Mewvee Ree-voo
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
First off, I'm glad that this, a musical, made it to number five of the weekend's box-office top ten. It was a quality film all the way, and maybe an Oscar contender for the leads.
Secondly, I am astounded that Alvin and the Chipmunks is at number 3.
I'm entirely unfamiliar with the original musical, other than the basic premise: barber is unjustly imprisoned ('transported' in the film, which if I remember my Victorian bureaucratic dialect properly it means sent to the godless hell that was. . .Australia!) for 15 years by the same judge who covets his wife; said judge rapes her and makes Benjamin Barker's daughter his own ward; Barker becomes Sweeney Todd in order to exact revenge; throats are slit, pies are made, people sing, et cetera.
The costumes and set design definitely invoke the era, with a bit of whimsy thrown in. Mrs. Lovett's dresses and corset were lovely, and the apartments and houses of the various characters were claustrophobic in that historical way. Houses and buildings were just smaller then, with less room to maneuver. The Judge's house is a fortress, designed to control both ingress and egress, and only those invited or given keys can enter.
Before I ramble off into architecture land, I do need to say one more thing about costumes.
Specifically, the pants.
Alan Rickman as the Judge wears gold, skintight riding pants. His junk is visible. Sasha Baron Cohen, a marvel as the con man Pirelli, wears skintight blue pants. Also visible is his male area. I'm glad we didn't opt for seeing this in Imax.
Since much singing is done that doesn't move the plot, I did find myself staring unwillingly at the frontal region of their pants. Wondering how their first day in wardrobe went, where they pulled on their pants and had to do their little spin on the catwalk for the costume people, to make sure everything fit right and would photograph well. Was there a point when the designer might have shouted 'NO! They aren't TIGHT enough! I want that package SHRINK-WRAPPED when they're on camera. My OSCAR is riding on it! Make this happen.'
Thank god that's out of the way.
Moving away from the area of the pants, I also found myself applying too much reality to the film. It's a musical. People sing how they feel, or sing about what they want, or sing about pies they are making. Reality is not really what they're trying to recreate.
Nevertheless, I found myself watching young Anthony and wondering how long it would take for some gang of Londontown ruffians to beat him and steal his duffelbag and shoes. He wandered unmolested through the rough part of town, studiously and touristly reading his map and gazing around starry-eyed and open-mouthed. In the opening he sings about what a worldly wonder is London. I patiently waited for him to be mugged, not because I disliked him, but because. . . well that's probably what would have happened. I was rather worried for him, actually. When he set down his bag on a bench and wandered off to sing about it, I watched it in the distance and waited for some street-urchins to run past and snatch it. It just made sense that it would happen.
Another moment when I was trying to stick reality in this very fantasy-shaped hole was after Anthony's beating at the hands of Beadle Bamford (this happens very early on and isn't a spoiler). After getting punched twice in the mouth and beaten with a stick, I confess I did not expect young Anthony to get right back up and continue singing about whatsherface. Or for him to be singing clearly and coherently. I imagined a kind of softened 'I feeeew ou, doh-aaaaannnna' instead, and decided that while puffy lips and loose teeth generally change the quality of your vocal talents, it doesn't translate in film. This also made sense to me. I think what happened was that something in the musical might have worked because they weren't trying to make it look real. On a live stage you have more suspension of disbelief because the crowd understands that they are seeing a play. A film is more escapist to me; the lights are off, and for a few hours you are in another world, viewing the movements of the characters through a completely objective perspective. Onstage you can do something symbolic like have somebody cover their face with a cape to indicate they are invisible. In film I think the audience and filmmakers to want more realism.
Anyway, the film was a hoot. The songs were great if sometimes a bit long. I kind of wished they'd gone a little more over the top with the performances, in a Moulin Rouge kind of way since there was little dialogue that wasn't sung. Mrs. Lovett easily goes into my top five female characters of all time; her willingness to be complicit in Todd's crimes coupled with her longing for a life outside of her filthy, indigent existence making pies was beautifully done. Helena Bonham Carter has the kind of expressive face I love to watch. I think some people would call that kind of performance over the top and unsubtle but I really like watching a person's thoughts expressed on their face, even when they're attempting to hide them. It's just more interesting to me.
And Depp sings. The one song sample I saw from him was the 'We all deserve to die' number, which contains a very intentional flat note at the end of the phrase. I think it's odd that given how well he did in other portions they chose the one song that contains something atonal to represent the piece. It's just a hard thing to make work, but it did, overall.
