![the phantom of the opera 2004 the phantom of the opera 2004](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EkszK7DX0AErARM.jpg)
Christine gets her chance to sing- her voice sweet where Carlotta's is harsh- and her voice is so lovely, she glows and the world glows around her. The pieces in place, the story progresses in the usual way. The last piece of the puzzle is the Viscount Raoul de Chagney (Patrick Wilson, definitely a singer, definitely beautiful!), Christie's childhood sweetheart and a nice good boy. Is there a more iconic line delivery than her sneering, "Theese tings do 'appen? Well, until theese things stahp 'appening, this ting, does! not! 'appen!!"? Enter Christine (Emmy Rossum, only eighteen and doing very nice work), a chorus girl with a beautiful voice, being tutored by a mysterious teacher- bum, bum bum- it's the opera ghost aka the titular Phantom of the Opera (Gerard Butler, not a singer!).
#The phantom of the opera 2004 driver#
Minnie Driver swans in as the star soprano, Carlotta, with the most camp this side of a Maine lake. New owners arrive, Monsieurs André and Firmin (Simon Callow and Ciaràn Hinds, so charming, so funny, and very good singers!), and with them we sweep through the theatre into an ongoing rehearsal. But, as the saying goes, perhaps we can frighten away the ghosts of so many years ago with a little illumination- and suddenly, beautifully and with a serious amount of dramatic wind, up comes the light, up comes the color! The opera comes back to life in a rush, wind blowing away years of dust and decay, the hallways and dormitories filling with people and activity.
#The phantom of the opera 2004 movie#
The movie opens in a grainy sepia tone, an auction of the detritus of an abandoned opera. This is the height of unreality, which is the pinnacle of what theatre is capable of. Every actor is beautiful, and so beautifully filmed that they literally glow. Every element is boldly drawn with a thick impasto of velvet and gold. It is a luscious, luxurious visual marvel, from its opening flicker of candle light to the stunning crash of the chandelier. Spectacular in the sense that it is a spectacle.
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It is wholly large, bold, and spectacular.
![the phantom of the opera 2004 the phantom of the opera 2004](https://phantomfansite.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/phantomtwo.jpg)
This is a theatrical movie, in the style only Kenneth Branagh makes any more. Joel has not filmed a stage musical, or made a stagey movie-musical- he has taken the purest elements of the stage and translated them to film. You want to talk about a marriage of substance and style? This is it. It's bubbly, effervescent, light and airy and delightful in all the ways you’d want. It's so visually stunning, so visually evocative and resonant, you could spend your whole life in it, like a champagne bubble bath. I think my 2004 opinion that the singing isn't the best remains true, but otherwise my perspective on gaudiness has certainly changed.īecause I'm not kidding when I say that it's a gorgeous movie. It is a movie of unbelievably heightened visuals and emotions. So to return to this movie- which is truly gaudy, truly extravagant, truly luscious and rich and golden. I have also come to appreciate extravagance in my art. Since then, I have watched the 25th Anniversary staged concert, which stars beautiful singers and is gorgeously staged. The magic of seeing the tour was the marvel of the music, which is repetitive but catchy and occasionally very beautiful. In 2004, I thought the movie was too gaudy, too extravagant, and that the singing wasn't good enough. I still have not seen Phantom on Broadway, though I want to. A year later a tour would come through D.C., and I would see it at the National Theatre. When I first saw Joel Schumacher's 2004 adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera (in a movie theatre, mind you, with my mom), I had not yet seen the show onstage. The best theatrical experiences play with that balance of real and unreal, and I think the best movies do that too. Movies have some of this quality too, but these days movies are often either too real or too fake, and so lose that miraculous gray area. The best theatrical productions understand this- you’re sitting in a real place watching real people with your own real eyes, but you’re seeing fake characters in fake circumstances, in locations that are abstract and heightened. What’s magical about live theatre is the thin line between reality and unreality inherent in the art. Starring: Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossum, Patrick Wilson, Miranda Richardson, Simon Callow, Ciaràn Hinds, and Minnie Driver
![the phantom of the opera 2004 the phantom of the opera 2004](https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/disp/163e8f27232395.56361bae7851b.jpg)
Written by: Andrew Lloyd Weber and Joel Schumacher