The shy and polite English sound engineer Gilderoy is summoned to Italy for a new assignment. To his great dismay, said assignment turns out to be a graphic horror film by Santini, master of the so-called Giallos. On top of that, the strange behaviour of the crew makes Gilderoy’s job extremely difficult. Aside from culture shock, the film’s images – which are never actually shown to the audience – upset the delicate Gilderoy so much that his work takes a heavy psychological toll on him. The results are devastating: Gilderoy becomes completely incapable of separating film from reality.
No other film depicts the creation of sound effects as excellently as Berberian Sound Studio. Vegetables are slaughtered and actresses scream their hearts out. In this experimental psychological thriller, Peter Strickland manages to give the audience a deeper understanding of Gilderoy’s daily work in an extremely suspenseful manner.
Fleming Bruckmaier
Translation: Mischa Haberthür
