tygerblade

I went to see Phantom of the Opera for Valentine's Day. Alone in a theater with three couples. At first I didn't like the movie, because it seemed a bit over the top, too stylized to feel real. It particularly pissed me off that they made little effort to make it seem like the actors were doing anything but lip synching their lines. You never doubted that the actors sang their lines in West Side Story, did ya? And the phantom seemed too good looking. What's the point of a non-hideous phantom!?!?!? When they took off his mask for the first time, his scars looked more like a minor blemish. I've met people with acne worse than that!!

But it kept improving, and was visually stunning throughout, and by the second act I was lost in the music, and the acting actually got better. Slightly. And they made the phantom uglier, if only by messing up his hair more and inflaming his scars. You could see beauty and monstrousity in his face all at once. My favorite was the graveyard scene. I could happily live in one of those masoleums. Imagine waking to the beauty of those statues every morning, draped in fog or snow.

I just wish the music had been louder, I used to really crank up the volume on Phantom when I was in high school, till the music made your skin vibrate. There were times in the theatre that I fancied I would glide about in the dark on rollerblades, or perhaps with no need for my feet to contact the earth at all, just floating and twirling through the air, blending in with the dancers on the screen. My imaginary self has ever been graceful beyond words, far unlike the clutz that is me. So I wisely chose to remain in my seat and watched the movie. I forgot my to bring my rollerblades anyway...