The Lighthouse (2019) - Menfolk lose it in Eggers' astounding masterpiece

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+ 2nd Best Movie of the Year

+ Best B/W Movie of the Year + Best Poster of the Year + Best Psychological Thriller of the Year

Two halves of two men before the titular lighthouse on this tense B/W poster for Robert Eggers' The Lighthouse

A sobering ex-forest worker younger man arrives at a tiny rock island off the New England coast sometime at the end of the 19th century, where he is to work as a wicker at the important lighthouse under the direction of an older, curmudgeon ex-seaman.

The Lighthouse is written by Max Eggers (The Tell-Tale Heart (2008, short), production assistant) and master New Hampshirite filmmaker, his brother, co-writer/co-producer/director Robert Eggers (The Witch (2015)), whose 2nd film it is.
Robert Pattinson (Good Time (2017)) and Willem Dafoe (Edges of the Lord (2001)) both give fully immersed, great performances as the two very different men on the island, master class in acting I and II, they could be described.
Unusually shot in a near-square format on B/W film by cinematographer Jarin Blaschke (Fray (2012)), the film is ripe with eye-popping visuals that never seem to transgress the practically possible with overt uses of CGI. Much of the story and its visuals have symbolic connotations that enhance the mystery and attraction of the film for viewers sensible to them; but The Lighthouse is as compelling and fascinating seen as a straightly concrete tale SPOILER of two men on an island who gradually lose their minds due to dire circumstances.
The film has little music, and its soundscape is dominated by a surreal, deep humming seemingly created by machinery on the isle. In tone the film plays us with complex affinities: Several sequences are dialog reliant, and especially Dafoe's character's authentic local sailor's vocabulary and grammar is a joy as delivered by the seasoned veteran. There's much humor and a genuinely good time to be had, surprisingly, surrounded by the extreme ardors and rancid squalor of two men who descend in drink on a deserted island. Incredibly these hilarious bickering and chum-making scenes also often lapse into truly terrifying scenes of mystery, menace and deep-seated existential dread.
It is all told with assured, tight editing in a film of scenes and images that get lodged in the audiences' memories like a strange, unnerving 19th century novel. - What does it all mean? This review, like the film, will leave it up to each viewer to discern for himself.

Related posts:

Rogert Eggers: 2019 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

The Witch (2015) - Eggers' unsettling period-set debut creep-out

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 4 mil. $
Box office: 18 mil. $ and counting
= Big hit (returned 4.5 times its cost)
[The Lighthouse premiered 19 May (Cannes Film Festival, out of competition) and runs 109 minutes. Max Eggers wanted to adapt Edgar Allan Poe's The Light-House (1849), but found it difficult and collaborated with his brother to make the film, which has almost no resemblance to Poe's story. It is instead inspired by the 1801 Smalls Lighthouse Tragedy, which you can read about here. A shot in the script of Pattinson's actual erect penis was removed at the request of the financiers. A 20-meter working lighthouse was erected for the film. Shooting took place in 34 days in Nova Scotia from April - May 2018. The film opened #15 to a 427k $ first weekend in 8 theaters in North America, were it peaked at #8 and in 978 theaters (different weeks), grossing 10.8 mil. $ (60 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 1.6 mil. $ (8.9 %) and Mexico with 950k $ (5.3 %). The release was badly hurt by the cinema-closing Corona Crisis. The film was nominated for the Best Cinematography Oscar, lost to Roger Deakins for 1917. The film was also nominated for a BAFTA, a prize in Cannes, 2/5 Independent Spirit award nominations and countless other honors. Eggers returns with Viking movie The Northman (pre-production), again with Dafoe. Pattinson returned in The King (2019); Dafoe in Tommaso (2019). The Lighthouse is certified fresh at 90 % with an 8.04/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Lighthouse?

Don't Look Now (1973) or, Grief in Venice

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The exciting, chilling poster for Nicholas Roeg's Don't Look Now

QUICK REVIEW:

An English couple lose their daughter in a drowning accident. Soon hereafter they venture to Venice, where the woman meets a blind, psychic woman who then disappears.

Based on a short story by Dauphne du Maurier (Jamaica Inn (1936)), Nicholas Roeg's (The Witches (1990)) horror drama Don't Look Now is somewhat similar to Rosemary's Baby (1968)), though substantially less exciting.
It is lovely to be in Venice in the film, and the acting of leads Julie Christie (Troy (2004)) and Donald Sutherland (The Art of War (2000)) is fairly good. But Roeg's visual and editing style is stressful and feels a bit film school-y and tedious and at times involuntarily funny to me, although others find it innovative. Don't Look Now divides people, and I am obviously not among its many fans. I think it could have been a considerably better film.
Allan Scott (Regeneration (1997)) and Chris Bryant (The Awakening (1980)) wrote the screenplay.

