Phantom Of The Opera (1983)

Down once more to the depths of the opera.

It's strange how certain things come back into your life and Phantom has slowly crept in these past few months, I've rewatched films, seen some more fan appreciation for various adaptations, and even re-read the book so let's talk more films of this beyond niche corner of popular literature. Now I've heard about the Schell version almost immediately in my first and most severe obsession with Phantom Of The Opera way, way back in about 2008 or 2009 but I've only just seen it for the first time. So how was it? In terms of movies it's about lower mid tier of adaptations. They shift the setting from turn of the 20th century Paris to about 1920s-30s Budapest, which brownie points for the crew actually shooting on location there, as we meet composer Sandor Korvin and his fiancee Elena who's a debutting opera singer and after a pretty convoluted and not super well defined reason of the manager sabotaging her career, Elena drowns herself and leads Korvin to seek revenge. And yes this is one of those versions where the Phantom is scarred by acid instead of being deformed, a popular trope since the 1930s chinese version Song At Midnight, but here it's not handled nearly as well. What confuses matters even more for me is Korvin is rescued from acid disfiguring and being almost burned alive by this character who seems to be a mix of the ratcatcher and mute assistant from the Herbert Lom version who inexplicably is outside but not only that, he takes Korvin to his soon to be subterranean lair, and even picks out the mask for him. This boggles my mind and quite frankly takes away defining moments for the Phantom. An indeterminate period of time elapses as we are introduced to new budding opera singer Maria who catches the eye of the Phantom, but not due to just fancying her for her talent and looks but because she looks similar to Korvin's dead wife. Not a fan of such changes, they really love interjecting a reason why the Phantom loves Christine in movies instead of it being a natural attraction (or about as natural a romance as you can get with a creepy mask wearing cave dweller). Oh Christine is his dead wife reincarnated, Christine is his daughter, Christine is the only woman to do his music justice, and it just doesn't work. And to compound that fact that there really isn't any romance or love triangle here, our Raoul equivalent is a posh englishman played by Michael York, and admittedly I actually liked how they weren't making googly eyes at each other from the start and have a rather catty and non-romantic edge to them at the start but there's no real fight or passion to win Maria to either side and when they do get together it's very much a whatever reaction. Hell the most confrontational they get is when the Phantom chokes Michael out like a bitch at a turkish bath and that's kinda it. Another aspect woefully cut short. Sounds like negatives all around huh? Well in all seriousness, I don't hate it. I accept it was just a TV movie made in the 80s, they took some liberties with the source material, and in a pre-Andrew Lloyd Webber musical world showed that people still remember the story. The best part period about the movie is Maximilian Schell himself, I heard his acting might have been a tad much but madame please Erik ain't exactly a down to earth subdued presence in the book so I'll live, I love the look and the mask, I dare say he has one of the best speaking voices for this character in any medium, I love we see him out and about beyond the opera house, and while he doesn't appear much the stuff he has is nothing but highlights for me. Jane Seymour is decent in acting and I don't hate how she takes a more firm spoken and career driven iteration of Christine, but in tandem with our two male leads there's just something missing that's needed for this particular story. Michael York, eh I've rarely seen a Raoul variant that I tremendously like and the attitude and upper classmanship for lack of a better word turns me off quick but no bad acting from him. I will admit the video I got ahold of for this was free on Youtube cause to own it on video you need to have a region free DVD player and even then it seems like not many copies are abound, so the quality was in classic 360p which lends quite well if you imagine you're watching it on a tube TV in 1983, but the direction is solid, the scenery in sets and locations are nice, also kinda amazing to see a Phantom lair look pretty damn close to the musical version 3 years before the stage musical came out so well done there, everything feels legit to the time period, you just gotta roll with the less than crystal clear picture quality but hey maybe there is a better and cleaner source to be found elsewhere. Who knows. Not bad, but there are better. I give it 2 stars, 6/10, and we jump all the way to 1990 tomorrow for another TV movie with a huge modern film star today. If you know your stuff you already know who it is.

Cabaret

Holy hell that was good.

It was an interesting experience to watch Cabaret, I knew nothing about it and only heard the name mentioned in passing, so I decided on a whim to review it when I had other contenders because I wanted to know more about it. At first I found the style and direction a bit odd, but as the movie progressed I became more in tune with the movie and greatly appreciated it to the point where when the credits rolled I was thoroughly impressed. But it wasn't so much the story, or characters, or dialogue, or any singular aspect of the film, but all the elements combined as a whole. The story is really bare bones with a british writer living in 1930s Berlin with an american performer who works at a cabaret as a friendship and soon romance build between them. Now that might sound so uninteresting but when you see the film it makes sense. The best and only way I can describe it is the main characters very much live in a bubble of their own, never acknowledging the grim meathook realities of Germany at that time and living absent mindedly. Which is personified in Liza Minelli's character Sally who I totally loved but also at the same time I couldn't fully grasp her character, not in a bad way by any stretch of the imagination because the performance and writing is really good, but she seems very scatter brained and has dreams of becoming rich and an actress while having a very wild personality. It's so different but she feels like a incredibly real person, you don't know everything about the friends and people in your life, unlike in films where every bit of information is dolled out to us, there's for lack of a better word ambiguity to her just like a real world human being. Michael York is quite good too, more or less a blank slate that we see this town and these characters through his eyes but fine work regardless. I would absolutely classify this as a unconventional musical, there are a handful of songs throughout and they do reflect upon certain aspects of the plot, but every musical number is performed at the cabaret or a venue, there is no elaborate song and dance numbers on a sidewalk or a bedroom, everything you see is done diegetically in the real world. Which is not what you would normally consider a musical, and to be honest the best songs are done by Liza but the thing is, a cabaret venue is not where you go to listen to great music, outstanding vocals, or dramatic performances. It is escapist entertainment of the common kind. Which I genuinely appreciate, and the film flat out says you come to the cabaret to forget your lives and troubles and that life itself is a cabaret. That is more accurate now than back then in the 30s. Do you have any idea how much media exists today where it's just there for brief entertainment that encompasses all types of variety? That practically embodies YouTube. And the one song that isn't performed at the cabaret, Tomorrow Belongs To Me caught some heat back then because people thought it was a pro-nazi song and granted you hear this quite nice song being performed by a young boy with a really good voice only to discover he's part of the Hitler youth is kind of chilling, and that entire scene could be a microcosm of Germany at that moment of time. You just don't expect that. And that's how I would sum Cabaret up, an unexpected pleasure. Yes, it's always great fun to talk about the movies you love and enjoy but in my humble opinion the movies you walk out of with so much more than you expected, are the best movie going experiences. I thoroughly enjoyed this film and understand why it practically almost swept the Oscars in 1973, winning almost every category it was nominated for except for Best Picture and Best Script. An easy 4 stars, 8/10! A strong end to this week but what will come next? Difficult to see, always in motion is the future so join me this weekend to discuss plans of action.