The Midnight Train Crossing

So after it being out for a bit less then a month, I finally got to see the movie version of Phantom of the Opera! I haven't seen the play at all, so all I've really had to go by is the music.
First off, I thought the casting was excellent. All had great voices, and the Phantom totally rocked Music of the Night. (In my opinion). The only thing that I thought was a little strange was that being used to the OLC soundtrack, everything is sung, and some of the dialogue was spoken instead of sung. It threw me a little, and I couldn't quite get used to it, but it didn't really spoil the movie for me.

I don't really know who all played what parts, since I don't have a program. (they don't give those out at movies after all) and that's usually how I tell the performers. I thought that Meg was really pretty and Raoul was rather cute. Raoul had a nice voice. I don't normally really like that character, but I liked this actor's portrayal of him. I think it's cuz I liked his voice (and of course it helped that he was kinda cute). Christine had a very nice voice, as did the Phantom, though his singing voice and his spoken voice sometimes didn't match. But he say more then he spoke anyway so yeah :)

From here on follows some rather detailed stuff about the movie, so if you don't want it to be spoiled, stop here. Just know that I liked it a lot, I think it's awesome and it mostly fit how I imagined it to be staged.

As I said, I haven't seen the play, but for the most part, the movie follows the soundtrack exactly. It opens in black and white on the rather decrepit looking opera house and the elderly Raoul arriving for the auction. (His singing parts at the beginning are a voice over). Then they raise up the chandelier and turn the lights on. As the light chases the shadows away and falls on the different parts of the opera house, the dust and cobwebs vanish and the theatre is restored to it's former glory - and the movie turns to color, and rehearsal for Hannibal starts.

Carlotta had her entourage of maids following her around, with an assortment of things, including a little dog. (Then, after Prim Donna she got another one). She was fabulous - a perfect Diva, and really rather funny. One part that was very funny was the maids cleaning the theatre during rehearsal. Whenever Carlotta would sing, they would put on ear plugs.
And they all wince when Carlotta starts to sing Think Of Me.

After the performance, Christine has a ton of flowers in her dressing room, but the only one she seems to care about is a dark red single rose tied with a black ribbon - from the Phantom. He is lurking about, but you don't really see him. (Yes, I know, you're not supposed to). You see like, his cape at one point when he dropped a letter so that it conveniently lands at Madame Giry's feet.

The scene between Christine and Meg "Angel of Music" takes place in, I dunno, it looks like the Opera House Chapel. Christine is lighting candles in memory of her father (while still in costume).
This scene was a little odd to me, most likely because I'm so used to the sound track, but some parts of it were spoken, not sung.

Raoul takes a bunch of flowers from Andre and Firman and goes into talk to Christine. She says that she has been visited by the Angel of Music to which he replies, "Well of course. Now let's go to dinner". Which I thought was kinda funny, just the way he delivered that line.

Then the Phantom comes. First you see his hand locking Christine into the dressing room, and Mme. Giry looking a little disapproving. Then his voice echoes around her room, and then you slowly see him appear in the mirror. And he takes Christine down and down and down and down…

The lake/boat bit was cool. The candles rise up out of the foggy lake. (The lit candles. Phantom magic I'm sure). I like the title song, so I enjoyed that part. Music of the Night was very pretty, very nicely sung, especially the last line. He held the note for an impressively long time. And Christine gets a very pretty bed. It's a swan with black gauzy curtains around it.

A tiny added scene has Meg looking for Christine. She looks in the dressing room to see that the mirror passage has not been completely closed. And so, she lives up to her blonde hair and decides to go down the passage. (Not smart Meg). She doesn't get too far before there's a hand on her shoulder. She whirls to see Mme. Giry, who tells her not to come here, and marches her back out.
All that's notable about the scene in which Buquet is talking about the Phantom is that Mme. Giry slaps him at the end of it when she yells at him.

When Christine wakes up and goes over to the Phantom (who is working at his organ) and takes the mask off, the audience doesn't see his face (Like in the play). He is either turned away from the camera, or covering his face with his hand.

I liked the Notes section. Again, that's just a part of the soundtrack that I've always liked, so yeah :)
Prima Donna was funny because, as I've said Carlotta was fabulously funny. Andre and Firman did some major kissing up in that scene, including carrying her on a litter throughout the theatre, and getting her a little black dog (so then she had two).

During the performance, the Phantom is lurking around near the top of the theatre and for some reason, Buquet decides to investigate. This leads to a bit of a chase scene in the cat walk of the theatre before the Phantom finally catches him and kills him. The Phantom, apparently can climb ropes without his cape giving him any trouble. (By the way, dude can wear a cape ;))

Somehow, after Christine flees the stage and takes Raoul with her up to the roof, she has another of the roses from the Phantom. I'm not sure how she got it, I just know she had it.
All I Ask Of You was very pretty (Again, I like that song anyway) and they showed the Phantom lurking behind one of the statues throughout basically the whole song.
So the rose is highly symbolic. At one point during the song, Christine drops it to the ground (roof?) and takes Raoul's hand instead.
Then, after they leave, the Phantom picked up the rose carefully and strokes it, holding it gently to his face, and then when he hears Christine and Raoul singing "offstage" (off camera?) he crushes it and the petals fall. Then for the big finish of the second act, he climbs up on this statue of a winged horse and belts out his line:
"You will curse the day you did not do all that the phantom asked of you!!" And in the shot, the wings of the statue look like they're coming out of his back, but, they're black wings, and it's just a nice shot.

