The Phantom of the Opera

This review is my third review for Old-Fashioned Charm's Period Drama Challenge! Straight away before reviewing, I'll mention this film's rating: PG-13 for brief violent images. The reason I've shown this first for once is because as a child I did find this film very scary, and I'd imagine others would too. There are also some questionable scenes, but only suggestive, nothing further.

This film was released in 2004 and is, of course, a film of the famous Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. It is set in 1870s Paris at the fictional 'Opera Populaire'. A lot of what the story is about is almost obvious from the title, although if you have no idea what it's about, don't worry, this isn't a ghost story. This film stars Gerard Butler as Erik (the Phantom), Emily Rossum as Christine Daaé, and Patrick Wilson as Raoul. It was directed by Joel Schumacher.

The Opera house, to me, had a very 'set'ish feel - some films use sets and you don't notice; this one didn't do that for me. However, this still helped me get the feeling of the Opera house, as it's about performance - which includes a set along with other things! The underground caverns and subterranean lake had good atmosphere.

The costumes in this film were designed by Alexandra Byrne. I can't really talk much about the costumes as it isn't a time period I'm particularly familiar with. It has made me want to look more at 1870s fashion, as I thought the costumes were lovely to look at, although some things didn't look quite right compared to others (not including the 'Masquerade' scene, I know that's meant to have a variety of styles). The Opera costumes were wonderful - Christine's white gown for the song 'Think of Me' was very pretty and simple, and was a huge contrast from the previous scene where La Carlotta was wearing a fairly extravagant gown, and Christine was among the ballet girls, wearing a costume which showed a lot of skin. A lot of costumes conveyed emotions well: when she is on the roof with Raoul during 'All I Ask Of You' she wears a red cape that matches the colour of the rose she is holding and then drops; when she visits her father's grave she wears black; and when she is in the opera 'Don Juan Triumphant' her costume is still simple but she wears a dark corset, and a red flower in her hair. Erik (the Phantom) wears his signature mask throughout (except when Christine takes the mask off of his face) and his clothes are quite dark, which I think matches his mysterious character. His 'Masquerade' costume is quite different from the musical.
The ballet dancer's clothes reminded me strongly of Degas' paintings of dancers. As someone who studies ballet, this was very interesting for me! The rest of the Opera costumes were beautiful, although some didn't have a very 1870s feel - like I said, I don't know much about the time period, but I'm certain they didn't wear clothes that revealed the midriff to such an extent, such as in the 'Hannibal' scene near the beginning of the film.

I did enjoy this film, however, if you know the musical you will probably find that this is not up to standard - Emily Rossum is not a popular Christine. Also as I mentioned, some of the content seems questionable, although it matches its rating perfectly well.

One final note - if anyone could recommend to me good blogs, websites or books about 1870s fashion, that would be extremely helpful - I've realised a lot of period dramas I've watched recently are set around then, and I have been told that some have inaccurate costume... however I can't tell for myself!

I hope you enjoyed this review, and I promise not to review another film adaptation of a musical with period costume!

Other Reviews: Les Misérables (2012); The Young Victoria (2009); Marie Antoinette (2006)