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The Vanishing: Based on the 1900 disappearance of the keepers at the Flannan Isles Lighthouse this film is updated to perhaps the 1930s and provides an explanation for what happened. The three keepers all have their own demons to deal with and this is exacerbated by the isolation on the island. The mundane tasks mixed with crab fishing, the only diversion being a sing-song. Then a storm descends and when it clears the lighthouse is surrounded by dead seagulls. A wrecked rowing boat is discovered and a seemingly dead man attacks one of the keepers, a chest is also found. This turns out to be Pandora's Box for all concerned. A bleak film, Peter Mullan as the head keeper puts in a convincing performance as the man with a plan, motivated perhaps by his past losses. The violence is savage at times but given the road traveled is perhaps inevitable. More savage thriller than horror. Directed Kristoffer Nyholm from a screenplay by Celyn Jones and Joe Bone. 7/10.

Streaming (free) at: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-vanishing
 
A few illustrations of how it can get a little hairy around lighthouses.

La Jument lighthouse (Brittany)

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Off topic, but given those seas, how did they actually manage to build the thing?
 
Yes, that is a stirring account. All offshore lighthouse building is.
 
And now there's an opera about the disappearance. Film showing at Irish Film Institute.

THE LIGHTHOUSE

Presented by Irish National Opera, conducted by Nil Venditti and starring Brenton Ryan, Ben McAteer and John Molloy, The Lighthouse is based on an actual event in December 1900, when a visiting supply ship to a Scottish lighthouse finds the building in order but the keepers vanished without a trace.

The three singers who play multiple roles, explore the psychological state of the fractious men, relive an official investigation and project a supernatural explanation. The composer, who based the structure of the opera on the Tower of the Tarot, leaves no simple answers.

70 MINS, 2021


 
Wait a minute - the three singers play "multiple roles"?! There were only three men involved, weren't there? Or do they play the abducting space aliens too?
 
Wait a minute - the three singers play "multiple roles"?! There were only three men involved, weren't there? Or do they play the abducting space aliens too?

greek chorus maybe?
 
Wait a minute - the three singers play "multiple roles"?! There were only three men involved, weren't there? Or do they play the abducting space aliens too?
Plenty of other people involved, including those of the Lighthouse Tender that made the discovery, ships that passed by and noticed the lack of light and the man on Lewis tasked with looking out for the light with a telescope. :)
 
And now there's an opera about the disappearance. Film showing at Irish Film Institute.

THE LIGHTHOUSE

Presented by Irish National Opera, conducted by Nil Venditti and starring Brenton Ryan, Ben McAteer and John Molloy, The Lighthouse is based on an actual event in December 1900, when a visiting supply ship to a Scottish lighthouse finds the building in order but the keepers vanished without a trace.

The three singers who play multiple roles, explore the psychological state of the fractious men, relive an official investigation and project a supernatural explanation. The composer, who based the structure of the opera on the Tower of the Tarot, leaves no simple answers.

70 MINS, 2021


It was written for the Edinburgh International Festival in 1979.

Details here including the multiple roles the three singers perform.

https://www.wisemusicclassical.com/work/11071/The-Lighthouse--Peter-Maxwell-Davies/
 
And now there's an opera about the disappearance. Film showing at Irish Film Institute.

THE LIGHTHOUSE

Presented by Irish National Opera, conducted by Nil Venditti and starring Brenton Ryan, Ben McAteer and John Molloy, The Lighthouse is based on an actual event in December 1900, when a visiting supply ship to a Scottish lighthouse finds the building in order but the keepers vanished without a trace.

The three singers who play multiple roles, explore the psychological state of the fractious men, relive an official investigation and project a supernatural explanation. The composer, who based the structure of the opera on the Tower of the Tarot, leaves no simple answers.

70 MINS, 2021



The Lighthouse: I guess it's Chamber Opera with just three singers playing multiple roles. At first they play the sailors from the relief ship attending a Tribunal of Inquiry. Differing accounts, one saw selkies, another birds, the third saw feral cats as they approached the lighthouse, the selkie man saw strange lights. Things were certainly Fortean, they then had to face rats running from the lighthouse. The second act is more fun at times with the three keepers singing their own songs including a macabre Gilbert & Sullivan pastiche and a hymn warning of the return of the Golden Calf. After that things get strange. An explanation for the disappearance is provided but questions remain. 7/10
 
Seems a lot of fuss about a tragic incident.

Remote places bad things can happen, you don't need to invoke the supernatural
 
Seems a lot of fuss about a tragic incident.

Remote places bad things can happen, you don't need to invoke the supernatural
Yes…. But the supernatural was there, interwoven with their lives:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebridean_mythology_and_folklore

For example:

“In traditional Hebridean folklore, the Sithchean, or fairies, are a morally-ambiguous supernatural race of small humanoid creatures that inhabit knolls and places of special significance across the Hebrides. Evidence of the Sithche are found throughout the Hebrides, interwoven into its stories, music and the traditional healing beliefs[which?] of the native Hebridean people.”
 
The rogue wave explanation is one of the more likely possibilities. These rogue waves strike out of nowhere and can be enormous, 25 meters high or more.

https://www.livescience.com/rogue-wave-hits-cruise-ship

The rogue wave phenomenon is back in the news since a cruise ship was hit by one a few weeks a go, with one fatality and several injuries. It was high enough to smash in windows on the upper deck. One of the pictures on this site shows how high above the waterline the damage was:

https://abcnews.go.com/Internationa...arctic-cruise-ship-leaves-1/story?id=94351154

I'd imagine three guys on an exposed rock would have very little chance of surviving if the island was hit by a wave like that.
 
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