i want you to hit me as hard as you can... You're fond of me lobster aren't ya?
I seen it, you're fond of me lobster! The sophomore slump can hit directors pretty hard.
But Robert Eggers was cautious, planning to follow his unsettling sleeper success The
Witch with something "small and easy". But with very specific ambitions, experimental acting
and wildly uncooperative weather, The Lighthouse would be anything
but. Let's spill the beans and find out what the [ __ ] happened to this movie!
The origins of The Lighthouse actually predate the arthouse horror film The Witch
by several years. Released in 2016 after positive festival screenings, Robert Eggers' feature debut
was a brooding period tale about a family of New England Puritans who succumbed to witchcraft.
There's also a charming billy goat named Black Phillip. The idea for The Lighthouse came not from
Robert but rather his brother Max, who wanted to adapt an unfinished Edgar Allen Poe story called,
appropriately, The Lighthouse. Interestingly enough, Robert had directed a 2008 short
adaptation of the Poe classic The Telltale Heart, with Max serving as a production assistant. It
was as if Poe's own spirit was haunting the brothers Eggers into completing their vision.
But Poe's influence would ultimately be limited, and soon Max had the idea for the story to be
about a ghost running a lighthouse. Max and Robert passed the screenplay back and forth, allowing
it to evolve into something radically different from the Poe short. There were other influences
in there as well, ranging from historical and mythological to literary and symbolist,
with a bit of therapy sessions peppered in. One of the central inspirations was the Smalls Lighthouse
Tragedy of 1801. In this true account, two men both named Thomas were manning a lighthouse
in Wales. Thomas Griffith, the older of the two, perished after a freak accident during
a terrible storm. Thomas Howell - no, not that one - stored the corpse until the case could be
resolved by authorities, since hurling the dead man into the sea might make him a murder suspect.
But the following weeks of isolation and proximity to a decomposing body took an emotional toll. The
situation actually resulted in a policy change, with new rules that mandated a three-man rotation.
Most of that story was discarded for the Eggers script, but the adversarial relationship and
shared name of Thomas made it into their draft, then titled Burnt Island. Other influences were
found in the separate stories of Greek legends Prometheus and Proteus, opposites by nature.
Additionally there were the high sea stories of Herman Melville and Robert Louis Stevenson,
in addition to splashes of H.P. Lovecraft and nods to Harold Pinter and Samuel Beckett.
One of the biggest influences on their work was actually the lesser-known Sarah Orne Jewett,
a Maine writer noted for her distinct dialect. Them Eggers sure are reading men! Didn't picture
you a readin' man... The screenplay, which by then had been re-titled to The Lighthouse,
would follow two lighthouse keepers, or "wickies" if that should ever come up on Jeopardy, grappling
with brutal weather and their psyches while manning a lighthouse off the New England coast.
On the island and within the lighthouse, the feverish gothic nightmare would explore topics of
duality, mental stability, alcoholism, obsession, delusion, masculinity and homosexuality, repressed
or otherwise. Produced by indie company A24, the four million dollar project was expected to be
small and easy. It would actually turn out to be miserable and exhausting. The two Thomases would
be played by Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, or as Eggers put it, "four of the finest cheekbones
ever to grace the screen". Dafoe, who had seen The Witch and took a liking to Eggers' style,
was cast as the grizzled Thomas Wake, which the director describes as an amalgam of Captain Ahab,
The Simpsons' sea captain and Long John Silver. Dafoe appreciated the musicality of the script and
thought the project would be an adventure, which would turn out to be an understatement. Of his
co-star, Pattinson has said that Dafoe "has one of those faces where he can literally sit doing
almost anything and it's fascinating to watch". We would have to agree. Pattinson himself would play
lighthouse apprentice Ephraim Winslow. Spoiler alert - he's also Thomas Howard. The actor found
the project to be weird and challenging, which was precisely what he was pursuing at the time.
And that is essentially the cast, aside from a mermaid played by Moldovian actress Valeriia
Karaman, and an antagonistic one-eyed seagull. The hunt for proper birds actually turned out
to be more difficult than landing the leads. It so happens that native seagulls are illegal to train,
and so the crew had to locate a man with his own seagulls, which presumably studied
Shakespeare. There were also bird puppets for Dafoe and Pattinson to interact with,
which sounds like a very unexpected episode of Sesame Street. Of course, no actual gulls were
harmed in the making of the movie, despite Pattinson's convincing prolonged assault.
The core philosophy Eggers wanted to inject was that atmosphere comes first. But you can't just
throw two men on an island and expect it to convey a mood, especially when the film is set
in the 1890s. To establish the atmosphere, the crew had to find just the right location. That
task fell on production designer Craig Lathrop, who also worked with Eggers on The Witch. He did
find an ideal lighthouse off the Australian coast, but budgetary concerns crossed it off the list.
It was determined that the 34-day shoot would take place on Cape Forchu, a small Nova Scotia
fishing village that sits on volcanic rock. It was here that Lathrop would build his lighthouse.
Winter construction of the lighthouse took six weeks, occasionally interrupted by water
blowing off the Atlantic Ocean, coating it in ice. It ended up being a mighty structure able
to withstand winds up to 75 miles an hour, an attribute which would prove useful during the
difficult production. Along with a number of other buildings in the site layout, Lathrop also built
the lightkeepers quarters where they sleep, get drunk, and study the intricate art of scrimshaw.
Lathrop also had to construct his own Fresnel lens, the source of the lighthouse's light.
