Movie Review The Phantom Of The Opera

Tweet

Dario Argento’s 1998 version of the oft-told tale is different in many respects, and also quite faithful in others, and though sometimes too silly for its own good, it retains enough beauty and genuine tension to count as a worthy addition to the horror genre. The differences are highly inventive. The Phantom is not remotely disfigured, but very handsomely played by Julian Sands, who has been raised by rats in the Parisian sewers since being abandoned as a newborn infant. He has been waging a war against the rat catchers who kill his rodent family and friends for some time. The Phantom has some genuinely supernatural abilities. He seems to be able to hypnotize people from afar. He makes one rat-catcher put his own hand into a trap while the rats rip his hand to pieces. The rat catcher, with a dwarf assistant, tries to compensate for this with a highly absurd but inventive mini car, which they peddle through the sewers (Fred Flintstone style) sucking rats up in suction tubes, until they crash. The dwarf is decapitated and the chief catcher struggles, half dead through the sewers for much of the second half of the film. The rather vampiric looking Count played wonderfully by Julian Sands, has an ear for music, and the opera house has a reputation for his presence. He soon finds himself attracted to the young, vivacious singer, Christine, played by the director’s very talented daughter, Asia Argento. Many of the traditional scenes of the Phantom story are here; the falling chandelier, the brash Diva opera start competitor whose reputation the Phantom destroys, the Phantom’s underground lair, the singer’s other boyfriend who gets enmeshed in the conflict to save Christine’s life and soul, etc. The boyfriend himself is hypnotized by the Phantom, and wakes up in a brothel – opium den, convinced that a whore making advances on him is Christine, until he comes to his senses and has a spectacular breakdown as he realizes his surroundings. Christine becomes truly enamored by The Phantom, and the rat catcher sees her making love to him. As the law close in on him, The Phantom sends her away with her boyfriend, though she is terribly distressed to be leaving her new true love. Her heart is plunged into despair as the Phantom succumbs to a hail of bullets and dies in the sewers, watched mournfully by his own rats. A fun film with genuine moments of horror, but occasionally too silly for its own good. The attention to period detail is often magnificent. We see Degas painting young ballet dancers, one of who is almost claimed by a child molester, but saved by the Phantom. The opera house sequences are well handled and the music is understandably lovely throughout. Arthur Chappell