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Nov. 27th, 2004 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cleolindaAll right--you guys may or may not have noticed this about me yet, but I'm a little obsessive-compulsive (no!) and I tend to go from ig'nant to expert, or at least obsessive, in about sixty seconds. I couldn't sleep last night (you know how it is when you're sick--you can tell you're getting well because suddenly you can't sleep around the clock anymore), so I pulled up The Phantom of the Opera on Project Gutenberg and read the whole thing, which was totally awesome. Of course, I'm big on nineteenth-century lit and I guess just about anything would seem like a page-turner after the dense poetics of Paradise Lost. Anyway. I also spent a good bit of time on the movie's official website, so I have a pretty good idea of how much of the book plot made it into the musical (and thank God Andrew Lloyd Webber ditched the torture chamber, y'all, because I was about to tear my hair out after three chapters of that shit). I'm still trying to figure out why in the world they hired Joel Schumacher to direct it, but I'm pretty much figuring at this point that the movie's going to be either fabulous or godawful, and either one will be awesome. Well, awesome from the perspective of a newcomer who isn't emotionally attached to the property, but then, I'm sure there will be riots in the streets no matter how the movie turns out (see also: Harry Potter fans who hate the movies).
There's one problem I can spot offhand, however, and that is letting a hot guy play the Phantom. I noticed in the last entry, the one with the photo captions, how the Phantom fans among y'all were disconcerted by this, and I didn't really understand why until I read the book. In the book, the Phantom's hideous. I don't quite know how this works out, but he's, like, "made of death." Like, a walking living corpse or something. Smells like death, bony hands, grody face, etc. And every time Raoul gets jealous, Christine's like, Dude, you saw the guy, are you kidding me? By the end of the book, the best she can muster is abject pity for Erik, even though she's managed to pretend that she "loves him for himself" so as to regain her freedom. But faced with the prospect of marrying him so he doesn't blow Raoul, the Paris Opera, and several hundred people sky high, she tries to kill herself, while tied up, by bashing her head against the wall over and over.
Now, without having seen the musical, I can tell you just the same that I'm pretty sure the book Phantom has fuck-all to do with the show Phantom, because millions of fans wouldn't be in love with him if he were all, you know, necrotic and stuff. Book Phantom does not have the cute little half mask; Book Phantom doesn't look spiff in formal wear. If we're talking about Musical Phantom, we've basically got a guy with an underground palace and a gorgeous voice who's willing to worship this girl and make her the greatest singer in the world. Raoul? Is cute. Okay, okay--he's also nobility, but (in the book, at least) he and his brother make all these snippy comments about "giving an opera wench his name," which is so not on. So the nobility thing is both a pro and a con and therefore sort of cancels itself out. And yeah, childhood attachment, okay, that's nice. But he also acts pretty childishly throughout the book (the book is great with this, by the way, and notes at one point that he says something so asinine to Christine that he can't think of any way out of it other than "to keep being odious"), so he's not sophisticated or worldly or mature--another point for the Phantom. So, in conclusion, Raoul: cute, and won't tie you up (woe). Do you see the problem we now have if the Phantom is also hot? Raoul is basically outclassed on every level except for the whole "actually lets you walk around freely above ground now and then" thing, and I'm willing to bet you pretty much don't care about that if you're in the thrall of this guy. I mean, the musical already undermines Raoul by letting Erik be just a little disfigured instead of the walking maw of fetid death, and if you cast a hot guy, you've just thrown the entire dynamic out of whack.
I mean, not that I won't be there with bells on, but still.
And then I went and downloaded some Whitesnake (shut up, man--Kingdom of Loathing got me all nostalgic), so now I totally associate the Phantom of the Opera book with "Is This Love." (And it fits, y'all. Shut up.) Man, I totally miss Baz Luhrmann. He needs to come back and make some more movies. He would rock a Phantom of the Opera movie (from the book, not the musical) with nothing but '80s music. Man--you know, the more I think about it, the more awesome I am convinced that would have been. Come back, Baz!
