#phantom ramblings

[leahhhlynnn]

painting my nails for bullets fall

[blackghostm2o]

Phantom Ramblings time.

I’ll yap about the Y/K Phantom musical (I saw the Riverside 2004 production). -> random unorganised thoughts.

Generally speaking I did enjoy it, it was a nice and fun watch.

I enjoyed the songs (especially Melodie de Paris), they were really catchy, but I do admit that my foreign ass had a really hard time understanding the choruses (unsure if this is the right term) and there were A LOT of them, compared to ALW’s musical that has them, but to a lesser extent. I also noticed (or maybe I’m wrong) that the pacing of all the songs here was faster compared to the other musical.

I obviously cannot talk about Y/K Phantom without bringing up the 1990 miniseries (my beloved). SO… The miniseries benefits A LOT from the added hour of runtime, the story, especially the ending, are allowed to breathe and don’t feel rushed.

In the miniseries ALL the songs have been cut (it wouldn’t have been bad if they kept some of them), but they added some stuff: showing Erik’s shenanigans towards LaCarlotta (which in the musical are only hinted by showing the aftermath), the plot line of Raoul and Christine knowing each other as kids (I always find it really boring and an unnecessary addition), moments of Christine and Erik bonding (ohh <3333) that in the musical are condensed to just them rehearsing (again: time constraints), the whole final part!!! = Christine escaping then returning and singing in Faust, Erik being a fool and kidnapping her again after their duet.

Here Erik is a bit more aggressive than Cherik, he actually killed Buquet, kills LaCarlotta with electricity (iirc), which took me really by surprise lmao, is shown getting a bit mad at Christine during rehearsals… Alas… He doesn’t have the same charm of Cherik, tho this is not Christopher Carl’s fault, his acting was really good, it has to do with the additions that were made to the series, for example: him choosing his hat, the hug between them, singing her a lullaby <3, THEIR DUET IN FAUST (I’m normal about Cherik, I swear!).

This scene was better delivered by Charles Dance in my humble opinion. I do like how the miniseries maintained almost completely all the spoken parts of the musical.

The Unmasking… Well… I do like how they do a bit of chit chat when they sit down (Erik is so precious here ahhhh), instead of immediately being “Heyyy! Would you mind doing me a favour?” There’s a song before it (by Christine) singing about how she will learn to love him getting past fear and doubt (I was crying ngl… Knowing it’s outcome…Seeing how scared Erik is… God dammit…), BUT I, once again, prefer how the miniseries did it… Christine here is scared and runs away while saying sorry, in 1990 she faints… And… Oh God… Cherik’s reaction… Crying onto himself, then slowly (hardly) getting away while crying… And the the distraught “why” and his distant wailing… Terrific acting… As I already said this is possible, because they had more time to let the scenes breathe and had no songs to fit in (I also prefer this to having a song, sorry musical fans don’t kill me).

LaCarlotta here is an even bigger bitch than 1990.

Philippe (Raoul) is useless as always :)

I like the ballet to show Gerard and Erik’s past.

No Faust duet here :( big sad… (How much I love that scene)

The ending here is really rushed (as I said), he didn’t kidnap Christine and didn’t almost kill Philippe, tho. Not as emotional as 1990 (which broke me into pieces, I was ugly crying).

Christine is not as manipulative as 1990 Christine, sorry but we can’t deny how much she used Cherik’s love to make him do what she wanted…

Nice to see what 1990 was based on. In general I love Erik Carriere <333 (my pookie, I’d hug him)

[blackghostm2o]

New Phantom Ramblings (just random thoughts), this time with another musical boot :)))

World tour Singapore 2019 (Tysm op)

Starting by saying that it is a really good boot, very clear in visual (except for some REALLY shaky parts and the lighting making it a bit difficult to see the actors faces) and in audio.

Random yapping (as always) and comparing some sections with the 25th and this boot (with Hugh Panaro as Phantom) —> the only 2 full shows that I’ve seen. Not really well organised thoughts, sorry.

