Sleep Has Her House

I caught this film running on a loop at a friends place which I later on was able to watch alone. A warning; If you happen, as a movie go-er, to have any narrative expectations, don't bother. It is a series of slow moving clips without a direction and certainly doesn't deserve the high rating it has.

What I liked was the cinematography and sound. Chris Barley certainly has a great talent for it and I would be curious to see him collaborating with directors who can utilize this.

Yes, It depends how you want to express your art. If this rocks the filmmaker's boat and there are people who enjoy it, perfect. There are very few people left who are able to let their work be art.

However, cinema it is not. Cinema or movies do take people by the hand. It always offers them a narrative however strange and confusing it may be. Even David Lynch and Lars von Trier are aware of this.

The 'art' of cinema is to combine different forms (story, sound, music, image, acting, et cetera) under one creative vision.

Like I said, if the film is an expression of the filmmaker, fine. However, if the filmmaker is proposing to say; well, here is a series of slowly but beautiful moving clips, so what does it mean to you? It is a bit lazy and even a bit insulting for 1 and 1/2 hours.

This film would be wonderful as video art in a gallery. That would be definitely its niche. However, since it is on IMBD as a movie, I think the viewer deserve a small narrative which I placed as in the title of my review.

Scott Barley's biggest and most ambitious project yet deliverers an entrancing experience that enkindles fascination as much as relaxation.

A film guided by the pacing of nature, letting the climate pass by, slowly revealing a story more akin to music, not by telling a concrete narrative but elaborating on mood and atmosphere ; as mysterious as it is wonderful, a place engulfed in darkness, yet surrounded by calming sounds of waterfalls, winds and leaves.

I am so surprised by just how much a few simple shots of nature can be this skilfully utilized, conveying the beauty and harshness of a forest in a truly unique way.

Director Scott Barley's unconventional approach may resonate more as a visual art installation than a traditional movie. The absence of a coherent storyline or traditional cinematic features might lead viewers to question its classification as a film. Rather, it seems to invite contemplation, encouraging audiences to engage with its abstract and atmospheric qualities, akin to an art piece in a gallery.

The film's deliberate use of darkness, grainy visuals, and subdued soundscape might not appeal to those seeking a typical cinematic experience. Its sparse imagery, including fleeting glimpses of nature like horses and water, invites interpretation and introspection, offering a different kind of cinematic encounter that might not be everyone's cup of tea.

In essence, "Sleep Has Her House" cannot be classed as a movie. It uses 1/5 of the screen and its departure from mainstream movie elements is better suited for those intrigued by experimental visual storytelling and open to unconventional artistic expressions.

Right, well I had never heard about this 2017 movie titled "Sleep Has Her House" from writer and director Scott Barley. So I didn't know what I was in for. But I have to say that the movie was not off to a great start with the two dogs just standing around doing nothing but fade into the darkness.

I made it 8 minutes into the foray, then I had to fast forward a bunch of times and seeing that every two to five minutes skipped was just the same scene shot from a further distance, then I turned off the dumpster fire that is "Sleep Has Her House". This was not a movie, it was just boredom caught on tape.

I have to say that "Sleep Has Her House" was a bit too avantgarde for my liking. I read that the first cut of the movie was four hours long, Just imagine the suffering of sitting through four hours of the dumpster fire that is "Sleep Has Her House". That is just unsettling to think about.

Do yourself a favor and skip of this one. It seriously is a waste of time.

My rating of "Sleep Has Her House" lands on a very generous one out of ten stars. This was definitely a top three contender to the list of most terrible movies I have ever stumbled upon.

Mind-numbing think piece.

This kinda works just like hypnosis...it does its job only if you allow it, if you go with it. And you have to do a lot of preparation in order to work. You have to see this in pitch black, not during the day, but late at night. You have to let your mind wander and fill in the blanks. Basically, this is the reason I don't like it. It's a minimal effort from the director. He just crops up some barely visible stills (some with movement) with sound effects and you have to do the story, and make it on the spot. I get it. Some will like that.

The LB rating shows that this platform is filled with people who desperately try to find meaning in nothing, pretentious people. And Scott did this service for them. Those people finished all cinema and now try to search for meaning in anti-cinema, which this film clearly is. You can keep it.

This is worse than Last and First Men.