Saturday, January 18 | 8 pm
From Robert Eggers, the visionary filmmaker behind modern horror masterpiece The Witch, comes this hypnotic tale of two lighthouse keepers on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s.
“Charged with tending to a lighthouse for a four-week term, the taciturn Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson) spends his days toiling away with backbreaking upkeep, while during the nights it is only his elder cohort Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe) who is allowed to keep the beacon in operation. Growing weary of menial tasks, Ephraim’s curiosity regarding Thomas’ hours alone with the big light burgeons. But is it just fatigue and envy that cause Ephraim to become increasingly paranoid about the loitering seagulls, to the point where he’s visited by strange apparitions?
Shot on 35mm black-and-white film, The Lighthouse harkens back to the literature of Melville while accruing a hallucinatory ambiance that feels entirely fresh. The film’s crude humor, hypnotic sounds, and spectral imagery lure us in, but it’s Pattinson and Dafoe holding our attention, even as the men begin to slide off the deep end with truly unhinged performances that feature Pattinson, spellbinding with his bushy beard, piercing eyes, and salty accent, and Dafoe, captivating as he goads his young mate to reveal his shadowy past. As The Lighthouse — winner of a FIPRESCI award at Cannes — veers into ever-darker waters, this brilliant pair enters a dangerous dance that will leave you staggering out of the cinema on sea legs.” -TIFF
*Academy Award®-nominated for Best Cinematography.
Directors Robert Eggers | 2019 | In English | 109 minutes | R (for sexual content, nudity, violence, disturbing images, and some language) | DCP