In MotN I’ve noticed that the Phantom here (Jonathan Roxmouth) keeps a lot of distance to Christine, compared to the other productions I’ve mentioned above (even tho in the yt boot it’s a bit hard to say, because it doesn’t exactly show both of them during MotN, so I could be mistaken). Might that be just a direction choice? Or is it the Phantom being almost… Afraid of being too close to Christine (as in: “Idk what could happen, on both sides, so it’s better to keep some distance between us”) ? (Or maybe I’m just horrendously misreading this…). In the 25th they stay A LOT CLOSER during the whole song, tho that version deviates a bit from the original format; the yt boot has the Phantom moving around a lot (like here), but also “dangerously” coming close to Christine and teasing her (yk how Panaro’s Phantom was, that scoundrel! Haha). Take for example this part:

Here the Phantom (Hugh Panaro) gets really close, almost touches Christine, seems like he is going to kiss her.

(I’ve put the video because the GIF is too pixelated to see anything and it makes me want to bang my head against the wall)

So… You might say… Well here too seems to almost touch her, but still keeps that safe distance to her (as a way to control himself? Maybe? Idk)

Won’t bring out the 25th for this lil part, because he literally CARRIES HER (mf got luckier /j) , so totally different story there.

Moving on. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS LITTLE DETAIL OF JROX’S (I think I’ve seen people referring to him like that, but correct me if I’m mistaken) ACTING in “Stranger than you dreamt it” when he says “ This is what you wanted to see!?!” ohhh, love love love:

The way he crouches and shows his face with so much CONTEMPT!!!. Also Christine’s (Meghan Picerno) little jump, omg.

In the 25th has a different vibe (more violent), because they are running around and he also grabs her and then shoves her to the ground (not very gentleman behaviour, my man).

Not to say that Roxmouth’s Phantom here is more chill, just look at this:

(Btw I really like his stomping, also in the final lair)

Ironically enough Panaro’s Phantom here is less of a brute than these two.

Idk how to “classify” Roxmouth’s Phantom here… Panaro’s and Karimloo’s are almost at opposite ends, but idk about him… Hm.

(Me dumb)

As I said other times we could stay here all day comparing all the differences between them (that’s the beauty of it), so I’ll stop here (even tho there are many other parts that are interesting to take into consideration)

:)

[blackghostm2o]

Phantom Ramblings time!

I just saw PotO 1989 (the slasher one)… Eh…

It has some really funny moments, but for the rest is just bad (not at the levels of the RatFucker, but still bad) and a bit boring at times (I found myself doodling an unimpressed Lerik on my desk, because of this).

The whole time travel/ reincarnation doesn’t really make sense (at least with Christine) and I didn’t really like it.

Everything that makes the story interesting is not present here. Erik was a normal dude who sold his soul to Mephistopheles and gets his face fucked up (ngl I did really like how they did his “deformity” and that scene where he is taking off “his” skin is really cool and gross, really liked it). Really nasty with his murders (unlike his og counterpart who was more clean and methodical about it) and he TAKES PEOPLE’S SKIN TO SEW IT ON HIMSELF! Like wtf???? Just being your average slasher antagonist, but come on… They could have been more creative with this kills. Obsessed dude (you don’t say?) who doesn’t learn anything and still pursues Christine in the modern time (didn’t really like this). Gets killed by Christine (✨slay✨ literally). Ah yes! He here requests Box 5 and 300 marks a month (really generous of him, his og wanted 20.000)

Raoul, or better RICHARD, is useless and gets actually killed (*le gasp* from the other phantoms). Don’t have much to say honestly… He probably borrowed his masquerade from the musical Raoul “Hey man! Your fit is really slick! Could I borrow it, please?”

Christine? She is your average adaptation Christine, but at least here she saves herself by, as I said, killing Erik (not really like in the novel, lol), she did the right thing here.

Another adaptation in which there’s the ratchatcher BUT NOT THE DAROGA. Are there like 3 or 4 adaptations that do this (bro wtf!).

Pretty uninteresting movie, ngl. I don’t even have much to say about this…

Here’s my doodle

[blackghostm2o]

New "Phantom Ramblings" post (oh wow!)

I'VE FINALLY WATCHED PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE!!!

The soundtrack is really good, i really enjoyed its songs (listening to the soundtrack rn, haha)

It is really fast paced and chaotic (especially when Winslow hasn't become the Phantom yet), not a bad thing I just wasn't expecting it, but it works well.

This version is really distant from it's original, however its aim is not being a PotO adaptation, but more of a critique towards the music business while using the PotO story to convey its message.

