The Phantom of Budapest

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Movie
German title The Phantom of Budapest
Original title The Phantom of the Opera
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1983
length 115 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Robert Markowitz
script Christine Berardo
production Robert Halmi Jr.
music Ralph Burns ,
John Cacavas
camera Larry Pizer
cut Caroline Biggerstaff
occupation

The Phantom of Budapest is an American horror drama produced for television by director Robert Markowitz from 1983 , which is thematically based on the novel " The Phantom of the Opera " by Gaston Leroux , but differs greatly in content.

action

Budapest at the beginning of the 20th century: rehearsals for a production of Gounod's Faust under the renowned conductor Sandor Korvin take place in the Budapest Opera House . The role of Margarete is cast by Sandor with his young, still inexperienced wife, the soprano Elena, who refuses an attempt by the owner of the opera, Baron Hunyadi, to get closer to him during rehearsals. He now feels offended in his honor and lets her debut end in a fiasco.

The audience whistles it mercilessly, and the recognized opera critic Kraus, "inspired" by a generous tip from the baron, puts a damning criticism in the newspaper that same evening. In desperation, Elena takes her own life: She throws herself into the Danube. Sandor has lost his entire life and begins a gruesome campaign of revenge to find the one who bears responsibility for the death of his wife.

He goes to the critic to take him to account, but the situation escalates, a fight ensues in which Kraus is shot and a full glass of sulfuric acid is poured over Sandor's face. Disfigured beyond recognition, he retreats into the vaults under the opera to wait for the right moment for his revenge.

Four years later: Under the direction of the young director Michael Hartnell, a new production of “Faust” with the arrogant diva Brigida Bianchi is to be staged. After a quarrel with Madame Bianchi, he takes the young Maria Gianelli as an understudy. Sandor, who is now up to mischief in the house as a masked phantom, has also discovered the young woman and believes he recognizes his late wife Elena in her. He contacts her and offers her to train her voice to perfection. He invites them to his old house and asks them to take the clothes from the closet during rehearsals and not to tell anyone about this place.

While a romance develops between Maria and Michael, the phantom reacts with mad jealousy and threatens him with death. However, when the baron has also cast his eyes on Maria, Sandor decides that it is time to act. During the annual masked ball, he kidnaps Maria and Hunyadi. He has the baron chopped to death by his trained raven and wants to keep Maria with him in the secret chambers under the opera to spare her the cruel fate of his wife. In the course of a conversation, she tears off his mask and reveals his horribly mutilated face. He gets mad and explains to her that she has lost her chance to get free forever.

Michael does not believe in the police inspector's theory that the baron's murderer probably also killed Maria as a potential witness, and begins to investigate. When he hears the tragedy of Sandor Korvin and his wife, who looks so much like Maria, from some stage workers, he suspects that Korvin might still be alive and could be hiding somewhere in or under the opera. In an archive he gets the plans for the substructure of the opera and really finds his way to the hiding place of the phantom via the sewer system and is able to free Maria.

Sandor, who has finally lost his will to live after losing "his wife" again, decides to throw himself into the audience with the huge chandelier as the last act of revenge against cruel humanity. He is already sawing through the chain when he notices Maria, who is sitting right under the candlestick (a trap for him that Michael and the inspector have set), and tries to warn her, but too late, the chain breaks.

Maria notices the falling chandelier in time and manages to avoid it together with the opera goers. The phantom itself dies, buried under the heavy chandelier, without his mask.

Quotes

  • “Your hand is shaking, my love. That's a very good sign, great singers are always nervous before they perform ”- Sandor Korvin
  • “I'm warning you, Elena! If you leave now, you can forget your career at my opera house, I swear to you. My pleasure is more important to me than anything else ”- Baron Hunyadi
  • "The way you encourage young composers like Bartók deserves recognition" ... "I am sure you would love to write a review of Caruso" - Sandor Korvin
  • "Brigida warm-hearted ?! With her Aida we could all skate on the Nile ”- Michael Hartnell
  • “You cannot learn genius musical talent” - Brigida Bianchi
  • “But I can learn from your mistakes” - Maria Gianelli
  • “Then you surely have some advice on how I can improve my voice even more ?!” - BB
  • "If I were you, I would have them operated on!" - MG
  • “May we find out what that is supposed to be ?! You are Margarete, you killed the child you gave birth to Faust, and now you are waiting to be taken to the execution block, but you play the scene like a fashion doll calling a taxi to go to the hairdresser's! " - Michael Hartnell
  • “All right, you wanted to see my face, now you see it, now look at me. Look at me! Or do you know what's behind it, maybe it's just a mask ?! A mask behind the mask? No, that's me, me, me! Touch it, touch it, now you can't tear anything off, that's me and not a mask! ”- Sandor / Phantom

Reviews

“TV adaptation of the classic material of the 'phantom in the opera', who lives in deep vaults with a horribly disfigured face and supports a young singer who looks like his deceased wife with voice lessons. No faithful version of Leroux's novel, especially since the plot has been moved from Paris to Budapest, which is supposedly more 'folkloric' for American TV viewers; in the main role but played convincingly, with charm in equipment and make-up .. "

“Gaston Leroux's novel The 'Phantom of the Opera', written in 1910, has since been filmed dozens of times. The qualitative range extends from timeless classics such as the legendary 1925 silent film version with Lon Chaney to modern adaptations such as% thinsp; B. Brian De Palma's 'Phantom of the Paradise' to completely unsuccessful kitsch variations. The 1983 American-Hungarian television production 'The Phantom of the Opera' is now definitely one of the film adaptations of the material that are well worth seeing. "

- Thomas Wagner

“The Phantom of the Opera deviates again and again from the literary model and it can be clearly seen that the film was produced for television. It is sufficient for around 1.5 hours of average TV entertainment, but if you expect an appropriate implementation of the novel, you should better watch the silent film with Lon Chaney, or the musical adaptation by Joel Schumacher. "

- Michael Tomiak

Others

  • The film was shot on location in Budapest and at the József Katona Theater in Kecskemét .
  • The make-up of the phantom is the work of effects artist Stan Winston .
  • For the German version of the film Maximilian Schell was dubbed by Erik Schumann .
  • In the newly synchronized DVD edition from 2006, Joachim Kerzel takes over the speaking part of the phantom.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. The Phantom of Budapest. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed January 26, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ^ Thomas Wagner: The Phantom of the Opera. (No longer available online.) In: x zine. Archived from the original ; accessed on January 26, 2017 .
  3. ( page no longer available , search in web archives: film review on splashmovies.de )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.splashmovies.de