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Phantom unmasked
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The Phantom of the Opera has a long lineage. The latest version comes with some typical 21st Century twists
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THE GHOST WHO STALKS: It is a challenge for any filmmaker to replicate the tremendous on-stage energy of a live opera
A legendary German character inspires a maverick 16th Century English playwright. Two centuries later, an opera based on the character inspires a Frenchman to write a novel. This novel, in the hands of the Americans, becomes a silent movie. Several remakes later a British composer turns the novel into a Broadway musical. Ladies and gentlemen, The Phantom of the Opera — unmasked!
From Faust
The protagonist of Joel Schumacher's 2004 movie might have a lineage than spans many countries and centuries but he springs from one primary source: Faust. Johannes Faustus, a German astrologer and magician who was said to have sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for knowledge and power, died in 1540 but was immortalised in literature, most famously by Christopher Marlowe, Shakespeare's short-lived contemporary. The Faustian pact with Mephistopheles was a theme that caught the imagination of generations of writers, artists, musicians and moviemakers. Gaston Leroux was one of them.
Leroux (born: 1868), a prolific French writer, saw Faust staged at the Paris Opera at the turn of the 20th Century. During one of the shows a mighty chandelier fell on the audience. These incidents combined in his mind to take the shape of the novel Le Fantome de L'Opera published in 1908. Hollywood came into the picture in '23 with a silent version starring Lon Chaney, and followed it up with remakes in '43 (starring Claude Rains), '62 and '89. There were television versions, too, in the Nineties. Andrew Lloyd Webber's operatic rendition of the novel featuring Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman and directed by Harold Prince opened on Broadway in '86, the very year in which was born a girl who would assume Brightman's role in Schumacher's movie!
Emmy Rossum was just 16 when she auditioned for the movie part in Lloyd Webber's apartment (he and Schumacher worked on the screenplay). She sang him two songs from Phantom and he instantly knew she would be perfect for the part of Christine. Rossum, by the way, passed her very first audition at the Metropolitan Opera at the age of seven singing "Happy Birthday"! She has sung in 20 operas in five languages and has performed alongside giants such as Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti. But she is also a child of Hollywood; her movies include Mystic River and The Day After Tomorrow.
Hollywood has produced several forgettable films broadly based on the Faustian theme (one of them, for example, had a young rock guitarist attaining fame after the Evil One coached him in exchange for his soul). Bangalore's movie audiences clapped and whistled when Al Pacino delivered his coup de grace as a deeply cynical Satan in The Devil's Advocate. But one can't see them getting quite as enthusiastic about Schumacher's movie. For one, it's a film version of the Webber opera, which means it's all singing and no dialogue to speak of. Opera, even the semi-classical avatar that is Webber's trademark, is not a popular form. And it is a challenge for a filmmaker to replicate the tremendous on-stage energy of a live opera.
Given these handicaps, Schumacher manages to engross and occasionally dazzle. The eternal good-versus-evil tale is replete with fairly predictable Christian imagery. Christine, an upcoming singer, believes her dead father has sent her an angel of music to guide her. She takes nightly lessons from this mysterious master, the Phantom (Gerard Butler) who lives in the hellish depths of the opera house. Like Lucifer the fallen angel, he turns out to be an "angel of darkness". The maestro entices her to give in to her "darker side" (in that seductively haunting song "The Music of the Night"). In return, he will make her "song take flight". Soon enough, Christine gains such brilliance that she replaces the prevailing diva Carlotta (an exuberant Minnie Driver) but meanwhile, she discovers her childhood sweetheart Raoul (Patrick Wilson) whose is the new patron of the opera house. Raoul is her "guide", leading her towards "the light". The spurned Phantom is determined to wreak his revenge. But then his past stands revealed. This being the 21st Century, even the devil gets our sympathy for his traumatic childhood. He was born with a disfigured face and tortured by his abusive keeper who exhibited him as a circus freak dubbed as "the devil's child". Bitterness has poisoned his soul. In the end, Christine's Christian compassion melts the hate in his heart.
In the world of commerce
Hollywood sold its soul (if it ever had one) to commerce long ago. Merchandising is the name of the game today. Schumacher's film begins with an auction — the contents of the decrepit Paris Opera House are being auctioned, in 1919, for paltry sums. Well, there's been an auction of souvenirs from Schumacher's film on the Internet. Last Friday, when it opened in Bangalore, was also the last day of an e-Bay auction of 120 props and costumes. Dresses, masks, headscarf, hand fan, letter, walking stick, fur muff, fur cape, shoes, strings of chandelier crystals (Swarovski), the Phantom's black leather gloves — these were just some of the items sold to the highest bidder to celebrate the DVD release this month.
The Phantom of the Opera is on at PVR Cinema, Hall No. 8, The Forum Mall, 7 p.m. only.
The Phantom of the Opera is on at PVR Cinema, Hall No. 8, The Forum Mall, 7 p.m. only.
C.K. MEENA
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