Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Don't Bury Your Corpse Bride, Make Her Drink Beetlejuice and Hide Her In The Dark Shadows For Goodness Sake!!

In the wake of realising Tim Burton's Frankenweenie and Dark Shadows are due for release this year, I excitedly trolled through my photo archives and found the images taken at Tim Burton's Exhibit held at the LACMA last year. A somewhat hesitant fan in the early days (seeing Edward Scissor Hands at the age of 10 was a setback), a mere morbid fascination grew to a full blown salute as I grew older and was able to appreciate the intricacies and 'through the looking glass' feel of his work. My personal favourites are usually his animated/claymation features such as Corpse Bride and The Nightmare Before Christmas, but you certainly can't overlook Sweeney Todd, Sleepy Hollow, Beetlejuice or (uh-hum) Edward Scissor Hands.

His imprint on mainstream cinematic successes (Alice and Wonderland, Batman and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) are always unique and 'Burton-esque' in the way that he can darken and deepen even the lightest of characters (think Alice and James) as well as adding dimensions to existing plot lines and themes.

Remembering back to the exhibit, the experience was like walking into the crevices of Burton's brain. All his original sketches, doodles, brainstorms, artwork, models and short films were on display for everyone to see. Everything right down to the winding isles and placement of images was reminiscent of Burton. If you haven't already, take a trip to http://www.timburton.com/ and let Stain Boy guide through some of his artwork and images. Currently his exhibit is showing at the La Cinémathèque français (for more info see website below or my favourite Parisian cultural attache Vingt Paris ) so if your in town, its definitely worth your while to stop by. If this is a little far out of your way you can always join me in the count down of Dark Shadows in May 2012 and Frankenweenie in Oct 2012! 



2 comments:

  1. I've read a number of his books including the highly recommended "Burton on Burton", and the man is a very gifted visionarie. All of your favourites are great selections, but I still maintain that the old Frankenweenie has left the biggest imprint on me as an aspiring filmmaker, and that's because of the way he composed a number of 'key shots' in the film which were executed so well by a novice director at the tender age of 26. And ever since then, he's been able to muster a number of important films which should be considered and seen in the same vein as some of the masterpieces from Fellini and Godard. Moreover, I think the Elfman/Burton collaboration is one of the best director/composer relationships ever put to Film.

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