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The major differentiation between the opera version and this film version of the well known artifice is that Joel Schumacher manipulates the temporal dimension to orientate the viewer through a retrospective perspective by treating the story as a memory of the old Viscount Raoul de Chagny, the true lover of Christine Daae (Emmy Rossum) and also the once owner of the Opera of Populaire. In doing so, Schumacher creates a visual impact of the reverse order by bringing the elevation, lighting up and fading-in of colours of the elegant chandelier during an auction in 1919 into mise-en-scene at the expository sequence. This cannot be made in an opera and effectively gives momentum of powerfulness of the reverse order, thereby adding a facet of nostalgic narrative to the mournful love story. Schumacher also intensifies the nostalgic and mournful sense by using the visual motif of the toy monkey (in the beginning sequence and ending sequence) and zooming to an extreme close-up of the old Raoul's eye (in a middle sequence). The majority of the story flow (in 1870's) is told in colour flashbacks whereas the sporadic scenes in 1919 are shown in flash forwards in coarse B/W images. The alternate presence of the 1919 flash forwards also simulates change of scenes in an opera.

Schumacher maintains the melodramatic mood of the opera by retaining its mix of chromatic, sentimental and agitated music, songs and lyrics, which to a large extent connote the inner turmoil of the Phantom. The overture, the main theme song "The Phantom of the Opera" and other songs including "All I Ask of You", "Masquerade" and "The Point of No Return" are musically entertaining under a full symphony from Nigel Wright (music co-producer) and Simon Lee (music supervisor). Gerard Butler (who plays the Phantom), Emmy Rossum (who plays Christine Daae) and Patrick Wilson (who plays Raoul de Chagny) are vocalists by profession and all (and others as well) sing very well. It is a musical encompassing the 2 subgenres of backstage musical and straight musical.

As a feature of the musical genre, the diegesis of the film and the characters are overtly expressive (in elaborating their feeling and thoughts). The narrative is unrestricted and communicative (save that the narrative at the beginning B/W sequence (1919) is suppressive). Deep-space staging is used in the Phantom's underground dominion (lair), which powerfully depicts his melancholy and loneliness as if it were in the deep-space stage in an opera. The gondola sequence (in which the Phantom brings Christine into his dominion) is romantically and melodramatically shot, resembling the memorable scenes in the opera version. Schumacher adopts a 2-pronged approach in editing throughout the screen time: (1) fast cutting in the opera performance and (2) slow cutting in the singing sequences of the Phantom, Christine and Raoul (and the flash forward sequences of 1919 as well). The film is worth watching regardless of whether one had watched the opera before.

註：本評論純屬影評作者個人意見，並不代表本網立場。
Note: This views presented in this review is solely the views of the critic who wrote it and do not represent the stance of our website.

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