The Phantom of the Opera (1998)

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Movie
German title Das Phantom der Oper /
Dario Argento's Das Phantom der Oper
Original title Il fantasma dell'Opera
Country of production Italy , Hungary
original language Italian
Publishing year 1998
length 99 (Director's Cut 106) minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Dario Argento
script Gérard Brach
Dario Argento
production Claudio Argento
Giuseppe Colombo
Aron Sipos
music Ennio Morricone
camera Ronnie Taylor
cut Anna Rosa Napoli
occupation

The Phantom of the Opera (alternatively: Dario Argento's Das Phantom der Oper , not to be confused with Argento's Terror in the Opera , 1988) is an Italian-Hungarian horror film from 1998 based on Gaston Leroux's novel " The Phantom of the Opera ", however, there are major deviations in terms of content and personal description. Julian Sands played the title role and was directed by Dario Argento .

action

On a thunderstorm night, a young couple abandoned a toddler in the Seine . The currents wash the basket into a cave-like vault ( the Pertosa Caves ) under the Paris Opera , where it is teeming with rats, to an underground lake.
Years later the opera was rumored to be haunted. Because the abandoned child was rescued and raised by the rats and regards the catacombs of the opera as his kingdom. Several stagehands who got lost in the labyrinthine corridors paid for this with their lives. The stage master Joseph Buquet atones for his weakness for the little ballet girls and is torn to pieces by a "phantom" with a long black cloak.
The young soprano Christine Daaé is studying the role of Julia as a second cast for the diva Carlotta Altieri in the upper world of opera. Carried away by her beauty and her voice, the phantom reveals herself in her dressing room with the promise to make her the greatest singer in all of Paris. Christine is actually in a relationship with the young Baron Raoul De Chagny. Attracted by the mysterious, dark charisma of the stranger, she follows him to his hiding place, where they love each other passionately. Raoul drowns his lovesickness in various exotic drugs and sexual debauchery.
Carlotta, who is not intimidated by the phantom's threats, appears in the opera. The phantom's revenge follows immediately. During her great aria, it lets the huge chandelier fall into the audience, killing or seriously injuring several visitors. Christine is scared of her lover's dangerous pursuits of possessions and asks Raoul for assistance.
As promised by the Phantom, she gets the lead role. During their performance, the opera's pied piper storms onto the stage. The phantom once forced him to mutilate himself. In revenge, he publicly exposes the singer as the "whore of the phantom" because he has secretly observed the two. While the tumult broke out, the Phantom kidnapped Christine from the stage into the catacombs, closely followed by Raoul and the police who had since arrived.
The phantom brings his beloved to the underground lake, where a boat is already waiting. There there is a confrontation between the Phantom and Raoul. Raoul shoots the phantom and Christine gets into a loyalty conflict. The phantom realizes that it can own her body but not her love and leaves the boat to the two of them.
While Raoul brings the sobbing Christine to safety, the phantom is shot down by the police after a bitter resistance and drifts dead in the lake.

Reviews

  • Lexicon of international film : Gaston Leroux's classic horror novel is shown in Dario Argento's version in an unusually hermetic stylization: Consistently restricting itself to the image and dramaturgy forms of the late 19th century, the film takes you into a morbid world apart from all sensations of time, in which the Story about the young singer from the Paris Opera and the monster that beset her developed from the catacombs of the underworld. Anyone expecting an exciting, scary film will be disappointed - artistically the difficult path that the film takes and which still offers space for riotous scenes of violence is quite remarkable.

DVD release

  • Dario Argento's The Phantom of the Opera / December 12, 2001 / Sunfilm Entertainment

Others

  • One of the most significant differences between the novel and other previous film adaptations is that the phantom in this film is neither wearing a mask nor showing any form of disfigurement.
  • The title role of the Phantom was originally intended to be played by John Malkovich .
  • The Phantom of the Opera can be seen as a remake of the Argentinian film " El Fantasma de la ópera " from 1960 due to the similarities in content .
  • For the love scene between the phantom and Christine, Asia Argento was replaced by a body double.
  • In July 2017, the age rating in Germany was reduced from 18 to 16 years.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. The Phantom of the Opera. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. schnittberichte.com, accessed on July 27, 2017