Not exactly Christmas material but then again it is Johnny Depp and Tim Burton. The first trailer has been released and I love the look of it. The cinematography looks gorgeous and the cast perfect.
I think the last time I saw a version of Sweeney it was a TV movie with Angela Lansbury, back in the early '80s. She was Nellie Lovett which Helena Bonham Carter is playing in the new version. One of my favorite musicals.
Posted by Ultra Jorge on :
Looks cool. Did they have to make Johnny look like Edward Scissor Hands yet again? What's up with Burton putting make up on Depp all the time?
Still...looks cool. Should have all the goth teenagers girls in a frenzy.
Posted by Kid Prime on :
I'm cautiously optimistic that this may wind up being one of the greatest movie musicals of all time. The music is stunning. It's without a doubt one of the greatest musicals ever.
Posted by DrakeB3004 on :
I saw it on Broadway a couple years ago and it was amazing - can't wait to see what Burton and Depp do with it! Love the music, love the tragic story, love Depp -- how can it not be good?
Now I'm cravin' me some meat pies, yum!!
Posted by Bevis on :
Sweeney Todd is easily one of the best musicals/operettas ever. We saw it a couple of years back in a new version by Opera North and it was superb. I have to admit that hearing Patty Lupoooooone playing Mrs Lovett made me want to do bad things (like beat her to death with a meat pie) btu apart from that it's utterly brilliant. I was wary about the film version sicne it's going to be hard for them to cut a lot of the songs to fit into a normal film length running time but if anyone can do it justice then it's Burton. Most of the cast is very good (apart from bloody Sascha Baron Cohen who I find utterly repellant no matter who or what he's playing, but it's a relativly minor part and he gets murdered nastily so that's alright) and as long as they keep an eye on the accents of anyone who doesn't actually have an English accent they should be fine. Depp we know can do a perfectly good English accent and most of the rest of the cast is English so they should pull anyone up who sounds silly. I only hope they don't go full on faux Cockerney-cockels-and-pears rubbish.
I'm rambling now, but yes, it does look visually like it's going to be pretty good and as long as they don't mess around with the score too much the music should be worth going to see it alone so I'm very much looking forward to it.
Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
I've never seen this one live on Broadway--which is a shame. I'm sure its off-broadway somewhere still in Manhattan. its definately one I've been really interested in for a long time.
Posted by Bevis on :
As I've said above I'm a huge Sondheim fan and adore Sweeney Todd. I'd heard mixed reviews of the film so went in not quite knowing what to expect. In the end though i loved it. Really loved it.
It's probably as good a film as they could make of the stage show. They cut an awful lot and a couple of the songs that went were missed quite a bit by me but not so much that it spoilt the film. Antony and Joanna were stiffed in terms of their story but it made more snese to cut them than to cut anything else. I would also have liked it if we had more from the mad beggar woman so the end had more impact and if Toby had clearly gone mad at the end, but they're fairly minor criticisms really.
Johnny Depp was, as usual, brilliant. I can understand the complaints that he was very Edward Scissorhands but I think that was fairly unavoidable really. It was always going to be a comparisson that was easily made but it wasn;t something that spoiled it for me. He played Sweeney as much less sympathetic that a lot of other versions but it worked. He was clearly completely insane all the way through and driven by revenge so that everything else meant nothing. He also has a nice voice that carried the big numbers well even if he's not got the power that people expect from Sweeney. With that though they'd obviously cast actors wh can sing rather than singers who act and I think that worked. Since the film was so stylised you needed actors who could show the emotions without it just becoming melodrama, which they did well. Oh, and Sascha Baren Cohen (who I normall;y hate) was pretty good too. They were *very* tight trousers though.
The two stand out performances though were from Helene Bonham Carter and the boy who played Toby. Recasting Toby as a young boy was genius and made it all the more disturbing. I normally find young boys singing very annoying and slightly creepy but he has a beautiful voice and he was just generally superb in it. His scenes with Mrs Lovett were by far the best in the film and the relationship between the two of them as perfect.
