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Posted: **Fri Nov 30, 2007 6:18 am**

I just picked up a free ticket to see this next week, and after David's review I'm now quite curious, though I don't always agree with him.

The show itself has always been problematic for me. The violent subject matter and the through-sung form, in an arena where both are fairly uncommon, may be important in terms of musical theater history but I always found it to be exceedingly overrated. Needless to say I'll be watching to see how they've solved the problems.

On another note, I was hoping Haneke would have directed this. For shame.

Posted: **Fri Nov 30, 2007 7:53 am**

David, you make this sounds really great.

By the way, I had never heard of Trois Places Pour le 26th until your mention in this thread, so I looked it up...and...it's a Jacques Demy musical with Michel Legrand music?! From 1988? Where can I see this?

On another note, I was hoping Haneke would have directed this. For shame.

Why Haneke?

Posted: **Fri Nov 30, 2007 2:18 pm**

I have no idea where you can see it -- nor Jacques' other masterpiece Une Chambre en Ville.

Film is a fugitive art.

Posted: **Fri Nov 30, 2007 4:29 pm**

David Ehrenstein wrote:Well I'm just in from Sweeney Todd and it's utterly magnificent. A perfect melding of the sensibilities of Sondheim and Tim Burton in ways I couldn't quite imagine working until I saw the finished film. Johnny Depp is not only a great star he is a cinematic genius. Helena Bonham Carter is perfect as Mrs. Lovett. Alan Richman and Timothy Spall were born to play Judge Turpin and Beadle Bramford (respectively). As for the juveniles they're all played by brilliant first-timers.

Jamie Campbell Bower looks like Jonathan Rhys-Myers undebauched younger brother as Anthony. Jayne Wisener is a lovely Johanna. A kid named Ed Sanders (no relation to the one of The Fugs, I'm sure) is heartbreaking as Tobias. Last but not least Sacha Baron Cohen does a spectacular turn as Pirelli the Barber.

In terms of scale it's the biggest thing I've seen since Little Shop of Horrors -- which was also shot on a British sound stage. But the designer here is Dante Feretti, and what he's created is an Edward Gorey drawing come to life.

Best of all it's a GENUINE musical. People up on the screen are actually singing, because that's what their characters do. And no ifs and or buts about it.

Incidentally Both Johnn Depp and Helena Bonham Carter not only sing quite well, but Burton has understood the fact that the characters must be re-scaled for film. By this on mean on stage we need a Sweeney and a Mrs. Lovett that can project to the back rows. That's not needed here at all. The characters inhabit a shop, and herefor shouldn't shout. In fact the lower decible level of the singing -- and the unstrained manner in whcih its done -- underscore the sinister atmosphere. Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett are very quitely conspiring with one another.

All told a Perfect Christmas Movie For the Whole (Addams) Family.

Do not so much as think of missing it.

Excellent to hear!

Posted: **Tue Dec 04, 2007 5:07 pm**

Raves from both Variety and the Reporter today (if I was more tech-savvy, I'd post the links but I've never been able to figure out how to rename a link "Variety" as opposed to "http://www_____etc").

But from these and David's review, it looks like Burton might finally be back on form. Although there were occasional hints of the old brilliance in Charlie and Corpse Bride, he hasn't made a consistently great film since Ed Wood.

Posted: **Tue Dec 04, 2007 5:20 pm**

Code: Select all

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Posted: **Fri Dec 14, 2007 2:08 am**

Opening credits

Posted: **Fri Dec 14, 2007 8:45 pm**

Geez, no wonder those WB execs were worried. All that slimy-looking blood was even making me a bit queasy. It has me intrigued, though.

Posted: **Fri Dec 14, 2007 8:59 pm**

I know it's heresy ... and I don't expect to get much agreement ... but, I really wish they had toned down the blood a bit for a more family friendly rating. I don't want to see anything censored, I just want this magnificent Sondheim work to be viewed by younger audiences - this could be the one that bumps up their music appreciation by several notches - but they have to be able to see it.

Posted: **Fri Dec 14, 2007 9:26 pm**

Belmondo wrote:I know it's heresy ... and I don't expect to get much agreement ... but, I really wish they had toned down the blood a bit for a more family friendly rating. I don't want to see anything censored, I just want this magnificent Sondheim work to be viewed by younger audiences - this could be the one that bumps up their music appreciation by several notches - but they have to be able to see it.

If you've ever spoken to anyone under 17 for more than five minutes, you'll discover that they have access to anything once it's out on DVD. Give it time.

Posted: **Fri Dec 14, 2007 9:34 pm**

domino harvey wrote:
Belmondo wrote:I know it's heresy ... and I don't expect to get much agreement ... but, I really wish they had toned down the blood a bit for a more family friendly rating. I don't want to see anything censored, I just want this magnificent Sondheim work to be viewed by younger audiences - this could be the one that bumps up their music appreciation by several notches - but they have to be able to see it.
If you've ever spoken to anyone under 17 for more than five minutes, you'll discover that they have access to anything once it's out on DVD. Give it time.

Hell, it ain't that hard to sneak into an R-rated movie.

Posted: **Fri Dec 14, 2007 9:40 pm**

I was going to R-rated movies when I was 15. I've never been carded at a theater.

