Sleep Has Her House

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.

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.

During the early moments of Sleep Has Her House, you get the feeling that something will eventually jump at you, but you quickly learn that this is not that kind of film. Sleep Has Her House is a film of extreme subjectivity as the viewer is concerned. With its sounds and images, it evokes emotions, ideas, and -most of all in my case- memories and wonderment.

It is composed of images that exist in a state of both motion and stillness at once, they seem to constantly expand and shrink. Objects and places slowly revealing themselves to you, except, is it really what you think it is? Images morphing into different things based on space, distance and light. But that's all just a description. What this work forces you to do, is to bring your own experience, and your own emotions to it. While the images and the sounds navigate you through them. There's a moment where it all goes to black, and stars slowly emerge from the darkness, alive and breathing, with beautiful and ethereal music, which suddenly cuts to what I perceive to be the heavens, driving me to shift my thinking to something higher, much higher than what I was bringing. And as soon as it lifted me, it dropped me back to it's pit. It's one of the most moving things I've ever seen in a film.

I know the filmmaker was partially inspired by Scott Walker and Grouper, and it's truly fascinating how the influence of those sound artists is obvious on the images of the film.

Sleep Has Her House doesn't aim to pass your time, but rather make you feel and live every minute of its running time. This is a great, highly experimental film, with a meticulous sound design that's inseparable from its images.

...more an unforgettable experience than a film. It is nothing you just can watch with friends and chat and check your phone etc. I would strongly recommend to see it alone with no distraction and handle it a bit like a meditation. Give it it's time and stay tuned what your mind will show you!