A BUNCH of SWEENEY Film Clips..(Priest, Toby, Pirelli etc.) — Page 4

I'm the total opposite, after seeing these clips I am even more excited about seeing this film! Thank you so much for posting the link!

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On the whole, I'm excited as hell! I can't wait to see this!! I'm so happy the music sounds perfectly intact.

I'm a little disappointed with "The Contest", though. I guess I'm used to Pirelli really hamming up the singing. Not really feeling Sacha.


(updated for spelling)

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Updated On: 11/28/07 at 12:32 AM

At first when i heard they were making sweeney into a movie
I was a bit disturbed. But watching this clips has given me some hope.

guess i'll just have to wait until christmas.

Goosebumps!!!

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I agree with you Rentaholic2. She also "scoops" her notes a bit, which drives me crazy. As a MAJOR Sweeney Todd fan (saw the original cast 11 times and dozens of other productions since) I am looking forward to this, but a bit concerned about both their vocals throughout the film. Both are "underplaying" the roles, which is far different than what I am use to seeing on stage. We'll see. I'm still excited about it, though.

is it just me or have they pretty much eliminated the dissonance in the orchestration of that song?"

If I'm not mistaken, Toby's part is normally done without the dissonance. Lovett's part is when the dissonance comes in to show the contrast between her and him.

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It's true, Depp is much more the "smooth and subtle" Sweeney than, say, George Hearn whose rather angry interpretation didn't work for me at all. But Depp is totally emotionless whenever he sings. One could say, he doesn't act while singing. And neither does Helena Bonham Carter. That's okay in some parts but definitely not a good idea as a concept going through.
I've rarely seen "The Worst Pies in London" done with so little comic timing, so little feeling for the rhythm of the song, so little motion.
I'm really afraid that whereever the scenes tend to be a chamber piece it'll fallt flat and become static and boring.

Artscallion - you may well be right as this is the early part of the song, and it becomes increasingly dissonant as the double meanings (and her discomfort) mount up. I just don't want the Sondheim sound to be normalized - kind of defeats the purpose of using the music in the first place.

FranklinShepard - you have a good point about the lack of animation during the songs. I fully expected the movie would "take everything down a notch" but even "Priest" is kind of flat when it should be almost vaudevillian. I am still anxious to see the movie.

All of this hand-wringing. Jeezus.

Jonathan Tunick did the film orchestrations, with Paul Gemignani conducting, same as the original 1979 Broadway production. The film orchestrations follow the model of the original show orchestrations quite closely, but are on a bit of a grander scale, of course.

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Keen, I just listened to both OBCR and Revival versions to see if I was remembering this correctly. The music under Toby does not have any dissonance. The dissonance only appears under Lovett's singing after Toby discovers Pirelli's purse.

The reason this stuck out to me is that I think I remember reading an interview with Sondheim talking about how Toby's words were true and his intent was pure. So the music reflects that. Lovett sings the exact same words, but the music is dissonant to illustrate that, when she sings them, these same words are warped and off because they're skewed by her madness and not-so-pure intent.

I do agree with most of the reservations voiced here concerning Helena's underplaying and Toby's static performance. But I am optimistic because I know that context and editing can really work wonders.

I think Carter is an amazing actress, as are the rest of the cast. And I can't imagine they went into this without some intelligence and planning as to the way they would play these characters. If Carter appears to underplay it, I'm sure it is underplayed well, and with some specific intent that is made clearer when seen in larger context than these bits show.

I also think/hope that the static presentation Toby gives in that small moment must serve some purpose in the overall presentation of the song, as well as for his character arc, that we can't yet see.

Fraklin, I totally get what you're saying when you talk about Burton's comfortable horror. And I'm not altogether sure that that's not what we'll get. Sondheim himself has said that his original intention was to create his version of a "Grand Guignol" horror show. But just because he's who he is, it can't help but end up being a sad social drama as well.

But I think that I have to let go of my ideas of what Sweeney should be. This is Burton's vision of it. And if I'm going to enjoy it, I need to embrace that. This will not be a replication of the stage show. This will be something new, based on it. And I'll take that any day over the rest of the crap hitting cinemas lately.

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Updated On: 11/28/07 at 11:34 AM

You can always stay home and watch the DVD of the stage version.

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So the film looks and sounds fantastic in my opinion. Couldn't enjoy it more. I was extremely skeptical of Bonham Carter (not so much doubting her talents but I did want Meryl Streep to end up playing the role), but after seeing her in that clip of "Not While I'm Around" I'm actually excited about seeing her.
My question is, do you think the film has a genuine shot of hitting it big during award season? It'd be great to see Depp, Bonham Carter, Burton, and the rest of the people involved getting nods for their work.

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