Posted: **Fri Dec 14, 2007 9:56 pm**

I just saw this last night and I wasn't that impressed. Johnny Depp was not believable in the role, and he has this tick when he sings that makes him sound like a contestant on American Idol every now and then. Helena Bonham Carter works much better, though the decision to tone her character down and make her more realistic no longer works with the her less playful songs. The art direction was a bit too masturbatory and too computer enhanced for my taste, and and this point it's kind of a gimmick.

Does anyone else remember when Tim Burton would take a script in dip it in macabre and how much fun those films were? Now that he's being given scripts that are pre-dipped, I don't think he has anything else to contribute.

Posted: **Fri Dec 14, 2007 10:01 pm**

Not dipped, slathered until drowned in earlier Burtonisms until it's srcreaming in a paranoiac marketing voice "This is a Tim Burton picture" so loud that its no longer a (good) Tim Burton picture. I saw the trailer and almost gagged on the absurdly over the top cgi/art direction... then did gag spilling popcorn all over myself listening to Depp do his horrendous UK accent and trying to sing.

I'll stick w Tod Slaughter.

Posted: **Thu Dec 20, 2007 5:27 pm**

Marcus Theaters pass on Sweeney Todd.

Posted: **Thu Dec 20, 2007 5:46 pm**

It's been given an 18 certificate in Britain, which restricts it to adults only.

This is very unusual for a big-budget major studio release these days (most R-rated films get classified 15), and unprecedented in Tim Burton's career.

Posted: **Thu Dec 20, 2007 6:12 pm**

Antoine Doinel wrote:Marcus Theaters pass on Sweeney Todd.

They wont be missing much.

Posted: **Fri Dec 21, 2007 3:43 am**

Jean-Luc Garbo wrote:Geez, no wonder those WB execs were worried. All that slimy-looking blood was even making me a bit queasy. It has me intrigued, though.

I don't think they're worried. They're confident enough to release it wide on the 21st rather than make it a platform release (selected cities on the 21st and going wide in the coming weeks).

Posted: **Fri Dec 21, 2007 2:32 pm**

A.O. Scott loved it.

[quote="A.O. Scott"]It may seem strange that I am praising a work of such unremitting savagery. I confess that I'm a little startled myself, but it's been a long time since a movie gave me nightmares. And the unsettling power of â€œSweeney Toddâ€

Posted: **Sun Dec 23, 2007 4:52 pm**

Gotta love Armond...he hates the musical because Sondheim isn't as good as Elvis Costello and X-Ray Spex:

[quote]Sondheim's melodies sanction Todd's curse on Turpin who wronged and imprisoned him many years ago, and on the world that looked askance. This isn't Jacobean tragedy, it's cliché; and Sweeney Todd's Dickensian allusions are fallacious.

When Todd sings: â€œIt's man devouring man, my dear/Who are we to deny it in here?â€

Posted: **Sun Dec 23, 2007 5:25 pm**

Good god, while the "big black pit" lyrics are far from masterful, they look world class next to those horrendous X-Ray Spex lines.

And how does one make a "fallacious" Dickensian allusion?

Posted: **Sun Dec 23, 2007 5:26 pm**

I adored the songs and score. There is a fondness all over the place for unusual meters and a frequent abandonment of classic song structure for something far more psychologically and dramatically resonant. Sondheim always mentions Bernard Herrmann as his inspiration, and this remains the only musical that I've ever seen that truly tries to capture Herrmann's extraordinary sensibilities: and it succeeds madly. The master's touch is everywhere in Johnathan Tunick's stage orchestrations, and it sounds amazing in the theatre.

I'm surprised how good Helena Bonham Carter is on "The Worst Pies In London" and "By The Sea" (my favorite sequence in the film - like a Jack Vettriano painting come to life, with magnificent sets evocative of later Fellini). "Johanna" is simply one of the lovliest melodies of all-time, probably my favorite thing Sondheim wrote, and I was enamored with the many forms the melody took during the film.

Film-wise, I've always been attracted to the combination of unrelenting horror with awesome beauty, which is basically every scene in Sweeney Todd, so I had a good time. The main titles should've been in miniatures or stop-motion, and that one fast CGI town shot in the beginning felt completely out of place and needed to go. Other than that, everything else is about right, and while I wouldn't call it great, it's Burton's best film in 13 years.

Posted: **Mon Dec 24, 2007 1:26 am**

I was going to split the Sondheim discussion into its own thread (because unlike most thread digressions it's civil and articulate), but it's not film related, which would mean the only place to put it is the Infighting section, where it does not belong. So I'm making this a thread about both Sweeny Todd and Sondheim's work in general, since the latter is getting more attention than the former anyway.

Posted: **Tue Dec 25, 2007 3:12 am**

The budget for Sweeney Todd was reportedly $200 million (not including the press) and it made an estimated $9,350,000 this weekend.

When I saw it this weekend, the entire audience seemed shocked and frazzled when it ended, but I can tell they were very impressed, as well (as was I, naturally...two days later the beautiful music continues to reel in my head). It's also currently ranked #115 on the IMDB top 250, so its reception seems to be quite good, even if the box office draw is less than expected.

Posted: **Tue Dec 25, 2007 3:42 am**

The budget for Sweeney Todd was reportedly $200 million (not including the press) and it made an estimated $9,350,000 this weekend.

$200 Mil? According to Newsday, $50 million was the budget before P&A. I'd be surprised if this movie cost more than "Bruce Allmighty". (I haven't seen the film, but can't think of where $200 mil would go...) I could be wrong, it just seems like that figure is awfully high.

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Sweeney Todd (Tim Burton, 2007)