There's one problem I can spot offhand, however, and that is letting a hot guy play the Phantom. I noticed in the last entry, the one with the photo captions, how the Phantom fans among y'all were disconcerted by this, and I didn't really understand why until I read the book. In the book, the Phantom's hideous. I don't quite know how this works out, but he's, like, "made of death." Like, a walking living corpse or something. Smells like death, bony hands, grody face, etc. And every time Raoul gets jealous, Christine's like, Dude, you saw the guy, are you kidding me? By the end of the book, the best she can muster is abject pity for Erik, even though she's managed to pretend that she "loves him for himself" so as to regain her freedom. But faced with the prospect of marrying him so he doesn't blow Raoul, the Paris Opera, and several hundred people sky high, she tries to kill herself, while tied up, by bashing her head against the wall over and over.
Now, without having seen the musical, I can tell you just the same that I'm pretty sure the book Phantom has fuck-all to do with the show Phantom, because millions of fans wouldn't be in love with him if he were all, you know, necrotic and stuff. Book Phantom does not have the cute little half mask; Book Phantom doesn't look spiff in formal wear. If we're talking about Musical Phantom, we've basically got a guy with an underground palace and a gorgeous voice who's willing to worship this girl and make her the greatest singer in the world. Raoul? Is cute. Okay, okay--he's also nobility, but (in the book, at least) he and his brother make all these snippy comments about "giving an opera wench his name," which is so not on. So the nobility thing is both a pro and a con and therefore sort of cancels itself out. And yeah, childhood attachment, okay, that's nice. But he also acts pretty childishly throughout the book (the book is great with this, by the way, and notes at one point that he says something so asinine to Christine that he can't think of any way out of it other than "to keep being odious"), so he's not sophisticated or worldly or mature--another point for the Phantom. So, in conclusion, Raoul: cute, and won't tie you up (woe). Do you see the problem we now have if the Phantom is also hot? Raoul is basically outclassed on every level except for the whole "actually lets you walk around freely above ground now and then" thing, and I'm willing to bet you pretty much don't care about that if you're in the thrall of this guy. I mean, the musical already undermines Raoul by letting Erik be just a little disfigured instead of the walking maw of fetid death, and if you cast a hot guy, you've just thrown the entire dynamic out of whack.
I mean, not that I won't be there with bells on, but still.
And then I went and downloaded some Whitesnake (shut up, man--Kingdom of Loathing got me all nostalgic), so now I totally associate the Phantom of the Opera book with "Is This Love." (And it fits, y'all. Shut up.) Man, I totally miss Baz Luhrmann. He needs to come back and make some more movies. He would rock a Phantom of the Opera movie (from the book, not the musical) with nothing but '80s music. Man--you know, the more I think about it, the more awesome I am convinced that would have been. Come back, Baz!
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Date: 2004-11-27 05:54 pm (UTC)Yes, Mr. Darcy is unbelievably amazing. And my favorite scene has got to be when he proposes to Elizabeth. He loves her so much even though it goes against everything he is, and stands for..
*le sigh*
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Date: 2004-11-27 06:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-27 06:25 pm (UTC)Leo and boy sex. Very very good.
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Date: 2004-11-27 06:27 pm (UTC)That man needs a new movie.
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Date: 2004-11-27 07:32 pm (UTC)But I broke down and clicked on your link.
And no. Just... no. In fact, FUCK no. They can't- He isn't- Just no.
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Date: 2004-11-27 07:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-27 08:28 pm (UTC)ever read it?
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Date: 2004-11-27 08:57 pm (UTC)That's already been done, sorta. 1974, by Brian de Palma: Phantom of the Paradise, score by Paul Williams. I'm old enough to have seen it in first release. Check it out, for it sucks not.
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Date: 2004-11-27 09:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-27 09:43 pm (UTC)the picture itself is a screencap from master & commander btw
i've always wanted to read night though.
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Date: 2004-11-27 09:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-27 10:27 pm (UTC)It all depends on which version you're looking at. The Gaeston Leroux book itself would have made a wretched musical - it was the potential behind it that ALW stumbled upon. Susan Kay saw the same potential in the characters - her book is beautifully written, although she sort of has a field day with Erik (Phantom)'s childhood... 'nother rant there entirely.
