Current Mood: Possessive
Current Music: Angel of Music - Phantom of the Opera (Oh shut up, Em! I did download the whole soundtrack!)

Went out today and saw the 'Phantom of the Opera'. Well, I'm kinda obsessed now. Isn't that sad?

~

In sleep he sang to me,in dreams he came....
that voice which calls to me and speaks my name...
And do I dream again? For now I find
the Phantom of the Opera is there - inside my mind...

A while back I wrote a post on the Phantom of the Opera trailer and what I expected. Well...looking back on it, I wrote that back in June 30, 2004. Seven months later, I'm not in the least bit disappointed.

Its an awesome film. From the moments the theme pound the old stage, reknewing it to its gold and glitter fame. Though during its awesome length there were faint reminders of Moulin Rouge, I enjoyed it. I hated Christine and Raoul, Raoul more, him being a sissy red head and of course, fell in love with Erik aka. The Phantom played by Gerad Butler whom I'd only seen two nights earlier, unmasked but fanged up as Dracula in Wes Craven's Dracula 2000, not the most frighteningly or best Dracula film, nonetheless, this guy's got presence. He's not too bad looking either.

The songs. Ah. The Songs. I remember the theme well, I rememeber sitting in the concert hall in New York City, it was really cold and snowing outside, but I was completely absorbed in this love triangle. I can't remember if I saw it played by Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford, the two original players, although it would have been likely, given I saw it in New York City. The songs, I cannot remember as well, but the music and the score sent tingles of childhood up my spine.

Along with art, musicals have been one thing I have loved since I was child. Since I was reared up on sixties music (Gold FM style) and TNT movie MGM musicals, I have always adored stage operas. From Beauty and the Beast, which I saw three times, Phantom of the Opera to Ben Elton's latest, We Will Rock You, musicals have and will always be a part of me that I remember and cherish. I have this soft spot for them,. and among those soft spots is Phantom of the Opera. It was my first introduction to a love and tragedy (bar Shakespeare) that really shook me and made me feel that 'grown up feeling'.

When I was watching it today, while sniggering with Anna at his cape whirls and shushing Cathy everytime she giggled when they started singing again, I couldn't help but re-feel that night again New York and then again Sydney and the feeligs for each of them. I know, its only a movie, but there was something about the Phantom, his darkness that I adored and loved. He was perhaps one of the first of my book!loves, along with Mr Darcy. He touched me in a way I never felt, I always felt so sorry for him but I loved him at the same and damned Christine for being such a fool. Though, as Anna put it, 'she would have to live there (there, being his cavernous lair) for eternity', I don't know, it didn't seem too bad. There was just something about him, and certainly now, something different. THe Phantom I saw was much older in the musical but now in the movie, he's much younger with a sexier, charmier thang going on, that was pretty hot. Oh shut up, A'mes.

Ames: Omg. You're in love with the Elephant Man's brother.
Mel: Oh god.

Yeah, no, I'm not. But like I said, there something about him. And in a way, for that, I will always adore the Phantom of the Opera, from Gaston Leroux's morbid and dark prince who seems like out of Dante's Inferno, Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical which opened my eyes to tragic, musically inspiring love and finally Joel Schumacher's spine tingling and very hot Phantom (Oh, you just gotta see him in Don Juan! Hot! And I mean, literally, on stage. Fire. Flames. THey were in hell, hello!) which I adored. Ah, it has yet to fail me.

9/10 movie-wise. Schumacher is unpretentious. Like Finella said 'he makes mainstream movies and he knows its and he knows what it is and therefore makes Phantom great'.
Schumacher has made most of the Batman movies, so he knows a few little things about movies. He also made 'The Lost Boys' which I love, and is probably second to 'Interview With the Vampire', my favourite vampire movie. Queen of the Damned be damned!!!!! Btw, that reminds me, whatever happened to nipple-biting Stuart Townsend? For a second he's kissing Charlize and reminding me of Jude Law and then...poof...he coulda made a good second rate Johnny Depp, i.e. The League of Extraoridinary Gentlemen. Ahem.

And in this labyrinth,
where night is blind,
the Phantom of the Opera is there/here -
inside your/my mind...

~


Now back to obsessing over Phantom of the Opera music.

Dun, dun, dun, da, dun, dum, dummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

~ M.M.W ~

PS: [Edit] Just some excerpts from Roger Ebert's review. I like Roger Ebert, he's an awesome and very well known reviewer. If you get a thumbs-up from him and Roeper, that immediately goes on the poster.

About Raoul: The character of Raoul, Christine's nominal lover, has always been a fatuous twerp,

About the Phantom: In this version, any red-blooded woman would choose the Phantom over Raoul, even knowing what she knows now.

Muahaha...see??



Schnugged at 01:00 |