Yk... With predatory contracts, getting to perform only because you sold your body to a powerful mf, the unhealthy relationship between the performers and the public, the constant search for sensationalism (like when Swan wanted to kill Phoenix, or when no one batted an eye when Beef died), prioritising everything else but music (with greedy execs that change the whole soul of a song to make easy money), etc...

Leaving all of this sad stuff behind, heh... Spoilers ahead.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE WINSLOW!!!! (Already on the 15 min mark I was "I love him sm") SWAN DID HIM SO SO DIRTY!!! NOOOOOOO!!!! Not only he took his music, but then he got also HIS VOICE (thus taking his soul, even tho he literally takes his soul with a contract, but I digress). Swan being: "Plugged here you can sing" while giving him a robotic voice to talk was really cruel >:(. Here idk if we can say that he is in love with Phoenix... He did want her to sing... Ok, now that i think about it he rewrote his songs with her in mind and was destroyed when he saw her sleeping with Swan... Yeah he loved her, but in a totally different way from the original. The way he got his music stolen and got disfigured while trying to destroy copies of his work (here Faust iirc) is really similar to what happened in the '62 PotO movie. The Phantom's design here is really cool, I like it (but also so fucking hard to draw rhaaaaa). Also him tryng to stop Phoenix for going to Swan's house T.T THE WAY HE DIES!!!! NOOOOO!!!! *sobs and cries*

FUCK SWAN that mf sold his soul to remain always young (obviously takes inspo from Faust, but made me also think of Dorian Gray, especially because of the whole tape thing and eternal beauty). Acting a lot like your typical phantom, talking from behind mirrors, having hidden passages, asking for THE VOICE of Chr- ahem Phoenix.

Ngl I loved Beef, he didn't really deserve to die, he just did what he was asked to do, he even wanted to go away... Ohh! I just realised that he is this movie's version of LaCarlotta (sorry guys, I'm dumb). He was such a DIVA, haha.

Loved Phoenix's singing, such a beautiful voice <333. A bit sad to see her being lured by Swan, but I don't really blame her... Imagine receiving so much praise and attention for the first time... Obviously you will want more. Fortunately she ended up unscathed from this whole deal (thanks to Winslow).

Btw the movie is really fun, I highly suggest watching it :)<3

I'll try to draw THE SILLY, wish me luck. We need more potp art around here, ngl.

[blackghostm2o]

Yesterday I’ve watched the PotO cartoon from 1987.

It is bad, but really fun, made me laugh many times. The animation is atrocious, but I don’t think that they had a big budget, so I don’t really mind. Btw this cartoon does more justice to the novel than the majority of its adaptations.

It is really close to the original novel: it has some minor changes (like Raoul and Christine hanging out before her singing debut and Erik’s death) and some cuts (which makes sense considering it’s short runtime). I absolutely loved how there were some lines that were directly taken from the novel! Really great!!!

Raoul is just like his book counterpart, being jealous, a bit of a bitch ass and willing do to anything for Christine.

WE HAVE THE DAROGA (which is a plus, I love you Daroga). He isn’t comedy relief (thank goodness) and actually knows what he’s doing.

Also Christine is close to her original, maybe a bit violent? She literally throws a bottle of perfume to Raoul, because he was overhearing her conversation with Erik (really unexpected)

Erik here is the same as Lerik, pathetic wet cat of a man, crazy af, has the humor. He gets his redemption a bit differently… He decided to leave Christine be with Raoul after realising how strong their love is and then he gets kissed… Not particularly fond of this decision, undermines Christine’s action imo. HE RANDOMLY KILLS A CAT!???! I HATE THAT! I think that he wouldn’t do that, try and change my mind. The shot of his yellow eyes is really cool, love that.

I’ll probably do a lil doodle of cartoon Erik

Look at this smug bastard.

[blackghostm2o]

Idk… I might just be crazy…

I think that “Who will know” from Shin Godzilla’s OST works very well with Erik… And ik that you (generic) could be: “A Godzilla song??? Get your bitch ass out of here!”

But here’s the song (with lyrics):

And the written lyrics:

If I die in this world

Who will know something of me?

I am lost, no one knows

There's no trace of my yearning

If I die in this world

(But I must carry on)

Who will know something of me?

