Phantom of the Opera

Wow. I just got to see Phantom of the Opera as the feature of my area's Annual Silent Movie Night. The film print, which admittedly wasn’t in great shape, was accompanied by live music played on a Wurlitzer organ. The film was shown in a historic theater, to a sold-out crowd which ranged in age from around eight to eighty.

It’s really a masterpiece, still engaging as both a melodrama and a horror film. Although proficiently directed by Rupert Julian, it is Lon Chaney’s performance as the Phantom which has become so iconic. Chaney’s many faces, both physically and emotionally, kept me and the rest of the audience rapt. (Chaney, by the way, is also unforgettable as Quasimodo in the 1923 version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.)

It wasn’t until I saw the film that I realized just how derivative Andrew Lloyd Webber’s pop-opera of the same name is--or, if you’re feeling generous, just how the opera is an homage to the film. I also suspect Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! might be paying tribute to the film with the song, “Come What May.”

One last note: if you’ve never seen a silent film accompanied by live music, do so! It really inflects your movie-going experience. I’ve have the privilege of seeing many films this way, including Chaplin and Keaton shorts and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. I attend such movie-going experiences whenever I get the chance, and I never regret it. Although it is not the organization I saw perform with the film, I highly recommend the work of the Alloy Orchestra and whose current tour features Phantom.