Looking like a mixture of what Eggers calls art deco spaceships and a telepod from The Fly,
the lens consisted of more than 200 light-sourcing prisms using 19th century technology. Like most
of the structure, the Fresnel lens was fully functional. It weighed a full ton and could
shine light for 16 miles, or a fraction of the reach of Willem Dafoe's stare...
Lathrop actually became so enamored with the world of lighthouses that he joined the U.S.
Lighthouse Society. Cinematographer Jarin Blaschke, who also shot The Witch and was
already familiar with Eggers' lighthouse idea long before he saw a script, knew the desired
atmosphere could not be achieved digitally. It had to be done on film and also in black and white,
pushing the movie to feel "old and shingled". The producers did suggest shooting in color instead to
increase the potential audience and save money on lighting, but Eggers and Blaschke stood their
ground. As Eggers put it, "something about black and white was going to bring the story to life
and to a new level." Achieving that would fall on Blaschke and a comprehensive amount of research.
As Eggers said, "it was a level of craft that's beyond our experience level".
Eggers wanted an aesthetic that hadn't been seen since the early decades of Hollywood, and so
Blaschke dug into the depths of history, equipping his camera with Baltar lenses from the 1930s and
earlier. He also utilized the antiquated 1.19:1 aspect ratio, also known as the Movietone ratio,
used on such classics as F.W. Murnau's Sunrise, Fritz Lang's M and the iconic King Kong.
This screen shape, practically a square image, gives the viewer a
sense of claustrophobia and also as intended can withhold information from the audience.
But let's face it, sometimes these characters reveal a bit too much... The lighting of the
film was also achieved through various other technologically aware, research intensive means.
Blaschke had to combine different film stocks and filters to pull the viewer into the past.
One was Kodak Double X, exquisitely featured in films like Schindler's List and Raging Bull. The
film stocks required around 15 times more light than normally used on a movie set, which also
meant that blinding 800 watt bulbs were sometimes just feet away from the faces of the actors.
The production itself, which commenced in April 2018, was something of a practice
court for mother nature. Cape Forchu was pounded by rain on many occasions,
with violent unrelenting winds threatening not just the sets but the sound of the film.
Tolerating harsh weather can be a source of pride for New Englanders but even New
Hampshire native Eggers called it "miserable" and described Cape Forchu as "the most punishing
inhospitable piece of land we could find, but with good road access." Even the local crew,
accustomed to similar weather conditions, also said it was the hardest shoot they had ever
done. As Eggers bluntly phrased it, "there were days when I wanted to die." From the beginning,
things were also a bit rough for Robert Pattinson. In the weeks before production commenced, he spent
an abundance of time carefully concentrating on his accent, working with a dialect coach to make
sure he accurately captured the very particular sounds of a 19th century worker from Maine.
Eggers also insisted his two leads rehearse together for a week. Pattinson however prefers
spontaneity while shooting and was frustrated with the rehearsal process. And so was his director.
After that tense period, Pattinson thought "I'm going to get fired before we've even started."
In the rare instances when the weather did not hammer the actors with gale force winds,
the crew would blast Pattinson with a fire hose to get the necessary footage. He later
called it a kind of torture and claims it was the closest he has ever come to punching a director.
Pattinson also said that running across jagged rocks in 19th century footwear was one of the
most terrifying things he'd ever done. Pattinson brought additional agony on himself - it was on
the set of The Lighthouse that the former Twilight idol tinkered with method acting.
He immersed himself in the character and to help physically define Ephraim Winslow,
he put a rock in his shoe - a trick once employed by Dustin Hoffman for Midnight Cowboy.
He would also spin in circles or eat mud to get into character. "It was crazy," he admitted in
an Esquire interview. "I spent so much time making myself throw up, pissing my pants. It's the most
revolting thing." Willem Dafoe threatened to leave the set if Pattinson puked anywhere near him.
Dafoe admits he was impressed with the ferocity and commitment of his younger co-star,
and there were infrequent moments of fun amid the hardships. Despite the challenging conditions,
both performers admit they found pleasure in such an unorthodox acting opportunity.
But the screen partners weren't exactly chummy during the demanding shoot.
Dafoe later said, "when you go home after 12 hours and you're soaking wet and cold all day,
last thing I want to do is hang out and have some drinks." Not even a little turpentine and honey?
The grueling shoot wrapped in May 2018, after which composer Mark Korven added layers of oddity
and dread with his score. The Lighthouse premiered a year later at the Cannes Film Festival,
where it was praised for its atmosphere, cast and cinematography, with critics labeling it an
artsy thriller with elements of Stanley Kubrick. Pattinson himself was "pleasantly baffled" by the
rapturous response. The movie also generated Oscar buzz, but would only get one nomination
for best cinematography, which it would lose to Sam Mendes's 1917. The Lighthouse shined
brighter at the Independent Spirit Awards, where it tied for the most nominations and Willem Dafoe
won his second Best Supporting Actor statue. Eggers is aware of the privilege of bringing
something so unconventional to life, stating "the fact that I got to make a strange black
and white movie about two lighthouse keepers farting is incredible." The Lighthouse would
wind up grossing 18 million dollars in theaters - not exactly a box office jackpot, but the movie
apparently did make enough of a pop culture impact to justify merchandising, at least for anyone who
wants to smell like a crusty seaman. Since the murky existential exploration, Pattinson became
occupied with a different sort of dark knight of the soul, while Eggers and Dafoe joined
forces again for a Viking thriller called The Northman. It will be interesting to see what kind
of suffering the actor endured for that reunion. At a minimum it should be fascinating to watch.
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