Bonham Carter stole the film though. She was unbelievably creepy and nasty while also being the person that you connected with most. She led the drama, drove it all forward and was the lynchpin that it all hung on. The moment that she decided that she had to get rid of Toby, which you saw almost entirely from her eyes, was both heartbreaking and terrifying at the same time. When she was first cast I simply couldn't see her in the role but she was almost perfect. A completely different take on the part from Angela Lansbury but better for that I suspect. Personally I fail to see why if Depp was good enough to get nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars why she wasn't nominated for best actress. The film wouldn't have worked so well without her and woulnd't have had half the humour or terror that it did.
As for the gore... well, they certainly didn't hold back did they? Grand Guignol in the extreme and very nasty. he throat slitting is graphic and unpleasant but the nastiest bits were actually the bodies hitting the floor after falling through the trapdoor and Mrs Lovett and the oven. That was far more horrific than I was expecting.
All in all then a pretty bloody brilliant film.
Posted by Mystery Lad on :
I've only heard the cast album-- Helena Bonham Carter's performance sure didn't translate to that medium.
I imagine the DVD'll be out soon- the movie was gone from theater's around here before I had a chance to see it. Maybe then I'll get to appreciate her work.
Posted by Suddenly Seymour on :
Yeah, I thought she was marginal as a singer, but her acting was pretty good.
I loved just about everything else in this movie. I was in the chorus in a production several years ago, so I missed all the chorus parts they cut out. It was probably a good idea, but I was still a bit bummed.
I thought Johnny Depp was riveting, as usual. He brought a slickness to the part you don't usually get. Johanna and Anthony had fine voices and did well for their limited roles.
I was extremely happy they actually cast a kid as Tobey. It really adds poignancy to the part. And I thought it was interesting he didn't go mad at the end -- it was all rage at Todd for destroying the home he'd always wanted.
Click Here For A SpoilerAnd I like how Depp subtly cocked his chin at the end. He knew Toby was back there and didn't have anything left to live for.
All in all, I was very impressed.
Posted by Bevis on :
Bonham Carter's voice is... adequate, I guess. She's no brilliant singer and I think that's more obvious if you just listen to the soundtrack but she can carry a tune and doesn't look like she's straining. Her acting makes up for it though, and it's a tough thing to act and sing well at the same time. The best singer in the film is probably the boy playing Toby but the others are all fairly good.
It is a shame the chorus got cut, especially since it was led by Christopher Lee, Anthony Head and Peter Bowles. Apparently they did record the songs but as far as I can tell they didn't film any of them (despite Anthony Head having a very brief cameo after the contest with Pirelli) and they don't seem to be on teh soundtrack recording. I'm hoping they'll either be on the DVD or a second version of the soundtrack because I'd love to hear them.
It is a very different version of the story than I've ever seen before. Depp and Bonham Carter are actually the right kind of ages for Todd and Mrs Lovett but both seem a lot younger than you'd normally expect. They bring a different kind of intensity to the roles. Mrs Lovett is much, much darker and scarier than I've ever seen her before (especially in her scenes with Toby) and Todd is much mroe introspective. They cut almost all of his dialogue outside the songs and if you watch the film he hardly ever looks directly at anyone which makes him feel very different from the normal way he's played. It makes sense but bizarrely almost switches the focus of the story from Todd to Mrs Lovett.
Posted by DrakeB3004 on :
quote:Originally posted by Bevis: It is a shame the chorus got cut, especially since it was led by Christopher Lee, Anthony Head and Peter Bowles. Apparently they did record the songs but as far as I can tell they didn't film any of them (despite Anthony Head having a very brief cameo after the contest with Pirelli)
OooooOOOoooohhh, so that's why Anthony Head was only in it for a second! I figured he had a larger role that was cut or something, but I didn't know they recorded a chorus -- good to know.
Posted by Lightning Lad on :
quote:Originally posted by DrakeB3004:
quote:Originally posted by Bevis: It is a shame the chorus got cut, especially since it was led by Christopher Lee, Anthony Head and Peter Bowles. Apparently they did record the songs but as far as I can tell they didn't film any of them (despite Anthony Head having a very brief cameo after the contest with Pirelli)
OooooOOOoooohhh, so that's why Anthony Head was only in it for a second! I figured he had a larger role that was cut or something, but I didn't know they recorded a chorus -- good to know.
I really hope whatever was cut makes it to a Director's Version DVD. We just saw it tonight and it was incredible. Excellent performances by all. Now I want to watch the Ben Kingsly version from the 1990's that's on Comcast's OnDemand.
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