I am such a dork
Highlights of my weekend:
Friday evening: Watching the Lon Chaney silent "Phantom of the Opera" with my parents and organizing my perfume collection.
Saturday night: Playing Dungeons & Dragons.
Sunday: Reformation Sunday concert and singalong.
I live in a giddy whirl. Truly.
The Phantom in the old movie is a lot more "Christine, get AWAY from this man, he is a CREEPER" than the version in the musical, and I don't think it's entirely because the character in the musical looks like a disfigured hot guy rather than a Nosferatu. The Phantom getting to express his feelings in song probably does a lot to make him more sympathetic and attractive, whereas in a silent film his musical gifts are more of an Informed Ability and we mostly see him through other people and a bit of self-pitying monologizing. And the silent film leaves out Madame Giry. Woe. The classical music scoring was a bit odd, too, in that it didn't always seem to correspond with the action on-screen as well as it could have. Sometimes the tone of a scene changed but the music kept on to the end of the piece, and that sort of thing. It diminished the drama a bit. Or maybe I've just been spoiled by musicals.
That's not to say it's a bad movie or that I didn't enjoy it. I did, and the Masque of the Red Death business was pretty spectacular.
Friday evening: Watching the Lon Chaney silent "Phantom of the Opera" with my parents and organizing my perfume collection.
Saturday night: Playing Dungeons & Dragons.
Sunday: Reformation Sunday concert and singalong.
I live in a giddy whirl. Truly.
The Phantom in the old movie is a lot more "Christine, get AWAY from this man, he is a CREEPER" than the version in the musical, and I don't think it's entirely because the character in the musical looks like a disfigured hot guy rather than a Nosferatu. The Phantom getting to express his feelings in song probably does a lot to make him more sympathetic and attractive, whereas in a silent film his musical gifts are more of an Informed Ability and we mostly see him through other people and a bit of self-pitying monologizing. And the silent film leaves out Madame Giry. Woe. The classical music scoring was a bit odd, too, in that it didn't always seem to correspond with the action on-screen as well as it could have. Sometimes the tone of a scene changed but the music kept on to the end of the piece, and that sort of thing. It diminished the drama a bit. Or maybe I've just been spoiled by musicals.
That's not to say it's a bad movie or that I didn't enjoy it. I did, and the Masque of the Red Death business was pretty spectacular.