Phantom of the Opera

This is the familiar story, presumably modernized. I watched this on Amazon to kill a little time while doing some busy work. The opening scene seemed like it was filmed as part of a college theater piece. As the film progressed, everything seemed that way. It's as if.... wait! I had to visit IMDb to confirm my suspicions.

No, it's not "AS IF filmed by a bunch of friends out to make a movie", it IS a bunch of friends out to make a movie. Most of the cast were also in "A Christmas Carol" also directed by Anthony Mann. Everyone seemed to act as if they were in a college production of "Diary of Anne Frank." No-one ever rises above this.

The film isn't merely low-budget. It's pretty close to no-budget and possibly funded by cookie sales or something. We get a scene where a young boy is presumably watching an opera, but all are closeups of the boy and his father for the "audience" and some shadowy shots of a conductor, soprano and a french horn player and that's our "orchestra." I guess we have to imagine the rest.

One conversation scene with three people is so differently lit between shots of the 3 actors I had to wonder if Ed Wood wasn't directing. Other scenes where deliberately filmed by hand-held video camera -- and that's fine when it's part of what they are doing -- but scenes that didn't involve a hand-held camera were still filmed in the same style.

If you're friends of the people in the film, by all means, watch it. After all, we don't go see high-school/college theater pieces for the professional acting. But if you're not, avoid this film.