How Grand Was My Guignol
My first non-fic post since my "hello." I feel flush with accomplishment.
Anyhoo- we finally went to see Sweeny Todd tonight, and this Elder Goth feels compelled to put down her thoughts for the world to see. Not a review, just a brief observation. So, no spoilers here for the two people who didn't get to see it before I did.
I have to say that I thought Tim Burton incredibly clever with his interpretation. So incredibly clever in fact, that maybe 5% of his audience will ever get it. Either that, or I'm waaaaay over educated, and had one too many film theory classes. Which I am, and did. So maybe both.
First, the tongue-in-cheek visuals from the opening credits where literal "rivers of blood" flow, bringing us to the flat, lithograph-like images of London, invoking the flat sets of the stage play, *and* the original Penny Dreadful from which the story came. Clever, clever.
Then, to stage it as if it were a Grand Guignol production, homage to the great theater which during the very era in which Sondheim's Sweeny takes place, was producing nightly gore-fests on stage whose successes were measured by how many patrons fainted in the course of the evening. With a dose of old-fashioned Hammer Horror sprinkled across the top for a bit of spice. Done to a Stephen Sondheim soundtrack.
Yep, that would be my description. "Penny Dreadful meets Grand Guignol, the Musical! Produced by Hammer Films."
I had actually thought of calling this page "Penny Dreadful" when I first set it up, but felt it would set up the reader to think I wrote horror, so a trifle misleading and not a good idea. Still a great title, though.
Anyhoo- we finally went to see Sweeny Todd tonight, and this Elder Goth feels compelled to put down her thoughts for the world to see. Not a review, just a brief observation. So, no spoilers here for the two people who didn't get to see it before I did.
I have to say that I thought Tim Burton incredibly clever with his interpretation. So incredibly clever in fact, that maybe 5% of his audience will ever get it. Either that, or I'm waaaaay over educated, and had one too many film theory classes. Which I am, and did. So maybe both.
First, the tongue-in-cheek visuals from the opening credits where literal "rivers of blood" flow, bringing us to the flat, lithograph-like images of London, invoking the flat sets of the stage play, *and* the original Penny Dreadful from which the story came. Clever, clever.
Then, to stage it as if it were a Grand Guignol production, homage to the great theater which during the very era in which Sondheim's Sweeny takes place, was producing nightly gore-fests on stage whose successes were measured by how many patrons fainted in the course of the evening. With a dose of old-fashioned Hammer Horror sprinkled across the top for a bit of spice. Done to a Stephen Sondheim soundtrack.
Yep, that would be my description. "Penny Dreadful meets Grand Guignol, the Musical! Produced by Hammer Films."
I had actually thought of calling this page "Penny Dreadful" when I first set it up, but felt it would set up the reader to think I wrote horror, so a trifle misleading and not a good idea. Still a great title, though.