Sepia-Toned and Bloody Pages

By AGNEW, Margaret

SWEENEY TODD: DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET by Mark Salisbury, Titan Books, big format hardcover, $45, 175pp. Reviewed by Margaret Agnew.

Actor Johnny Depp and director Tim Burton, in their sixth big- screen collaboration, take on something they’ve never done before — a live- action movie musical. Based on Burton’s favourite musical, which he first saw in London as a student, the film version taps into the tradition of Hammer Horror as well as old Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre and Lon Chaney films.

The famous tale of a wrongly imprisoned Victorian barber, who, with the aid of his cut-throat razor and the unscrupulous, besotted baker downstairs, seeks monomaniacal vengeance for losing his wife and child, has been restaged countless times, but never with such gruesome, glorious detail.

Burton’s sepia-toned version was always going to be darker, bleaker and far more gory than any stage production, and this book describes in equally sepia-toned and blood- spattered pages, the history of the tale and how the unusual film production came about. Johnny Depp had sung backing vocals with a band in the 1980s but says he had never really sang a song before and pre- production had begun for the multi- million-dollar film before any of the producers, the director or the composer, Stephen Sondheim (who had final approval on the talent) heard Depp sing a note. Luckily, Depp can sing, and sounds a bit like David Bowie or Shane MacGowan.

His co-star Helena Bonham Carter, who had only sung in the bathroom before, is obviously a fan: “It’s very sexy,” she says. “And it sounds like him, and that’s what’s exciting.

“He really sings from the gut and it’s a very emotional role. So it’s very naked and very sexy and very touching and brave and beautiful, very beautiful, and soulful.”

The book, with plenty of interviews, has plenty of insight into the working relationships as well. Depp says: “My relationship with Tim (Burton), it’s like family. For me, it’s home. It’s as simple as that … He’s definitely the only guy I’d go try and sing for at the ripe old age of 43 … that’s for sure.”

Written by Burton specialist and the former editor of Empire and the now defunct Premiere film magazines, Mark Salisbury, this Sweeney Todd book is a cut above the average glossy movie tie-in (although it’s a bit graphic to put on your coffee table).

As well as the cast and crew interviews and background, there’s an in-depth look at the sets of ye olde London, and an abridged version of the script, all illustrated with a multitude of photos.

* Margaret Agnew is the chief movie reviewer for The Press.

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(c) 2008 Press, The; Christchurch, New Zealand. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.