First off, I'm glad that this, a musical, made it to number five of the weekend's box-office top ten. It was a quality film all the way, and maybe an Oscar contender for the leads.
Secondly, I am astounded that Alvin and the Chipmunks is at number 3.
I'm entirely unfamiliar with the original musical, other than the basic premise: barber is unjustly imprisoned ('transported' in the film, which if I remember my Victorian bureaucratic dialect properly it means sent to the godless hell that was. . .Australia!) for 15 years by the same judge who covets his wife; said judge rapes her and makes Benjamin Barker's daughter his own ward; Barker becomes Sweeney Todd in order to exact revenge; throats are slit, pies are made, people sing, et cetera.
The costumes and set design definitely invoke the era, with a bit of whimsy thrown in. Mrs. Lovett's dresses and corset were lovely, and the apartments and houses of the various characters were claustrophobic in that historical way. Houses and buildings were just smaller then, with less room to maneuver. The Judge's house is a fortress, designed to control both ingress and egress, and only those invited or given keys can enter.
Before I ramble off into architecture land, I do need to say one more thing about costumes.
Specifically, the pants.
Alan Rickman as the Judge wears gold, skintight riding pants. His junk is visible. Sasha Baron Cohen, a marvel as the con man Pirelli, wears skintight blue pants. Also visible is his male area. I'm glad we didn't opt for seeing this in Imax.
Since much singing is done that doesn't move the plot, I did find myself staring unwillingly at the frontal region of their pants. Wondering how their first day in wardrobe went, where they pulled on their pants and had to do their little spin on the catwalk for the costume people, to make sure everything fit right and would photograph well. Was there a point when the designer might have shouted 'NO! They aren't TIGHT enough! I want that package SHRINK-WRAPPED when they're on camera. My OSCAR is riding on it! Make this happen.'
Thank god that's out of the way.
Moving away from the area of the pants, I also found myself applying too much reality to the film. It's a musical. People sing how they feel, or sing about what they want, or sing about pies they are making. Reality is not really what they're trying to recreate.
Nevertheless, I found myself watching young Anthony and wondering how long it would take for some gang of Londontown ruffians to beat him and steal his duffelbag and shoes. He wandered unmolested through the rough part of town, studiously and touristly reading his map and gazing around starry-eyed and open-mouthed. In the opening he sings about what a worldly wonder is London. I patiently waited for him to be mugged, not because I disliked him, but because. . . well that's probably what would have happened. I was rather worried for him, actually. When he set down his bag on a bench and wandered off to sing about it, I watched it in the distance and waited for some street-urchins to run past and snatch it. It just made sense that it would happen.
Another moment when I was trying to stick reality in this very fantasy-shaped hole was after Anthony's beating at the hands of Beadle Bamford (this happens very early on and isn't a spoiler). After getting punched twice in the mouth and beaten with a stick, I confess I did not expect young Anthony to get right back up and continue singing about whatsherface. Or for him to be singing clearly and coherently. I imagined a kind of softened 'I feeeew ou, doh-aaaaannnna' instead, and decided that while puffy lips and loose teeth generally change the quality of your vocal talents, it doesn't translate in film. This also made sense to me. I think what happened was that something in the musical might have worked because they weren't trying to make it look real. On a live stage you have more suspension of disbelief because the crowd understands that they are seeing a play. A film is more escapist to me; the lights are off, and for a few hours you are in another world, viewing the movements of the characters through a completely objective perspective. Onstage you can do something symbolic like have somebody cover their face with a cape to indicate they are invisible. In film I think the audience and filmmakers to want more realism.
Anyway, the film was a hoot. The songs were great if sometimes a bit long. I kind of wished they'd gone a little more over the top with the performances, in a Moulin Rouge kind of way since there was little dialogue that wasn't sung. Mrs. Lovett easily goes into my top five female characters of all time; her willingness to be complicit in Todd's crimes coupled with her longing for a life outside of her filthy, indigent existence making pies was beautifully done. Helena Bonham Carter has the kind of expressive face I love to watch. I think some people would call that kind of performance over the top and unsubtle but I really like watching a person's thoughts expressed on their face, even when they're attempting to hide them. It's just more interesting to me.
And Depp sings. The one song sample I saw from him was the 'We all deserve to die' number, which contains a very intentional flat note at the end of the phrase. I think it's odd that given how well he did in other portions they chose the one song that contains something atonal to represent the piece. It's just a hard thing to make work, but it did, overall.