{"id":8944,"date":"2019-10-14T15:02:30","date_gmt":"2019-10-14T14:02:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/?p=8944"},"modified":"2019-10-14T15:02:31","modified_gmt":"2019-10-14T14:02:31","slug":"lff-the-lighthouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/2019\/10\/lff-the-lighthouse\/","title":{"rendered":"LFF: The Lighthouse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Lighthouse<\/em> feels like it\u2019s one of the more important films in the London Film Festival. I went into, as with most of the films in the festival, completely blind. Beyond the two-line summary in the programme, I\u2019d not watched a trailer, and nor had I read anything about it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film is basically a two-hander folk horror film with Willem Defoe playing the grizzled old lighthouse keeper Thomas Wake, and Robert Pattinson playing Ephraim Winslow. At the start of the film a steamship deposits them on the small unspecified island that we assume sits somewhere off the New England or Nova Scotia coast.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alone on the island, they will spend several weeks there until they are relieved by the next crew. As they arrive, they barely exchange a word with the outgoing crew.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winslow is new to working on a lighthouse, and he\u2019s trying to do everything by the book \u2013 for example not drinking on duty. Wake breaks the rules, farts and generally orders Winslow around. The dialogue is minimal, and at first, I couldn\u2019t even place Wake\u2019s – coming perhaps from Cornwall via North America.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winslow, we learn, has spent time in the Canadian wilderness, although has left his job with trees.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On his first night on the island, Winslow discovers a carved mermaid hidden inside his mattress by some previous occupant. This begins the spiral downwards into a world where we\u2019re never entirely sure of the truth of what we\u2019re seeing.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winslow develops a powerful fascination with the light at the top of the lighthouse, but despite what the rules say, Wake keeps that to himself. What\u2019s happening up there? Is Wake almost subservient to the light itself?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film is shot in a near 4:3 format in black and white, and the sound is terrific, with the island\u2019s powerful foghorn providing an almost ceaseless accompaniment. But Marek Corven\u2019s score is also vital in creating the mood.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You probably don\u2019t want to know too much more about this film before you see it. Just know that the performances are first rate, and that the overall piece from director Robert Eggers, working with his brother Max on the script, is just a delight. Indeed the mellifluousness of Wake\u2019s language, lifted from books of the period, just adds to the overall tone of a beautiful piece of cinema. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Lighthouse feels like it\u2019s one of the more important films in the London Film Festival. I went into, as with most of the films in the festival, completely blind. Beyond the two-line summary in the programme, I\u2019d not watched a trailer, and nor had I read anything about it.  The film is basically a two-hander folk horror […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[49,43],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8944"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8944"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8945,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8944\/revisions\/8945"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}