Thursday, December 27, 2007

Tim Burton's Musical Sweeney Is Horrorfilm


Foto: Johnny Depp in Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street
/ Peter Mountain/ DreamWorks-Warner Brothers via The New York Times, 2007


Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd.
Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd.
He served a dark and a vengeful god.
What happened then — well, that's the play,
And he wouldn't want us to give it away,
Not Sweeney,
Not Sweeney Todd,
The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Deze tekst is afkomstig uit de succesvolle Broadway musical "Sweeny Todd" van Stephen Sondheim.

Sondheim's Sweeney
"No one writes more passionately for the musical theater than Stephen Sondheim. It's the nature of those passions that makes frightened audiences want to shunt them aside by dismissing them as ''intellectual.'' Mr. Sondheim fearlessly explores psychic caverns where civilized people are not dying to go."

"Mr. Sondheim hears ''the music that nobody hears'': the music by which people act out their basest grand passions. We're increasingly aware that the plot's ugliest incidents inspire Mr. Sondheim's most gorgeous melodies. Rape comes with a minuet and murder with a rhapsodic ode to ''Pretty Women.'' When Ms. Fowler fantasizes about domestic bliss with Sweeney - in a cozy resort hideaway equally suitable for lovemaking and throat-slitting - she expresses her deranged hopes in a cheery mock-Beatrice Lillie ditty, ''By the Sea.''
Recensie NYT, 1989 Frank Rich: New 'Sweeney' with New Message

Burton's Demon Barber
Op deze musical is de nieuwste film van Tim Burton gebaseerd op: "Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street". Meer horror dan musical, wordt er van de film gezegd: het geweld is explicieter dan op het toneel. Johnny Depp en Helena Bonham Carter spelen opnieuw de hoofdrollen in deze film. In tegenstelling tot de musical zijn zij niet uitgezocht vanwege hun zangstemmen, maar Johnny Depp schijnt met een matige stem een sterk optreden neer te zetten. Nederlandse premiere 24 januari.



Recensie NYT, 21 december 2007: Frank Rich: Murder Most Musical

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