricity and signs of cognisance of the film’s pulpiness give the impression of being an intentional act on the part of the screenwriter, an attempt to sell a simple, self-regarding horror story to dramaturgs of A-list festivals. When everyone finds something in a film, that does not necessarily mean that there is actually something to be found in it. Due to the degree to which it depends on its two actors and sound effects, I would rather see The Lighthouse in the form of an absurdist stage play in which the riveting acting performances could overcome the terrible repetitiveness, predictableness and utter lack of flow. 55% (03/01/2020)

Just like in his The Witch, the director relishes creating the right atmosphere, but his film is very inapproachable; he makes every effort to spoil your viewing experience. The actors in the leading roles (Dafoe and Pattison) deliver superb performances, moreover in black and white, in a spooky, morbid environment with a hidden evil like from Lovecraft. I like all of this, but the inapproachability of the film makes it hard to give it better than average rating. It is, however, definitely a unique experience. (30/01/2020)

After The Witch, Robert Eggers directs another period and psychologically challenging piece, this time in black and white and square format, making it feel like it was made in 1910. that initially repulsed me, but eventually I found myself immersed in the plot and enjoying the nightmare driven to madness. Both Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson give great performances, the dialogue is impressive, the atmosphere thickens and there are a few disturbing scenes (a seagull being bludgeoned to death, a live burial, masturbation over a mermaid and the final scene is very raw). Here I can understand 10 stars and 0, so it depends on you, but I was not bored. 7/10. (08/01/2020)

The Lighthouse is a film where atmosphere is everything and the story is nothing. After the interesting and successful The Witch, Eggers had a free hand and he took advantage of it in his own way. He mocks the popcorn audience with their ideas of horror full of jumpscares and ghosts. Eggers is perhaps the only director who not only heard of Lovecraft and read something from him, but also thought about his work and was inspired by his theoretical foundations. Sartre already knew that hell is not devils, but other people. Put two ultimate sociopaths on a deserted island, give one an illusion of power, and expose the other to humiliation and the result will arrive soon enough. There is nothing, only loneliness, and boredom spiced up by memories of the sound of crushing human bones and failed relationships. Sexual frustration, bitterness, and rising levels of hatred supported by the distillate in the blood. The raging water element invigorates the imagination, just like a superstitious sailor's tales. Eggers impressively works with mythological references, with image and sound, and cleverly avoids literalness. Both actors reward him with excellent acting, the kind you don't see often. All in all, The Lighthouse is one of the most impressive horror films I have had the opportunity to see. Overall impression: 95%. (15/02/2022)

A sea the color of crude oil and the light of the lighthouse like the Divine Light. A crushing atmosphere of bullying, lies and madness. A great screenplay with psychologically unstable characters in the main roles, who move the action along with drunken spouting and gradual confiding in each other as they come face to face with starving to death. Teh farting Dafoe delivers an acting masterclass and the masturbating Pattinson is his star pupil who isn’t afraid of taking things to extremes. The mermaid hallucinations and being buried alive are moments of the year. Aye, lad! (30/12/2019)

The Lighthouse is undoubtedly a remarkable experience. A film composed of black and white shots in the classic aspect ratio, full of magical realism turning into naturalism. Even its language is different, and the script is inspired by the language of real 19th-century sailors and the unfinished short story by E. A. Poe. The result is certainly worthy of attention, but it is open to debate whether pure naturalism would be a more appropriate form. (19/03/2022)

As bizarre a as The Lighthouse is (and it’s very, very, very bizarre), there can be no doubt that it is also a superbly filmed master performance by two great actors that impresses the viewer exactly as the filmmakers intended. Basically, you feel you’re going crazy, too, while having fun. (17/06/2021)

A very empty exhibition of a talented machine to build a thick atmosphere; you can’t deny its depiction of period realism and the intentionally obsolete formal approaches (static shots, details, expressive acting, precise geometric composition), but it has absolutely nothing to offer the viewer seeking a meaningfully organised narration or some sort of distinctive process. The Witch headed somewhere and tied a loop around the viewer, who had set certain expectations, but The Lighthouse is self absorbed from the first to the last scene and never changes its nature and the pressure on the audience – and though in itself this isn’t annoying, it’s certainly not remarkable or in any way as subversive as Eggers wants it to be. 60% (18/01/2020)

L’image en noir et blanc remarquablement filmée au format carré 1,19:1 qui évoque une autre époque, comme si The Lighthouse, avec son pouvoir hypnotisant, avait été créé en dehors de l’espace-temps. Willem Dafoe et Robert Pattinson nous offrent un jeu d’acteur grandiose et semblent jouer à celui qui aura l’air le plus détraqué. La résolution de la symbolique des scènes et du message du film implique toutes sortes de parallèles touchant jusqu’à l’Antiquité, mais je vais m’abstenir de révéler les secrets d’une œuvre que chacun se doit d’interpréter par lui-même. Il s’agit d’un film d’horreur artistique très réussi dans lequel la solitude et le désespoir sont très crédibles. Il y a juste ce petit plus que j’attends toujours de la part de Robert Eggers et qui ferait que je serais véritablement emporté par le film – une chose qui ne s’est pas produite cette fois-ci. Quoi qu’il en soit, j’apprécie les aptitudes et la vision singulières du réalisateur et suis curieux de découvrir son prochain opus. Quant à The Lighthouse, je recommande de le voir sur grand écran et avec des sous-titres aussi bien traduits que possible. [Sitges 2019] (06/10/2019)

Un drame psychologique captivant et incroyablement impressionnant, à la fois visuellement, théâtralement et techniquement, avec des éléments d'horreur, inspiré des contes de marins, de l'œuvre de Herman Melville et de la mythologie antique. On ne peut qu'admirer son atmosphère étouffante et claustrophobique, ses décors élaborés, sa caméra extraordinaire, son travail sur le son et l'éclairage porteur de sens, ainsi que l'engagement des deux protagonistes, auxquels le scénario accorde une juste part d'espace (outre plusieurs scènes communes marquantes, ils brillent également dans leurs longs monologues personnels).Une œuvre d'auteur brute et réaliste, dans laquelle l'humour trouve étonnamment sa place et qui se distingue par son enivrement visuel et son extrême précision en terme de réalisation et qui, contrairement à The Witch, ne semble ni lourde, ni excessive, ni involontairement ridicule, heureusement. (08/10/2019)

A story told in half-whispers at night by sailors somewhere in the hold of the Obra Dinn. With each retelling, new elements are added and some fade away again. The resulting tale is all the more frightening for the fact that it is impossible to decipher which parts of it are based in reality, and therefore all aspects of it, however unbelievable, feel real in the end. The irrationality of existence. Audience pro tip: watch it somewhere in a half-empty summer cinema stoned out of your mind. (16/06/2020)

A brilliantly sound edited but slightly self-indulgent arthouse wank that's even less accessible than The Witch. Still, there's something captivating and hard to define about it that makes it worth seeing (ideally in the cinema for that sumptuous sound). A farting Willem Dafoe, annoying seagulls, lots of bodily fluids, and mermaids as sex symbols. It wasn't bad, but I was expecting a bit more. Of the new wave of "modern horror" I much prefer Ari Aster, whose Midsommar was a boatload better. (14/01/2020)