What the Manolo Is…
Manolo says, it is Tuesday, and after the long break, it is again time to see what the Manolo is…
All the Manolo can say about the new Sweeny Todd, with the magnificent Johnny Depp, is that it is the masterpiece, the mad, misanthropic, repellent, gruesome masterpiece. In recent years, the Manolo had grown quite weary of Tim Burton and his whimsical, Addams-Family-style schtick, but this movie is on the entirely different level.
There is the undeniably malignant artistic vision at the heart of this movie that goes far beyond the usual winking and ironic stage productions of the past thirty years. Burton seems to be the first director to have fully comprehended the monstrosity contained in Sondheim’s lyrics, and is he certainly the first to have approved of it.
The Johnny Depp is indeed magnificent.
I read a recent article/review/essay in the New York Times where the writer took her son(11 years old, I think), and who had this to say:
“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” is rated R, in this case for geysers of arterial blood rather than for disrobed flesh or untamed language. It is a scary, brutal, horrifying film — also a musical, by the way — and two-thirds of the way through it my son turned to me and said, “I’m loving this.” And why wouldn’t he? ” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/11/movies/11scot.html?_r=1&ref=movies&oref=slogin
Yes. Yes yes yes. The new Sweeney, it is a brilliant vision of the musical. I can’t wait to see it again. (The ragged slicing notwithstanding — the blood doesn’t bother me so much, it’s where the blood comes from.)
I didn’t actually find it that gruesome, but then, you should see where I live!
It is indeed a magnificent achievement, most particularly because you can actually understand every word they’re singing. Opera should learn from this!