Found this film mostly baffling. I felt like it was missing something in terms actually conveying something to the audience besides just representing madness. Maybe that's all there is to it but then it is a bit thin and would have benefitted from being more visually arresting. But I appreciate the attempt.
It seems difficult to succeed with surrealism in films -- perhaps audiences have an innate expectation that everything they see is going to make sense. "The Life of Pi" is the only surrealist film I'm aware of which became really popular; maybe also some Coen brothers films, like "The Big Lebowski." Directors keep toying with it, though - and for a visual medium like the movies, I think it makes a lot of sense.
I have not seen "Life of Pi" and I'll have to re-watch "The Big Leboswki" before attempting a comment on it. I think "The Lighthouse" handled the surrealism very well. Nothing is so strange that it cannot be explained by, "He imagined it." Only when something paradoxical happens do I get annoyed - e.g., if a character is in two places at once. That never happens here. Still, some may not enjoy it.
Story is paramount. Story must come first. When the artistic vision obscures the story surrealism fails. The surreal elements should help in telling the story. To illustrate how "The Lighthouse" does this, I'll give me personal interpretation.
Both men are guilty of a crime. The guilt, isolation and alcoholism rots their minds. They become paranoid. Most everything is imagined by Winslow. The scrimshaw mermaid he masturbates to, for example, becomes the real one in his mind. Hence the sex scene. Wake becomes the inquisitor whose penetrating light (the Hypnosis scene) searches Winslow's soul and roots out the confession. Winslow finally "spills the beans," an event he can not undo. Wake becomes Proteus, divine judgment. Still Winslow attempts to bury his guilt, by literally burying Wake and then murdering him. But the light of conscious is too brilliant; he cannot hide from it. He is driven mad by it and dies.
Basically, it's "Crime and Punishment" but the imagery and supernatural events inform us of the conflict that is occurring inside Winslow's soul. And so, the surreal elements are a tool to tell us the story.
Found this film mostly baffling. I felt like it was missing something in terms actually conveying something to the audience besides just representing madness. Maybe that's all there is to it but then it is a bit thin and would have benefitted from being more visually arresting. But I appreciate the attempt.
It seems difficult to succeed with surrealism in films -- perhaps audiences have an innate expectation that everything they see is going to make sense. "The Life of Pi" is the only surrealist film I'm aware of which became really popular; maybe also some Coen brothers films, like "The Big Lebowski." Directors keep toying with it, though - and for a visual medium like the movies, I think it makes a lot of sense.
I have not seen "Life of Pi" and I'll have to re-watch "The Big Leboswki" before attempting a comment on it. I think "The Lighthouse" handled the surrealism very well. Nothing is so strange that it cannot be explained by, "He imagined it." Only when something paradoxical happens do I get annoyed - e.g., if a character is in two places at once. That never happens here. Still, some may not enjoy it.
Story is paramount. Story must come first. When the artistic vision obscures the story surrealism fails. The surreal elements should help in telling the story. To illustrate how "The Lighthouse" does this, I'll give me personal interpretation.
Both men are guilty of a crime. The guilt, isolation and alcoholism rots their minds. They become paranoid. Most everything is imagined by Winslow. The scrimshaw mermaid he masturbates to, for example, becomes the real one in his mind. Hence the sex scene. Wake becomes the inquisitor whose penetrating light (the Hypnosis scene) searches Winslow's soul and roots out the confession. Winslow finally "spills the beans," an event he can not undo. Wake becomes Proteus, divine judgment. Still Winslow attempts to bury his guilt, by literally burying Wake and then murdering him. But the light of conscious is too brilliant; he cannot hide from it. He is driven mad by it and dies.
Basically, it's "Crime and Punishment" but the imagery and supernatural events inform us of the conflict that is occurring inside Winslow's soul. And so, the surreal elements are a tool to tell us the story.