(Nothing worse can befall)

I am lost, no one knows

(All my fears, all my tears)

There's no trace of my yearning

(Tell my heart there's a hole)

I wear a void

Not even hope

A downward slope

Is all I see

I wear a void

(As long as breath comes from my mouth)

Not even hope

(I may yet stand the slightest chance)

A downward slope

(A shaft of light is all I need)

Is all I see

(To cease the darkness killing me)

Sooo… Yeah…

The first lines are a bit self explanatory, then we have “there’s no trace of my yearning” could be from his self proclaimed “exile” from the human world (Yk… Living under the Opera house), living alone and assuming the myth of the Phantom. This line also works when he was “living” among others, since most of his life he wasn’t considered as a human but just as a freak, an attraction, a monstrous creature (except for few cases).

Between the two voices, female (orange) and male (red), there’s one big difference: the lack/ presence of hope. Might this show his attitude towards life? He literally sleeps on a coffin to get used to his eventual death and doesn’t really look after himself (for example staying nights and days doing nothing but composing), but at the same time not taking “the easy way out” and continuing living, having a little hope.

May that shaft of life, to stop the darkness, be Christine? (Considering that he just wanted to live a normal life like anyone else, in plain sight, in an ordinary way with a companion)

[blackghostm2o]

I was reading the Hays code out of curiosity and it made me think of why PotO ‘43 and ‘62 aren’t really compelling adaptations.

Let’s look at this excerpt:

“That evil is not presented alluringly. Even if later on the evil is condemned or punished, it must not be allowed to appear so attractive that the emotions are drawn to desire or approve”

“evil and good are never confused and that evil is always recognized clearly as evil.”

“That in the end the audience feels that evil is wrong and good is right.”

Now let’s take these 2 Phantoms in consideration (both of them become the phantom because of some acid got on their faces: in ‘62 an accident while committing arson, in ‘43 they throw it at him after he murdered someone):

The ‘62 one (Prof Petrie) is the more ‘gentle’ of the two: he acted “evil”, but he wasn’t the one making the killings (a mute was)

The ‘43 one (Enrique Claudin) went on a murder spree (consider that during the movie he killed more people than ALW!Phantom during the musical).

Both of them get punished (showing how evil is wrong and recognising evil as such), but with a difference:

- Petrie got killed in a self sacrificing act to save Christine (was this here name here? Maybe Maria?… Idk). The chandelier was falling on Christine (let’s call her like that) and he shoved her away getting crushed by it. So maybe this man was not completely bad (remember that he doesn’t kill here).

- Enrique Claudin gets crushed when the cellar crumbles on itself, while the 2 heroes and the damsel in distress run away. No redemption and a pretty horrible way to die (they recognise his musical genius tho, iirc).

You could argue that Petrie got his redemption, like Lerik did, but the thing is that they made him “more chill” (notice how slapping Christine was not a really big deal here), because otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to redeem him, his actions would’ve been too heinous to do that.

Now bear with me a little… Ik that PotO 1925 was pre-code (it has started being seriously enforced in 1934), but the Erik shown there (a demented criminal, who killed multiple people) got an ending that is very in line with these policies. Was it because the test audience were probably people like the ones who made the code? Maybe some higher ups of Universal or other influential people who had to ‘uphold morality’ etc ? Idk, but it makes me wonder.

Now… The alluring part… The musical surely shows that (maybe the novel on a lesser extent), here is totally absent:

- On ‘62 there’s no element of love between the Phantom and ‘Christine’, no romantic triangle (one of the key elements of the story they were adapting) and the Phantom is such a jerk to Christine, full on slapping her when singing like shit etc…

- On ‘43 he’s just plain creepy (ik that you could say that Lerik is creepy too, but this has a different vibe, especially considering that Claudin was living normally before the acid) and his interest for Christine are barely elaborated on. On ‘43 you could also argue that the multiple changes to the story didn’t help.

Maybe the restrictions of the code made these 2 adaptations fall flat compared to others.

(This doesn’t really have anything to do with the previous stuff that I said, but I want to point it out)

In the Hays code they were making sure to cancel every instance of sexual freedom, or, for example, having something like an independent and strong woman; this makes me think about the ‘43 ending. In PotO ‘43 Christine decides to pursue her career, Anatole and Raoul decide to go out for dinner together arm in arm.

Was it a way to safely (during the film they mostly have the typical male/female roles and this is at the very end) stretch the boundaries of the code (being a bit against the whole family and woman/men roles thing)? Or was it just for the shits and giggles? The same 2 questions go for the relationship between the two men throughout the whole movie.

Idk… Just wondering