Scene Anatomy 101: The Phantom of the Opera (2004)
Posted by George H. Sirois on 02.03.2006
It’s a pity that the only good part of a musical is where there’s no singing…
Last week, we took a look at a forgotten version of a classic tale. This week, we'll be looking at a version that we couldn't forget if we tried. And believe me, there are times when I've tried.
I was so excited when I heard that there was going to be a movie based on the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, "The Phantom of the Opera." As I said in the review I posted last year, I was a fan of the show. I had gotten an A on the report I did on the show during my sophomore year of high school. I was sucked into the score, and I knew that a big budget production meant the score was going to be richer and more powerful than it had ever been before. I was even prepared to accept the choice of Joel Schumacher to be the director, since I knew he was going to present a huge epic spectacle that he tried to bring to the Batman franchise.
Again, if you read my review, you'll know that after finally seeing the movie for myself, I realized that I had just seen the most wasted opportunity of 2004. Since Schumacher was so obsessed with the scope and the spectacle, he forgot to pay attention to the actors while they were singing, and the result was a whole bunch of pulling back and showing the actors' backs to the camera while a song was going on. It helped to make this one of the most frustrating viewings of a movie I've ever experienced.
But if that was all that the movie had going against it, I'd be okay. Unfortunately, there was one more element that derailed the film for good: the decision to cast Gerard Butler as the Phantom.
Judging by Butler's appearance and his charisma, he was the perfect choice to play Dracula in Dracula 2000. However, the Phantom is a totally different kind of character. He has a deformed face with the voice of an angel. He is a genius, but he is blinded by his love for Christine (in this version, played brilliantly by Emmy Rossum). And there is a sympathy factor at play here, since Christine is very much in love with Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny (Patrick Wilson, who did a very fine job) and only looking at The Phantom as a teacher.
At least, there is supposed to be a sympathy factor at play here. It doesn't work as well when you have a handsome and charismatic Gerard Butler playing The Phantom with a white ceramic mask covering a fraction of his face. And as for his singing, well, let me just put it this way. He's supposed to look hideous and sound like an angel, not the other way around.
But there was a moment in the film where there actually was some sympathy for this character, a segment that clearly works amidst the frustrating elements of the rest of this version of The Phantom of the Opera. The scene in question takes place directly after the "Masquerade" / "Why So Silent" number, where Raoul falls below the ballroom floor and into a room filled with mirrors. He can see traces of The Phantom everywhere he turns, but before either one can attack the other, Raoul feels a hand grab his shoulder and pull him out from the room. It is Madame Giry (Miranda Richardson), a veteran of the Opera House and caretaker to Christine.
As soon as Raoul is out of the room, he demands to know where this Phantom came from, and he knows that Madame Giry is the only one who can answer his questions.
RAOUL: Madame Giry, wait!
She walks past Raoul, trying her best not to make eye contact.
GIRY: Please, Monsieur, I know no more than anyone else.
RAOUL: That's not true!
Giry tries walking into her room, still avoiding eye contact. She is behaving very much like a protective mother to a delinquent son.
GIRY: Monsieur, don't ask. There have been too many accidents.
RAOUL: Accidents?
Knowing the danger that Christine is in, Raoul can hardly call the disturbances accidents. He grabs her arm before she can walk into her room.
RAOUL: Please, Madame Giry. For all our sakes.
Finally, Madame Giry looks Raoul in the eye for a moment, and then nods her head.
GIRY: Very well.
Madame Giry takes Raoul into his room and shuts her door, then locks it. She walks over to her dresser, where there is an old picture of her as a young girl. The camera begins to zoom in on it as Giry tells her story.
GIRY: It was years ago. There was a traveling fair in the city… gypsies.
We dissolve to a shot of Madame Giry as a young girl, walking through the traveling fair and taken by the different carnies and freaks around her.
GIRY: I was very young, studying to be a ballerina. One of many, living in the dormitories of the opera house.
As her friends continue walking through the fair, one very creepy looking carnie peeks his head out from inside a tent. He beckons the girls and other customers to come closer.
CARNIE: Come. Come inside. Come and see the Devil's Child.
We see the sign that reads "Devil's Child" right above the tent doorway. Customers file inside and we follow them in. Inside the tent, in the center of the floor, is a small cage. A young boy is inside. We don't see his face because it is covered with a burlap sack, like Jason from Friday the 13th Part 2. Two eyeholes are used for the boy to see as he is playing with a stuffed monkey toy with cymbals.
