The Lighthouse Review (2019) | Movie Discourses
35In this episode I’m taking a look at the Robert Eggers movie The Lighthouse. Oft-labelled as a Horror, or Psychological Horror genre film, this analysis discusses the inconveniences of that classification, along with the aesthetics of the film, the theatrical parallels to two-man plays such as Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Stoppard’s Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, and the themes, symbolism and HP Lovecraft inspired supernatural that combine to the make the film a unique and mesmerising experience.
The Lighthouse analysis will cover:
- The use of traditional photography techniques from nineteenth century Pictorialism through to German Expressionism and Surrealist movements of the 1920s and the innovations of cinematographer Karl Struss
- Comparisons to odd couple movies that indulge chemical escapism such as Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas and Withnail and I
- The relationship between Ephraim Winslow and Thomas Wake
- Similarities of The Lighthouse to two-man plays of the theatre, and specifically the oft-discussed Existentialist plays Waiting for Godot and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
- How The Lighthouse works as Surrealism, Horror, and Comedy - and contrasting examples such as Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari
- The Lighthouse Story Explanation as viewed as an odd-couple character study
- The Sound Design and theories of Time, Promethean Myth and Greek mythology
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