During 'intermission' the film goes black and white again and it's back to Raoul, driving along. He sees someone who I *think* is Meg Giry, and that just starts him remembering.

Back to the masquerade, three months later. The dialogue is a little different to account for the fact that there has been no chandelier crash yet. The whole Masquerade dance sequence was cool, but it seemed a little "off". Not in a bad way, because in my opinion it should seem a little eerie and it was. I thought it was kinda funny that they were singing about all these different colors, but they were all in black, white and gold. Any other colors were all sorta faded.
Christine and Raoul are not in costume, at least, they're not wearing masks.
Now this part was one part of the movie that I had to admit, I did not like. The entire bit about the secret engagement is spoken. Even the "let's not argue, please pretend, you will understand in time" is spoken. I really think that part needs to be sung.

Then the Phantom enters in bright red and Raoul exits. The Phantom throws his script at them, and then pulls out a sword, which he uses as a bit of a pointer when he talks about Carlotta, Piangi and the managers. (The second Notes scene dialogue is put in the Masquerade scene).
Raoul returns, with a sword of his own and is about to fight the Phantom, but he vanishes in a whirl of fire and goes down a trap door. Raoul, being a stupid pretty-boy decides that it will be a good idea to jump down after him, but instead, he emerges in a room lined with mirrors.
It's the torture chamber from the book!
He sees the Phantom's reflection, and swings around a bit with his sword, but only hits glass. This continues for a moment until Mme. Giry comes down and rescues Raoul.

He insists upon her telling him what she knows about the Phantom, because he can tell that she always seems to know what's going on, so she proceeds to tell him the Phantom's history, and an added scene follows.
In this version, Mme. Giry saw him in the carnival, and in a scene straight out of Susan Kay's novel, she saw a 'performance'. Then she witnessed him murder his 'keeper' and she helped him escape. Then she took him to the opera house, where he remained.

Then they make the plot for how to capture the Phantom. Christine SPEAKS her fears about it to Raoul. This spoken part also sounded strange, but it didn’t bother me as much as Masquerade did. They don’t do any of the rehearsal scenes for Don Juan.

Then, in the next scene, the ballet girls are in bed in the middle of the night and Christine gets the desire to visit her father’s grave. (Yes, in the middle of the night). So she calls for either a cab, or just some guy at the theatre who has a carriage (I’m sure). While she is getting her coat, the Phantom knocks the driver out and takes his place.
Raoul sees them drive out and comes tearing down. The driver has just come to in time to tell Raoul that they’re headed for the cemetery, so Raoul leaps onto a convenient white horse and gallops off.

Christine goes to the cemetery and sings Wishing You Were Some How Here Again to her father’s house-sized grave. When the Phantom starts to sing, the inside is lit up by red lights.
Raoul comes tearing up, and leaps off his horse. He goes up to the mausoleum, between it and Christine. Then the Phantom jumps down and a sword fight in the graveyard follows.
The Phantom draws blood from Raoul, but eventually Raoul disarms him, and is about to kill him when Christine stops him. (Way dramatic). So they leave the Phantom there and ride off.

Don Juan Triumphant looked creepy as all get out, all reds and blacks. The Phantom swoops down all impressive on Piangi.
I wasn’t sure if Christine knew right away that the Phantom was indeed the Phantom. I dunno how she wouldn’t be able to tell, given that the Phantom is supposed to have this distinctive voice and all. But she also could have been acting the part in the play.
If she does know it’s him, she plays along, and she even seems to let him know that she knows. Raoul and the managers seem to know as well, because the police are starting to get into position.

Christine rips his mask off just as the Phantom is singing All I Ask Of You, but she looks really apologetic about it. At this point, they are on a bridge above the stage.
He looks stunned for a moment, and then pulls on a chord. This has two results. The bridge gives way and he and Christine plunge down into the stage, and the chandelier falls.
A lot of things start on fire when the chandelier falls, including the score for Don Juan, and it burns away (A nod to the original novel I think)

Mme. Giry leads Raoul down the stairs towards the Phantom’s lair, while Meg holds back the angry mob, diverting them enough to give them time.

Raoul and Mme. Giry part ways, and Raoul takes off his coat, preparing to swim when he steps through another trap door. (And makes a very nice sounding yelp). Again, he has fallen into one of the Phantom’s traps. He gets stuck under water and a sort of grate is lowering on top of him.
Since we know that Raoul doesn’t die, he manages to find the controls and get the grate up again.

By this point the normally well-groomed Phantom looks quite wild. As to how he looks, only one side of his face is deformed. It’s all red, and looks burnt. One of his eyes looks rather creepy as well. His hair is also all messy, which was a nice touch.

Raoul comes at his appointed time and falls into the Phantom’s trap.
I just loved the look on the Phantom’s face when Christine kissed him. He had a definate look of shock. Then he kissed her again, and then started to cry
((Aww... poor Phantom...))

After he sings his final lines: "You alone can make my song take flight, it’s over now, the music of the night!" he picks up a candle stick and starts smashing the mirrors in the room (There are several). Behind one of the mirrors is a secret passage. He takes one last look around and then vanishes through the passage.

Meg comes in and sees his mask sitting on the table next to the music box. She picks it up and kind of hugs it to her chest, then takes it with her so the police don’t see.

Back to black and white film, Raoul arrives at the cemetery and places the music box on Christine’s grave. Then he sees, also on her grave, a single red rose, tied with a black ribbon.