The boy looks absolutely pathetic, the poor thing, with just the sack for his face and shorts as his only clothes. With the people he is traveling with, and the cage he is kept in, you can't help but feel sorry for him. And what's even better, is that the sack is covering his entire face, so you have no idea what he looks like.
The carnie kicks the doll away and starts viciously pummeling the poor boy with a stick. Watching all of this are the customers, and they start to laugh and point at the boy. The only one not laughing is Madame Giry. She watches with a great feeling of pity, you can see it in her eyes. Her friends, however, are not as kind.
To freak out the customers, the carnie grabs the boy and yanks the sack off of his head.
CARNIE: Behold, the Devil's Child!
The customers continue to laugh. Strangely enough, they are not repulsed by what they see. It would have been a little more effective if Schumacher had instructed his actors to at least react to what they see.
Once the customers have their fill, they start to file out of the tent. The boy quickly reaches for his sack and puts it back over his head.
The carnie starts counting the coins he has collected from the customers, licking his lips as he takes in all of the money that this Devil's Child has made him. He's so into his money that he doesn't notice the boy grabbing a piece of rope from the bottom of the cell.
Madame Giry turns back towards the boy, now the only customer left in the tent. She turns just in time to see the boy reach around with the rope and strangle his carnie master. He pulls as hard as he can and doesn't stop until the carnie is dead.
Unfortunately, the carnie's screams are heard in a nearby tent. That carnie walks in to see his associate in a heap by the cell. The cell is now empty since Madame Giry helped the boy out of it.
OTHER CARNIE: Murder! Murder!
A constable walks in as Madame Giry helps the boy out from under the tent.
CONSTABLE: Which way?!
The other carnie points towards where he saw Giry and the boy go.
OTHER CARNIE: That way! There! Constable, he's getting away!
Madame Giry and the boy run unnoticed to the side of the Opera House. She opens up a basement window and beckons him inside.
The boy walks through the window, into the basement of the Opera House. He looks around, standing up straight, getting acquainted with his new home. As the years pass, he will form a whole new persona for himself, leaving behind the name of the "Devil's Child" for good and becoming The Phantom of the Opera.
While this sequence was going on, we got to hear the excellent score that Andrew Lloyd Webber was able to give us for this whole film. He definitely accomplished his intentions to give us a fuller, richer, more powerful score. Now, if only we could get a CD recording of the score WITHOUT the singing…
As Madame Giry goes on to tell us more about this boy, we can almost see a hint of adoration for him. Who knows what other evils he's committed during his time in the Opera House? We'll never know, because the only one who would know would never tell us.
GIRY: I hid him from the world and its cruelties. He has known nothing else of life since then, except this opera house. It was his playground, and now, his artistic domain. He's a genius. He's an architect and designer. He's a composer and a musician. Monsieur, he's a genius.
Raoul can respect what The Phantom did all those years ago, and he can respect his abilities. But he knows they're not dealing with an altogether stable individual.
RAOUL: But clearly, Madame Giry, genius has turned to madness.
Did you notice anything in particular about this scene that I just finished dissecting? That's right; there was no singing in it. And in the case of this movie, any moment where there was no singing was a good one. It wasn't the fault of the singers' voices – unless you count the Phantom himself, but we already know my feelings on that – but instead it was the way the songs were put together.
Schumacher was so distracted by the production design that he not only continuously shot the actors with their backs to the camera while they were singing (or cutting away to other parts of the scene), but he clearly didn't coach the actors to lip-synch with any kind of passion. Some of the actors were able to handle themselves most of the time – Emmy Rossum and Patrick Wilson particularly – but the rest of the time, the heart and soul that the actors sung in the recording studio was lacking from the actors when they lip-synched on the set.
But then, in one key sequence, when there was no lip synching, when people would talk and we would not see the backs of their heads, when The Phantom had his entire face covered (just imagine what could have been done if they gave the adult Phantom a better mask that covered his whole face… and a better make-up job… and a better singer), Joel Schumacher actually got it right! It's just a shame that during a movie musical, it was the part without the singing that worked.
Next week, and the week after, to celebrate Valentine's Day, we're gonna see some scenes from some date movies! Yup, the next two weeks are for the llllladies. Now, if only I knew which ones I'd be doing. I guess we'll all find out, and of course, if you have any suggestions, let's hear ‘em!
