Good! I’m happy to hear that I’m not the only one bothered by the pronunciation.
“The FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHNtam of the opera…”
bah.
And the phantom’s voice sounded downright flat at times. You would think they could have found a better singer.
Visually it was was a nice movie- for what that’s worth.
:eek:
I had NO IDEA he’d even DONE Phantom! Canadian cast recording? RUNS to amazon…
Damn! All Amazon has is the highlights album…
That’s what I have, too. But autographed. 
Hate. You. :mad:
Ah. That explains it. Still, she has to have used better tone in the dubbing than in the film. The effect of the high notes mixing with her mouth shape as seen in that film would be… have you ever put your nails across a blackboard?
I have the full recording, original production (I think; I sadly cannot check). But not autographed. :mad:
Well it is just strange overall, even in the stage version.
It is the only really huge ‘production’ number. The only one that really involves the entire cast singing and ‘dancing’. Yes there are some scenes from the opera productions but those don’t really count as they all end by the Phantom doing something. But Masquerade is really a slow song. A slow repetative song. The movie version I thougt was desperately trying to match Moulin Rouge scenes like the Can Can or Roxanne but since those are really great, TPoO failed miserably. The fact that Joel Hackmocker was directing didnt’ help.
But I’m in love with Emmy Rossum so…
Finally got around to getting the DVD a month ago. Up to the Music of the Night I thought it was wonderful. After that it sucked. Having seen two stage performances, much is worse in the movie but some things are better:
Better:
The movie Meg. Such a totally gorgeous creature and I loved her opening of Angel of Music.
Seeing Christine up close: A very lovely lady with a very adequate but not incredible voice. Seeing her transform from tentative naive maiden to sex goddess in heat was great.
The opening. Loved the auctioneer’s voice “perhaps we can frighten away the ghosts”. The play has some limitations on the visuals and the movie did a great job in the transformation back in time. However, it did seem somewhat of a ripoff of the Titanic technique.
Worse:
Casting of the Phantom. He had a journeyman voice, but he smiled too much and looked like he was channelling John Travolta.
The Phantom’s disfigurement. In the stage you have the other mask for the two scenes where his mask is taken. But in the movie, his deformities didn’t seem that bad- you see worse each day in your average city.
Swordfighting. If I never see another movie swordfight, it would be too soon. My least favorite part of the play was always that silly graveyard scene with the Phantom shooting little fireworks to his side, at least the movie didn’t do that but they missed a chance to improve the product.
Length. The first half of the film was very good if not superb (ignoring the Phantom’s singing quality). The second half was torture. We just didn’t need the circus scene to give background to the Phantom’s past and the Phantom- Madame Giry connection.
My main problem was the Phantom’s scar. I had dinner last night at a restaurant where the waitress had a much worse scar and nobody turned their head in disgust; the thought that he could be a freak show attraction amidst people with parasitic twins and alligator skin and the like is ridiculous; this guy had a birth mark basically. (Now Lon Chaney you could believe as “the Devil’s Child”.)
Also, totally gone is the backstory from the book (in which he took up in the Opera House only after years spent travelling the world, designing a maze of mirrors for the Shah of Persia and the like). And as I mentioned in another post, how does he get all the cool stuff and clothing? Can you imagine him getting a tailor to come do a fitting? “Okay, I live at the Opera Populaire. Write this down because you’ll die if you don’t… go to the second gargoyle past the stair landing and twist its right nipple… that’s the statue’s right nipple, trust me- you don’t want to twist the left nipple as let’s just say that’s a ‘security feature’- that will open up a hollow tree which will lead you down two flights of circular stairs. Now avoid every eighth step because it will drop you into a furnace… say that back to me… avoid every what… right… every eighth step… okay, now you’ll come out in a circular room of mirrors, you want the second mirror on your right… it’ll be at a 2:00 position until it starts spinning… when you come out from that, take the gondola with the figurehead of the dragon woman on it (trust me, if you take the other gondola you’ll be sorry) and pull up to the dock next to the Ikea landing, not the big Gothic one… can’t miss me.”
Bwaa Ha ha
I loved the film. Sure it has it’s problems (mostly with the direction) but I was entertained, the music was great, and it was a rich spectacle to watch. I thought Gerard Butler did a fine job. They weren’t going for the same kind of voice you hear on Broadway, so I didn’t have any problems with that. Though the best stage Phantom I’ve heard has been Hugh Panaro (currently on Broadway.) I do agree the deformity should have been more grotesque.
And about the Phantom getting his clothes, didn’t he pay a servant to go out and procure things for him? I forget if that was in the original novel or in Susan Kay’s version. I read them all in the course of about a week and now they all blend together.
I had lots of little problems with the film, most of which have been mentioned so I won’t repeat them- except that I must second that the “Origin of the Phantom” circus backstory was stupid.
I won’t repeat all my little problems with the film because I could have forgiven every one of them if it weren’t for my one BIG problem with the film:
It wasn’t scary.
It wasn’t even tense or suspenseful. I’ve seen it onstage and it had some really good scares, and of course the silent film with Lon Chaney was awesome! Lots of scariness there, even the non-scary scenes are scary cause you know something scary is going to happen!
There were things I liked about it. The story gains alot from a screen portrayal- some of the events were just too complex to be done effectively onstage. It looked beautiful. And I loved (and was surprised by) Minnie Driver, I watched her throughout the film thinking “Gee, that actress is great- and she really looks like Minnie Driver, I wonder who she is”. And I’ve wanted to see more of Emmy Rossum ever since Songcatcher (on the soundtrack she does a brilliant, beautiful duet with Dolly Parton).
If there was even a little bit of scariness I could have forgiven all the flaws. If, at least, the Phantom himself were scary!
Ergggghhhhh, too much time has passed since I last read. 
He did have a prosthetic nose and good enough makeup skills to go out in public on his own. And he did have some acquaintances amon the staff at the Opera. Hm…
I’m currently thinking he didn’t have any actual servants, but that it might have seemed like he did in the book in a few places because he pretended that there were and used special effects to reinforce that. My opinion could easily be changed though.
I’m pretty sure there are a costume department and a props department in the building,
It wasn’t loud enough. At the beginning when the music starts to “Scare away the ghosts,” it should be loud. It totally wasn’t. Also–isn’t the whole point of the Masquerade to be colorful? Every face a different shade? And they put everyone in black and white? Whaaaaa?
Was anyone else confused as to why the actress playing Madame Giry put on such a heavy French accent? No one else in the movie had one. What, was she supposed to be twice as French as everyone else?
I don’t think there was a “full” recording. The one I have is the highlights, too, but it’s a more complete recording then the London highlights.
Never saw the stage version (not a big fan of Andy Weber) but actually bought this DVD and liked it much more than I thought I would.
Oh man, you’re not just whistling Dixie. I was thinking he resembled Travolta, and about 5 minutes later my boyfriend commented aloud. We had a good laugh over that.
Interestingly, John Travolta was considered—I don’t know how seriously—for the part of the Phantom at one point (this was some years ago, around the time of his Pulp Fiction comeback, I think).