Whether it is the Berlin Film Festival or "Sweeney Todd", Lance is not hypocritical, he clearly knows that after the promotion period of "Fury Road" is over, the Marvel Universe is the first priority, and within this year, his energy will be focused on the two projects of "Iron Man" and "The Incredible Hulk" to ensure that the first shot of Chaos Pictures and Marvel Studios can be fired. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

What's more, both the Berlinale and "Sweeney Todd" are tricky projects.

Adapting a play into a film has never been a simple matter, and in the final analysis, it is because these are two very different ways of expression. Drama mainly relies on the art of lines and the performance of actors to present the content of the story, and in the limited stage space, the relatively monotonous expression techniques touch the height of art through rich performance layers; But the lens language of the film is very important, if the lens language can not play a role, it is equivalent to using the camera to record the next drama, but separated by a screen, the tension and conflict of the drama will be limited, if the lens language occupies the main position, then how to balance the lens language and line skills and the proportion between the actors' performances, and truly interpret the charm of the drama in a cinematic way, it is definitely not such a simple thing.

For example, in 2012's "Les Miserables", the form of the whole movie is greater than the content, and the focus is seriously unbalanced, first, from the perspective of the script, the lack of detail mining leads to a sense of fragmentation of the characters, especially the excessive emphasis on the singing part, and the plot connection loses its sense of fluency. Second, from the perspective of performance, the actor's personal performance is commendable, but it completely adopts the stage performance method of a musical to interpret, which cannot be integrated with the lens language, and loses the characteristics and texture of the film that distinguishes it from the stage, and the world view is suddenly confined to one side of the screen, and the hands are tied.

Objectively speaking, for audiences who like musicals, or are curious about musicals, "Les Miserables" is a good work, but for professional audiences of drama and professional lovers of movies, this work is a four-in-a-mess and difficult to satisfy.

The same is true of the work "Sweeney Todd".

In the previous life, "Sweeney Todd" was joined by the two old partners of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, plus Helena Bonham-Carter (Helena-Bonham-Carter), Alan Rickman (Alan-Rickman), Timothy-Spall (Timothy-Spall) and other outstanding British actors joined, from the cast point of view, it is definitely worth looking forward to. But the end result is unsatisfactory.

"Todd the Barber" tells an uncomplicated story, as the judge takes a fancy to his wife, and the barber, who was framed by the judge and exiled, returns to London after fifteen years in prison, assuming the name Todd, ready to take revenge. Todd, however, heard that his wife had committed suicide by poisoning, and that his daughter was imprisoned by the judge in the compound. Todd reopened the barber shop upstairs in the pie shop, and teamed up with the pie shop proprietress to make pies out of human flesh while waiting for a chance for revenge.

To put it simply, this is the story of a serial killer who is covered in blood because of his revenge, but in the end he is devoured by demons. At the end of the story, Todd not only kills his own wife with his own hands - it turns out that his wife has failed to commit suicide, but also kills his admirer, the pie shop proprietor, and almost kills his own daughter, and in the end, Todd is killed by the pie shop proprietor's little worker.

There are countless similar serial killer movies in film history, and there are many classics, such as "The Silence of the Lambs", "Seven Deadly Sins", "American Neuropath" and so on. "Sweeney Todd" has what it takes to become a classic, but alas, Tim messes up the script.

First of all, the core of the story of "Todd the Barber" is locked in Todd, and the 1973 drama version explores Todd's mental journey into the road of no return for the first time, the process of cannibalizing the soul little by little in the transaction with the devil is undoubtedly shocking to the soul, and finally watching Todd lose his mind and kill all the people he loves and love himself, and the whole process of destruction is a whipping and test of human nature. More closely, is it the judge, society, or something else that pushes Todd into the abyss of sin? If it can be explored in depth, then "Sweeney Todd" can be a work of social sobering significance comparable to "The Silence of the Lambs" or "One Flew Over the Asylum".

But Tim is not a director who is good at digging into the core of the story, and even "Edward Scissorhands", who established his status as a master, has not been able to show much depth. What Tim is really good at is the innocent romance that remains pure in the dark reality, from "Edward Scissorhands" to "Big Fish", to "Zombie Bride", "Alice in Wonderland" and so on, this fragile innocence has the effect of touching people's hearts. So, Tim is a director who relies heavily on art, and the gothic style and visual imagery are what he is good at. Under his direction, the already simple story of "Sweeney Todd" has become very weak, lacking support from beginning to end, not to mention the pale and weak characters - which also means that the most important core of the film has been squandered.

