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THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
(12A) 143mm 00
A handsomely rnounted adaptatron of Andrew I loyrl Wehhe's srnash hrt rrruszcal, .Joel Schurnacher's lrlrn should satrsly any fan of the theatrrcal ‘."?lf;l()ll. But those who haven't had the theatrical pleasure rnroht lrnd rt overlong and repetitive as rt cr'eaks rnto Its thrrd hour. Blowing; rts wad on an openrnr) shot that sees the camera sweep around a dust audrtor‘rurn. '.'.rrndrno hack to the lrrne rt was a ulonous urltedged allarr. rt never gets hetter' than thrs stunnrnu rnornent. Based on the novel hy Gaston l eroux, rt tells the story of the disfigured so called Phantom lGerard Butler), who hrdes rn the howels ol the l’arrsran Opera House, har’hour‘rng terlrngs tor the heautrtul rngenue singer Christine lErnrny Hr ssurnr — hersell herng r‘ornanced hy the theatre's young} patron Raoul (Patrick \K’rlsonl. Wrth stalwarts such as Srrnon ()allow and Miranda Richardson adding; therr support. the lrlrn looks and sounds spectacular. Sur’pr'rsrng to say lvlrnnre Driver, as the usurped Italian drva Carlotta. rs the host thrng rn a lrlrn. (Jarnes Mottr'arnl. I General re/ease fro/n Frr 10 Dec.
enoonr ssrvr ANIMA‘HQN THE POLAR EXPRESS
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CHRISTMAS WITH THE NKS
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Santanrsrn. rEddre Harrison; I ‘e' < ' r ‘w’ " ' ' ‘ r ' I Genera/ re/ease from Fri If) [Dec 8 ro xre (1‘ I
INTERVIEW
SCRUBBING UP
Star of Channel 4’s TV medical comedy, ZACH BRAFF talks about assembling his dream script, cast and musical score for his first feature, GARDEN STATE.
scene with Natalie Portman. And Ian Holm was my first choice for the role; The Sweet Hereafter was a film that really moved me a great deal. I was in LA, filming this scene for Scrubs when the phone rang and he said, “Zack, it’s Ian Holm.” I said, “Oh my God." And he said, “No, it’s lan Holm, I want to play Gideon.”
‘I wanted to shoot the whole movie in New Jersey, where I grew up, mainly because I wanted access to New York stage actors. They have brilliant actors who are completely unknown in cinema, so I could get people like Jean Smart or Denis O’Hare to come in and work for a day, and get great scenes from them.
‘I wanted the soundtrack to be bands I liked from Coldplay to Simon and Garfunkel, and I put together a mix CD, never imagining we’d be able to get these songs. We showed the bands the movie, and it was great, one by one, they agreed to give us the songs for little more than pennies.’
(Interview by Eddie Harrison) I Garden State rs on general release from Frr 70 Dec. See revrew, page 62.
‘The movie was based on a lot of anecdotes about growing up in New Jersey, some things that happened to me, some things I read about in the paper, other things that happened to friends of mine. When I went to film school, I had this box of full of notes and papers, so I just kind of I wove them all together. Everything that happens in the movie is true, it just didn't all happen to me.
‘The character of Large is really where l was at when I was 26, living in Los Angeles and waiting tables. I guess your teen years are like your body’s puberty, and your 205 are you mind’s puberty, but no one ever really tells you that at the time. People don’t seem to get married until their early 30s now; there’s this growing amount of time between graduating and getting married, so this period between being 21 and 31 has become a time of self-exploration, with infinite possibilities, and that’s what I wanted the film to be about.
‘You can never get enough retakes of a kissing
-1 THE LIST 63