Phantom Of The Okra (2004)

An architect and designer, a composer and magician. He is a genius who must hide his facial disfigurement behind a mask and live in the catacombs beneath Paris's Opera Populaire, known only as the Phantom of the Opera or Opera Ghost (Gerard Butler). His one companion is his young singing protege, a soprano named Christine Daae (Emmy Rossum) who is drawn to and mystified but at the same time terrified of her Angel of Music whose rapturous voice sings songs in her head while she sleeps and whispers in her ear during day. Everyone at the opera house is used to the Phantom's deadly pranks and ensuing hilarity when his demands are not met but when a canopy falls on top of her, nearly crushing her, the opera's leading diva: Carllota resigns. With no understudy, the mangers turn to Christine who at the time was no more than a chorus girl. The show thrusts her into immediate fame. But when Christine, whom the Phantom has fallen in love with, accepts a marriage proposal from her childhood sweetheart Viscount Raoul de Changy, the Phantom's heart is broken. His despair quickly turns to furious, jealous rage and he is willing to do anything to win her, even if it means raising the stakes to the ultimate level in Christine's choice between her love for Raoul and her strange attraction to the Phantom.

Trivia: Because the chandelier scene is at the end of the film, as opposed to ending the first act as it does in the play, one of the lines in the song "Masquerade" had to be altered so that instead of referring to a "new chandelier" they talk of "friends that are here". The sweeping camera angles during "All I Ask of You" made it necessary to shoot multiple takes of the kiss between Emmy Rossum and Patrick Wilson. Emmy Rossum had to ice her lips between takes to prevent them from swelling. All of the principal actors sang in the film except for Minnie Driver. Most of the actors have a background in musicals or opera, but Minnie Driver (a skilled singer) had no experience in opera and was dubbed by Margaret Preece, a singing teacher from Solihull, UK. Driver does however contribute the film's end title song, "Learn To Be Lonely," written specifically for the film by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Emmy Rossum was only 16 when this movie was filmed, the same age as her character Christine when the movie is set.

Neither Gerard Butler nor Emmy Rossum had seen the musical prior to receiving their roles. When the Phantom is taking Christine to his lair, he places her on a black horse for a while. This is not part of the show, but is a nod to the original book, where the Phantom uses a horse named Cesar to transport Christine part of the way. The Phantom speaks only fourteen of his lines and sings the rest. The theatre fire was an actual fire. Joel Schumacher wanted realism, so they destroyed the theatre for the scene. The lit candelabras that rise from the water were not done with special effects or CGI lights: the special wicks ignited when they reached the air. This effect was done in one take and didn't work again after that. The doll in the Phantom's lair that is supposed to resemble Emmy Rossum is not actually a wax mold. It is Emmy Rossum. The production produced a mask of her face to use on the mannequin but when they put in the fake eyes it didn't look like her. She suggested to stand in as the mannequin instead. This was done by her being made up like a doll with waxy makeup on, and her standing very, very still.

I have never been to an opera but I think this is as close as I have been. That being said, the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber is amazing and even though I have never seen the Phantom on stage or anything, I knew his music almost bar for bar. I turned on the closed captioning and could sing along with the actors as they sang. (Not that there is nothing wrong with that.) The movie was just so visually rich and audibly succulent that your movie thirst was quenched half way through, and then they brought out the desert and you stuffed yourself even more. (How was that for a sentence?) It was also pretty cool because I saw the original 1925 Phantom of the Opera recently so I could compare them. Both depended on music but for different reasons. The 1925 version was silent so the music had to tell the tale, in the 2004 version the music wasn't needed to tell the tale, but was used to tell the tale in a way only it could. (Gee that sounded corny). Anyway, it was great.