Watch the original trailer for the film here

Cost: Estimated 1.1 - 1.5 mil. $
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown
[The film was shot in England and Italy December 1972 - February 1973. It became controversial upon release due to a heated if not very stimulating sex scene between the two leads, which led to the film's X rating in Britain, where the scene was cut for the its later TV premiere on BBC. It has been rumored that the scene featured unsimulated sex, which naturally infuriated Warren Beatty, Christie's boyfriend at the time, but the truth remains obscure. In Britain, the film was released on a double bill with the better film The Wicker Man (1973). The film's B.O. numbers are unfortunately not available online to my knowledge. It was well-received by many critics and won a BAFTA for Best Cinematography, (and was nominated for another 6.) Its star has only grown since then, also with many filmmakers praising it. Don't Look Now is certified fresh at 96 % with a 8.9 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Don't Look Now?

Two Men and a Wardrobe/Dwaj Ludzie z Szafą (1958, short) - Polanski's remarkable, surreal short

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The appropriately wacky poster for Roman Polanski's Two Men and a Wardrobe

QUICK REVIEW:

SPOILER Two men arrive on a beach with a wardrobe. This wardrobe they carry in to town, where people steal from one another, kill (and throw) animals and beat up the two foreign, happy souls. So they put out to sea again.

Two Men and a Wardrobe is the 5th short film by Polish master filmmaker Roman Polanski (The Tenant (1976)) of the 9 he completed before his feature debut with Knife in the Water/Nóz w Wodzie (1962). The 15 minute film is about as thought-provoking, full of strange impressions and originality as a short film of its length can be. A masterful creation by the at the time only 25 year-old Polanski, who also stars as one of the town's thugs in the film.

Related posts:

2011 in films - according to Film Excess
Roman Polanski: Carnage (2011) - Polanski castigates modern parents in great play adaptation
The Ghost Writer/The Ghost (2010) - A master at work 
Chinatown (1974) - Polanski's masterpiece 
Cul-de-Sac (1966) - Edge-of-the-world island tale meanders at times, but is ultimately a winner

The young Polansk in the middle, in his Two Men and a Wardrobe

 Watch the entire short here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown
[Two Men and a Wardrobe was reportedly the first Polish short film to be released commercially, as well as Polanski's first work to be screened publicly. It was shot in Gdansk and Sopot in Pomorski, Poland. The film won 5 international film awards: In Brussels, Oberhausen and San Francisco. - As a short film, this certainly qualifies the film as a success.]

What do you think of Two Men and a Wardrobe?
Please, also relate your experience(s), if you have seen other of Polanski's shorts

Children of Men (2006) - Cuarón's multi-faceted, great sci-fi offering

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+ Best Sci-fi Movie of the Year

One hooking poster for Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men

QUICK REVIEW:

2027: The world development has stagnated. No new babies have been born for 18 years, when a refugee in England turns up pregnant. Surrounded by desperate fanaticism, the job of protecting her is both difficult and potentially lethal.

I was hesitant of this existential sci-fi drama thriller for a while due to the polemical core of the dystopia it presents. But once the story really kicks in, I got very invested in the film, which is compelling and has the feeling of importance. It is an adaptation of a 1992 novel of the same name by English female writer P.D. James (A Taste for Death (1986)) by great Mexican co-writer/director Alfonso Cuarón (Y Tu Mamá También (2001)), Timothy J. Sexton (Cesar Chavez (2014)), David Arata (Spy Game (2001)) and Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby (Iron Man (2008)), who were Oscar-nominated for their script.
Cuarón and his Oscar-nominated, great, regular cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki's (Y Tu Mamá También) photographic concept of many long, vivacious single shots is dynamic and very impressive. It also fuels the film with a highly convincing realism.
Children of Men is a thought-provoking and remarkable movie with lots of strong images. Hard-to-forget and in sci-fi terms a big step better than Cuarón's later, much more acclaimed and commercially successful space opera Gravity (2013).

Related reviews:

The day after ... The Oscars 2014 
Alfonso Cuarón: 2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

Gravity (2013) or, Survival in Space: The Ride

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

 

Watch the original trailer here

Cost: 76 mil. $
Box office: 69.9 mil. $
= Big flop
[While the dark yet hope-infused UK/US co-production failed to set the ticket booths on fire, it was recognized by critics and sci-fi fans as an extraordinary film and even one of the decade's best: According to Metacritic's survey, the film is placed as the 11th best of the 2000's as ranked on critics' lists. It was also Oscar-nominated for its editing (3 nominations in all), and won a bunch of other awards. It made 35.5 mil. $ (50 % of the total gross) in the States.]

What do you think of Children of Men?
How would you like to see Cuarón tackle another big, smart, edgy sci-fi movie?