1985

[ellenkushner]

That was my year - the year I went from post-teenage weirdo with no feeling for mainstream culture, to MTV addict who suddenly wore black a lot and walked down the New York streets in a leather jacket with attitude - and I've never looked back.

Does this mean I should go see "The Phantom of the Opera" movie?

I think it does.

Every critic has panned it. My friend Anne says she hopes this will not discourage Hollywood from making many more like it, since the reviews have all been such masterpieces of clever vitriol that reading them makes it all worthwhile.

My friend Mike even sent me the link to the Onion's coverage of "Post-Melodramatic Stress Syndrome"
http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4051&n=1
(but I am the one who wrote the Melodrama of Manners (ca. 1985) - so how should I be deterred?)

And in his (very amusing) New Yorker review (“If you ever longed to know what it feels like to be asphyxiated by brocade, here is your chance”) Anthony Lane wrote: "It reminds us that ’The Phantom of the Opera’ is a period piece, and that the period in question is not 1870 but 1986, when Lloyd Webber first presented his production to the world. We should not be surprised, then, if this bellowing beast of a movie looks and sounds like the extended special-edition remix of a Duran Duran video.”

I rest my case.

(And I didn’t even like Duran Duran that much – but they’ve become part of my nostalgia for the glory days that a new pop song so movingly evokes: “Way before Nirvana/There was U2 and Blondie/And music still on MTV….” . . .

But that’s another post.)

Comments

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I plan to go, and I plan to have fun.

And part of the fun will be the sneering afterward.

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

I'll go just because I think Emmy Rossum (playing Christine) has a fabulous voice, and I would listen to her singing about doing dishes.

Music of the Night

[(Anonymous)]

I plan on seeing "The Phantom of the Opera" soon, whatever the dumb critics say. I was thirteen when I first encountered The Phantom during a trip to London in summer of 2003 and my family and I loved it so that we bought the soundtrack. Even in 2005, that CD is played often. I like it how Hollywood has been creating these lavish, Bohemian musicals in this new millenium (Moulin Rouge, Chicago); they are some of the best films I have ever seen. So far, all the previews I've seen of "The Phantom" look promising, the costumes and sets are gorgeous (maybe I'll base my prom outfit off of those designs) so at least the film will be good eye candy, even if the acting's not great. By the by, who thinks that Miranda Richardson (who plays Madame Giry) and Minnie Driver (who plays Madame Carlotta) should have switched roles? I think so.

Post Script
Dear Ellen Kushner,

What a delight to see you are now keeping an internet journal! I enjoy all your novels and short stories ("Hot Water: A Bordertown Romance" is a favorite) and am currently trying to get reception for your radio show, Sound and Spirit. You are a very talented lady with wit, spunk and a colorful stylethat seeps through in your writing. Keep up the good work. Please give my regards to Delia Sherman whose writing I also enjoy. Whether it's a time period European faerie tale or a tale of magical New York City, I love to see her name featured on an anthology. The New Interstitial Arts Program she founded is quite a passionate mission and i salute her for that. Good luck to both of you in the misty future.

With zest,

Ethan DeVere Ring