Secondly, the separation of the singing and dancing part and the plot part is also the biggest problem with all musical adaptations. The reason why "Chicago" can become a classic is because it has found the right balance in this point, thanks to the focus of the story on the singers and dancers, which makes the director effortlessly find a balance in the combination of song and dance and plot. But this is not the case with "Sweeney Todd".

The songs and dances of musicals are all plot-significant, and the songs and dances not only show the situation, psychology and state of the characters themselves, but also become part of the plot, and even promote the development of the plot. There is no problem with the music and dance on the original stage play of "Sweeney Todd", all of which are time-proven and professionally tested classics, but the problem is that after being put on the big screen, how to integrate with the lens language and how to integrate with the plot.

Tim behaved very badly in this regard, almost copying the structure of the stage play, and failed to make a breakthrough in camera movement and composition. What's worse is that Johnny Depp is not a good musical theater actor, and the singing and dancing performance is completely smashed in the eyes of professionals, which can be said to be completely devastating for a "musical".

Finally, it's so stylized that it's putting the cart before the horse. In fact, this is also Tim's usual fault, he always likes to make a big fuss about the visual gothic style, and it must be admitted that he has created countless classic character shapes, and every character in "Alice in Wonderland" is worth writing about, but this means that Tim has given up the role of modeling and environment in the story. For example, the use of lighting in "Murder with a Knife", or the use of extreme backgrounds in "Sin City", it comes down to hoping that these shots will be part of the story, but Tim doesn't think about that.

The stage play of "Todd the Barber" has nothing to do with the Gothic style, of course, the dark color of the story seems to suit the Gothic style, but in Lance's opinion, using the Gothic style to represent the dark story is also too "Tim Burton", like the "zombie bride". It might have worked even better if Tim had chosen a colourful colour like Alice in Wonderland and Big Fish to contrast the darkness of Todd the Barber.

Johnny Depp's performance is also to add insult to injury. Johnny's personal style has always been limited to the scope of neuroticism, starting with "Edward Scissorhands", almost no breakthroughs, and later being able to become popular, it is because this style gives Captain Jack Sparrow enough charm, but objectively speaking, this neurotic performance not only lacks variety, but also lacks depth, firmly framing the expansion of the character, and it is terrifyingly boring.

Such a situation can be forgiven in "Finding Neverland", because the story has other important characters to rely on; But in "Sweeney Todd", it is fatal, because this movie needs Todd's image to become rich and full.

If Todd the role of "Todd the Barber" could be played by an actor like Daniel Day Lewis, the quality of the whole movie would be very different, even if the director was still Tim.

Although from the perspective of a bystander, it seems that the head is the way, but if Lance is allowed to adapt it himself, this work is extremely difficult. First, he may reassemble the cast and make a change in his acting style, after all, the role of Todd is the soul of the whole movie, and once it is performed brilliantly, it is definitely a difficult role that can go down in history.

Second, he may abandon all the Gothic style, and instead use a style like "Fruit Hard Candy" that hides the darkness in the brightness, because in Lance's view, it is actually the power of society that creates Todd's tragedy, whether it is the judge's hand covering the sky, or the indifference of the social atmosphere at that time, because of lack of food, people's only concern is livelihood, and they have no intention of paying attention to the so-called moral degradation.

Third, he may also abandon the singing part, because Lance really doesn't have much research in this area, even if he is from the stage, but the stage actors are also divided into drama actors, musical theater actors, ballet actors, opera singers, etc., Lance is a traditional drama actor, he can be said to know nothing about musicals, if you want to copy it, it is best to be at the level of "Les Miserables", he can't integrate singing and dancing with the plot, it will only become a burden.

But even so, it is still not an easy task to readapt the work "Sweeney Todd". If Lance were to be the producer, his first consideration would be David Fincher, or David Lynch, not himself. So, today, when Lance talks to Laurie, it's not just polite.

However, Lance must also admit that "Todd the Barber" is a high-stakes project, and the greater the risk of failure, the greater the shock achieved after success, especially for the character of Todd. (To be continued.) )