El faro

Se trata de una forma de hacer nerd, de excelentes actores y de la intrepidez del director para experimentar y ambicionar hacer algo nunca visto. Una banda sonora maravillosamente envolvente, casi inquietante, con el profundo zumbido de un faro. Composiciones borrosas en blanco y negro 4:3 al estilo de las películas de terror de principios del siglo pasado. El deprimente ambiente claustrofóbico de un lugar remoto, con niebla, con viento y en el interior húmedo y maloliente. Y el conflicto entre dos personajes masculinos, que se ven afectados por estas circunstancias. Sus tonterías de borrachos no son tan sugerentes, pero hacen un buen trabajo de caracterización de los personajes y del lugar de la época. (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)

Brillantemente fotografiado en blanco y negro 1.19:1, el formato cuadrado evoca otro tiempo, como si el hipnótico El Faro estuviera creado fuera de todo tiempo y espacio. Willem Dafoe y Robert Pattinson hacen interpretaciones grandiosas y compiten para ver quién puede representar al loco más frenético. Desentrañar el simbolismo de las escenas y el remate de la película ofrece todo tipo de paralelismos que se remontan a la antigüedad, pero no quiero desvelar nada, El Faro es una película que cada cual debe interpretar a su manera. Es una película de terror de autor muy hilarante de la que te crees por completo la soledad y la desesperanza, así que con Robert Eggers sigo esperando que algún elemento me deje completamente alucinado mientras veo su película, cosa que no ocurrió aquí. De todos modos, reconozco su gran capacidad de dirección y su visión única, tendré mucha curiosidad por ver sus próximas aventuras como director. En cualquier caso recomiendo ver El Faro en pantalla grande y preferiblemente con muy buenos subtítulos. [Sitges 2019] (06.10.2019)

Drama psicológico escandalosamente impresionante en lo visual, actoral y artístico con elementos de terror, inspirado en historias navales, el trabajo de Herman Melville y la mitología antigua. Uno no puede evitar admirar la deprimente atmósfera claustrofóbica, una sofisticada puesta en escena, la cámara irreal, el trabajo del sonido y la iluminación así como el compromiso actoral de ambos protagonistas, a lo que el guion da una buena parte del espacio (además de una serie de escenas comunes significativas, ambas brillan en su propio largo monólogo). Una obra de autor realista, cruda e intransigente, en la que, sorprendentemente, el humor también tiene cabida, sobresale por la embriaguez pictórica y la máxima precisión en la dirección, y afortunadamente, a diferencia de La bruja, ya no parece un poco engorrosa, tensa o involuntariamente ridícula. (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)