But what ALW saw was a love as tragic and misguided as Bill and The Bride, in another direction. He also altered things... depending on what version you see, the Phantom is half-and-half: the exposed face is beautiful, but what's hidden behind the mask is horrifying... obviously symbolism... cough. And no matter how sweet and innocent and pure and annoyingly perfect Christine was, it's sort of hard to spend the rest of your life with a guy who looks like he's been six feet under for about three years.
It's been manipulated and warped - the original was a horror story, not a tragic romance. But Susan Kay's Phantom would be a good thing for you to read, since you're officially a Phan now.
I guess Joel, however misguided, is just trying to fulfill the daydream of all Erik fans out there. Sigh! Let's hope he doesn't kill this franchise. I fear for my fandom.
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Date: 2004-11-27 11:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-27 11:32 pm (UTC)She treats the fictional character as an historical one and writes his biography. I didn't answer the phone until I finished the book. Best enjoyed if Andrew's Opera is blaring on the music box.
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Date: 2004-11-28 01:27 am (UTC)The musical
Date: 2004-11-28 02:18 am (UTC)On the other hand, the movie pictures leave no hope. They went with good looking, same as they did to Ichabod Crane in Legend Of Sleepy Hollow. I heard that Johnny Depp actually wanted facial make-up to make himself ugly, but the producers decided to go the other way (i.e. they wanted money from JD fangirls).
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Date: 2004-11-28 07:10 am (UTC)The struggles he goes through with keeping his faith and staying true to his father, they're so well written. And because its a semi-biography, he doesn't really use literary devices like symbols and metaphores... I mean... you can't turn "The camp smelled like burning flesh" into anything but a fact.
I started crying on like page 24 of Night and didn't stop crying till page 120. It just brings out so much emotion when you're reading it.
But the reason I thought your icon was from Night was because Elie says something similar to "I have been one acquainted with the night" and I thought it'd fit very well into the story. Elie says "Our lives have become one long night" (or words to that effect)
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Date: 2004-11-28 12:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-28 12:28 pm (UTC)http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/Stage/1425/libretto.html
A far cry from the original novel in many ways, but enjoyable nonetheless. If there’s one thing Lloyd Webber does well, it’s melodramatic spectacle!
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Date: 2004-11-28 03:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-29 05:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-02 07:38 pm (UTC)Actually, most phans of the musical, have read the original book ( and the horrid 'sequel' by Forsyth, as well as the book by Kay, etc. ). From what I know, they mostly pity Erik more than Christine ever could and think that it's love. They know ( from variant novel sources ) what a horrible life Erik went through and all because of how he looked. Because of this, they feel worse for him and find Christine to be a superficial bitch and that's why she chose Raoul and not Erik—thus many, many people hate Raoul.
Personally, I hate Christine ( in the musical sense ) as it appears like she's leading the Phantom on and is in love with him until she rips his mask of. -strug.-
And I agree with whoever said you should read Susan Kay’s Phantom. Beautifully written, and to many Phans of the musical redeems Raoul as a character ... actually, you pity him more than Erik in the end. Fancy that.
... And as far as the movie's hot phantom, yeah that's an issue. As now you don't even have the horridness of his face ( according to the previews it just looks like a superficial burn ) to validate his crimes against humanity.
But, I'm more agitated with the costuming. Totally f'd up the Red Death costume. -pout.-
-- Mori
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Date: 2004-12-02 07:41 pm (UTC)Oh, and I liked the torture chamber ... and in the movie it almost seems like there's at least a play on mirrors with Raoul, if not a torture chamber. The sword fight is new, to the musical, any how.
-- Mori
ehhh newbie who'se been lurking ^^;
Date: 2004-12-04 11:55 am (UTC)I was most annoyed at first with, not that GB is hot but that he's so much younger then the Phantom originally was. But yeah he cannot sing for shit.
I've heard Minnie Driver is fantastic,
Actually that's a professional opera singer dubbing her voice, Minnie isn't singing Carlotta at all. She does have a new album out, kind of dido-ish her voice.