Great look at alternative posters for Berberian Sound Studio

This site has an excellent look at some alternative posters for Berberian Sound Studio.  I much prefer these posters to the current 'alternate' used in some U.S. advertising, in fact, I'd buy a copy of the teal eye based one in a heart beat (third form the top.).

That particular poster by U.K. graphic designer Julian House has my inner design geek drooling like nothing else lately.  I do quite like the original US Poster (with the Fulci-like incomplete head overwhelmed by analog tape), but House's poster evokes the importance of the sound elements, what Berberian specializes in (bloody horror film) and the quintessential giallo symbol, the eye.

If the film only followed House's sense of design in a slightly more linear style with a much better ending, I would be singing it's praises even more.

House's teal design reminds me what great graphic design can do: completely evoke the specific material, but in a way that pleases mind and eye. It's quite clever. I can understand why this awesome poster was not used (outside of the opening credits there's no blood in the film and even the "blood" in the opening credits is more paint-like.) Still, it is cool as hell.

Berberian Sound Studio spoiler theory

SPOILERS

As far as if Gilderoy was actually at BSS or not, I am beginning to think...

He never was.

1) His timid and eventually angry relationship with both sexes, especially when both sexes are horny or violent. He is very repressed and controlled by his nature-loving mum whom we only know through her letters.

2) The increasingly whacked letters from his mother, culminating in the replacement voice actress for the female lead reading his mums' disturbing last letter in which the film he thinks he is supervising sound for overwhelms his emotions.

3) The giallo-like stalking at his bedroom door...

4) the very end...fade into the light, Gilderoy's subconscious awakening and his exiting his garden studio shed where he records all of the sound for nature shows and children's programs.

Berberian Sound Studio - Liked it

I just rented Berberian Sound Studio. I liked it, particularly when scenes of the supernatural Argentoesque giallo  manifest. I could appreciate it from the culture shock angle too; as I misunderstood communications and such when in contact with a wonderful Italian film family.

Toby Jones plays the nebbishy Gilderoy quite nicely, but it is the of Italian filmmakers around him that get my applause as well as watching the foley folks do their thing. An interesting arty moment comes into the third act when the primary color based charts of matching sounds to their scenes are flashed in almost a hallucinatory fashion. All of the colored arrows eventually point downward mirroring Gilderoy's uncertain experience. Also, the giallo-like sequences of his unravelling are fun.

Is he at Berberian Sound Studio supervising the sound production or not?

I can see where giallo and horror fans would find issue with this movie, but as someone who appreciates sound and color, I think Peter Strickland did a fine job there. If you can roll with a strange bit of uncertainty and culture clash and NOT seeing any of the horrors described, you might enjoy BSS too.

And looking in the credits, the wonderful actress performing the older resurrected witch is NOT Suzy Kendall, but Hungarian actress/poet Katalin Ladik. I THOUGHT I heard Kendall screaming ( which would line up with the supposed 'special guest screamer' credit.)

I am happy to see the giallo becoming a profound influence on young filmmakers. I'm looking forward to seeing The Editor and The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears.