I don't typically like to anticipate movies in public - that is what gossip sites are for, he sniffed with pretentious disdain - but there is absolutely no film in the remainder of 2007 that I'm awaiting with the same intensity of both excitement and fear as Tim Burton's film of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, whose trailer finally hit the internet this afternoon. So excited am I, that I'm going to do something I have never done and probably never will do again, and that is to review that very trailer (found here).
Not like, as a piece of artwork. I mean, it's a trailer (although trailers exist that are good enough to consider as short films - viz). No, this is just one raving fanboy taking a look at what one of his former favorite directors has done, in two minutes and thirty seconds, to his favorite Broadway musical. These thoughts are presented in general order of their appearance in the trailer:
-"The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" is one of the most evocative opening pieces of music in musical history. Starting the trailer with an instrumental version would have been the easiest thing in the world. So what do they do? Some anonymous quasi-Elfman tinkling. Assholes.
-I see that Burton will be using the same trick he had in Sleepy Hollow, where the present is desaturated and bleak, and the idyllic past is all warm and golden and colorful. Well, I liked it there, I'll like it here, I guess.
-The narrator's voice is irritating. I can't quite figure out why.
-If Alan Rickman has dialogue during the sentencing, does that mean "Poor Thing" was cut out? Goddammit.
-Ooh, shit, Johnny Depp's voice sounds exactly like his Jack Sparrow accent. Ouch.
-Lord above, Burton's characteristic production design is a good match for this story.
-Helena Bonham Carter's boobs are getting much too much screentime. Apparently this is why Burton wanted to make Mrs. Lovett 15 years younger.
-Depp's delivery of the spoken-sung lines in "Epiphany," particularly "I want you bleeders" makes me shiver in antici-pation.
-His singing on "I will have vengeance / I will have salvation" is quite good (better than I would have expected), but the word "salvation" sounds like he lost the accent?
-Okay, there's the "Ballad," and in quite the keen orchestration.
-I am now wholly impatient to see Sacha Baron Cohen's Pirelli singing.
-Are those brief clips from "By the Sea" and the Judge's "Johanna" I see? Brilliant!
-Now we're in full on "take dialogue out of context and change it's meaning" mode. What can you do, it's a trailer.
-I want to jump up and down like a gleeful child over Depp's reading of "At last, my arm is complete again" - nothing like I've ever imagined in that moment, and yet perfect, and scary.
-Not nearly enough emphasis that it's a musical, like they're ashamed or frightened of the fact.
-I'm really glad they don't give away the act-break twist. I've always wondered what the story would be like if you didn't know that was coming, and now it seems like a whole generation of moviegoers will get to find out.
-I am officially much more excited than scared now. 88 days? I can manage that.
04 October 2007
4 comments:
Just a few rules so that everybody can have fun: ad hominem attacks on the blogger are fair; ad hominem attacks on other commenters will be deleted. And I will absolutely not stand for anything that is, in my judgment, demeaning, insulting or hateful to any gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or religion. And though I won't insist on keeping politics out, let's think long and hard before we say anything particularly inflammatory.
Also, sorry about the whole "must be a registered user" thing, but I do deeply hate to get spam, and I refuse to take on the totalitarian mantle of moderating comments, and I am much too lazy to try to migrate over to a better comments system than the one that comes pre-loaded with Blogger.
i have little to no knowledge of the story or music of Sweeney Todd, and i'm hoping to keep it that way. the one thing i do know about it, from vague impressions i've collected over the years, is that its tone seems to be almost perfectly suited to Tim Burton. which is exciting, after his gargantuan misstep in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
ReplyDeleteso so so so so so SO frickin' excited. the main question, for me, is this: who do i see it with who will not completely ruin the experience?
Oh God, do Cam and I agree fully? Yes we do. What she said... to a T. I know little of the source, and am excited. And I was very worried after the Wonka experience.
ReplyDeleteCameron, see it with me.
88 days is Hell. Now that Radiohead announced a new record to come only 9 days after announcement, I no longer tolerate these long waits.
"I see that Burton will be using the same trick he had in Sleepy Hollow, where the present is desaturated and bleak, and the idyllic past is all warm and golden and colorful. Well, I liked it there, I'll like it here, I guess."
ReplyDeleteMaybe you're just falling into Burton-world where the present is bleak but the past is warm and golden and colorful? ;)
Someone needs to start writing up trailer reviews on a regular basis making sure to be as glib as anthony lane...
The weird on the "vengeance" line, to me, is more about him holding the "n" in vengeance. Nerdy musical tic!
ReplyDeleteThe narrator irritated me (a) because I never like narrators, and (b) because the trailer starts with "this is the tale," which is like a deliberate snub of "attend the tale." Not that it should have started with that, of course. It's just in that uncanny valley.
If you get any kind of advance-itude on this, I will tie myself to your back and force you to allow me to co-attend.
Let's start trying to lower our expectations here...