The Phantom of the Opera (1998 film)

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1998 Italian film

The Phantom of the Opera

Italian theatrical poster

Directed by| Dario Argento
Screenplay by| Dario Argento
Gérard Brach
Giorgina Caspari (English adaptation)
Based on| The Phantom of the Opera
1910 novel
by Gaston Leroux
Produced by| Claudio Argento
Giuseppe Colombo
Aron Sipos
Starring| Julian Sands
Asia Argento
Andrea Di Stefano
Cinematography| Ronnie Taylor
Edited by| Anna Napoli
Music by| Ennio Morricone

Production
companies

Cine 2000
Focus Films
Medusa Produzione
MiBAC
Reteitalia

Distributed by| A-Pix Entertainment
Medusa Distribuzione
Telet

Release date

* 20 November 1998 (1998-11-20)

Running time

| 99 minutes
Country| Italy
Languages| Italian
English
French
Budget| $10 million (est.)

The Phantom of the Opera (Italian: Il fantasma dell'opera) is a 1998 Italian romantic-horror film directed by Dario Argento, adapted from the 1910 novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux. It is not to be confused with the 1987 film Opera (or Terror at the Opera), also directed by Dario Argento.

## Plot[edit]

In 1877 Paris, a pack of rats save an abandoned baby from a basket that was flowing along a river. They raise him in the underground of the Opéra de Paris. This child becomes the Phantom of the Opera, a misanthrope who kills anyone who ventures into his underground chambers, just as rats are killed whenever they venture above ground. The Phantom falls in love with the young opera singer Christine Daaé while she sings alone on stage one night. He appears before her and tells her that her voice fills his heart with light. After leaving, he speaks to her using telepathy, and the two begin a romantic relationship.

The aristocratic Baron Raoul De Chagny has also fallen in love with Christine, though at first Christine offers him only a platonic relationship. Later, she ruminates that she may be in love with both men. One night, the Phantom calls to her and she descends to his lair across an underground lake in a boat. Upon arriving, she finds him playing an organ and he tells her to sing for him. Christine sings the same song he heard her sing when he first saw her onstage. After making love in his bed, the Phantom reveals his past to her. He tells her to stay in the lair while he goes to secure the role of Juliet for her, but she refuses to stay alone, causing him to storm out. Christine grows angry with him, and as he leaves in the boat, she shouts that she hates him.

The Phantom threatens Carlotta, the show's spoiled diva, not to sing but she ignores the warning. During her performance as Juliet, the Phantom brings down the chandelier, injuring many audience members. When he returns to Christine, she refuses the role he has secured for her. He becomes angry and rapes her. After Christine awakens, she witnesses the Phantom covered in his rats and petting them. While he is playing with the rats, she escapes on the boat. She flees into the arms of Raoul, and they ascend to the roof, where they confess their love for each other. The Phantom watches and breaks down crying when he sees them kiss.

The next night Christine sings as Juliet, but the Phantom swoops down onto the stage, and she faints in his arms. Raoul and the police give chase. The Phantom carries Christine back down below and lays her down. When she awakens, he tells her that she is his, and that they will remain alone together until death. She hits his face with a rock and calls to Raoul for help but instantly regrets her actions, and her feelings for the Phantom return. Raoul appears and shoots the Phantom in his stomach with a rifle. Christine screams and cries for the Phantom, surprising Raoul. Though mortally wounded, the Phantom's main concern becomes Christine's safety, as he fears that the police will kill her now they know she is with him. The Phantom leads them to the lake. Raoul and Christine get in the boat, but the Phantom remains on the dock and pushes the boat away. He tells Raoul to get out of the cave and out to the river. Raoul does so, ignoring Christine's screams and objections. The Phantom fights the police but is shot multiple times. He hears Christine calling him "my love" and cries out her name before being stabbed in the back, then falling into the lake and dying. The rats watch sadly as his body drowns and Christine weeps, heartbroken.

## Cast[edit]

* Julian Sands as The Phantom of the Opera
* Asia Argento as Christine Daaé
* Andrea Di Stefano as Raoul, Baron de Chagny
* Nadia Rinaldi as Carlotta Altieri
* Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni as Honorine
* István Bubik as The Rat Catcher
* Lucia Guzzardi as Madame Giry
* Aldo Massasso as Pourdieu
* Zoltan Barabas as Poligny
* Gianni Franco as Montluc
* David D'Ingeo as Alfred
* Kitty Kéri as Paulette
* John Pedeferri as Dr. Princard
* Leonardo Treviglio as Jerome De Chagny
* Massimo Sarchielli as Joseph Buquet

## Critical reception[edit]

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (November 2014)

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Critical response to the film was negative. Variety called it "a gothic kitschfest that leaves no excess unexplored", writing "none of your sanitized Andrew Lloyd Webber treatment here, but plenty of bodice-ripping, lush romanticism, gore and gross antics with rats, all of which should tickle the director's stalwart devotees. But the script's clumsy plotting, its often unintentionally hilarious dialogue and some howlingly bad acting make the already widely sold pic likely to function best as a campy video entry for irreverent genre fans."[1] Slant Magazine called it "a hapless failure that could pass for a second-rate B movie that went straight-to-video. After the unfulfilled promises of Trauma and The Stendhal Syndrome, The Phantom of the Opera seemingly signaled the demise of a great auteur."[2]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 10% based on reviews from 10 critics.[3]

## Soundtrack[edit]

The score was composed by Ennio Morricone and featured the "Air des clochettes" from the opera Lakmé by Léo Delibes and the overture from Charles Gounod's Faust.

## See also[edit]

* Pertosa Caves

## References[edit]

1. ^ Rooney, David (29 November 1998). "The Phantom of the Opera". Variety. Retrieved 29 July 2012.
2. ^ Gonzalez, Ed (4 December 2001). "The Phantom of the Opera". slantmagazine.com. Retrieved 29 July 2012.
3. ^ "Il Fantasma dell'Opera (The Phantom of the Opera)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 26 June 2022.

## External links[edit]

Wikiquote has quotations related to The Phantom of the Opera (1998 film).

* The Phantom of the Opera at IMDb
* The Phantom of the Opera at AllMovie
* The Phantom of the Opera at the TCM Movie Database

* v
* t
* e

Dario Argento

Films directed|

* The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)
* The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971)
* Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971)
* The Five Days (1973)
* Deep Red (1975)
* Suspiria (1977)
* Inferno (1980)
* Tenebrae (1982)
* Phenomena (1985)
* Opera (1987)
* Two Evil Eyes (1990)
* Trauma (1993)
* The Stendhal Syndrome (1996)
* The Phantom of the Opera (1998)
* Sleepless (2001)
* The Card Player (2004)
* Mother of Tears (2007)
* Giallo (2009)
* Dracula 3D (2012)
* Dark Glasses (2022)

Made-for-TV films|

* Do You Like Hitchcock? (2005)
* Masters of Horror: Jenifer (2005)
* Masters of Horror: Pelts (2006)

Related topics|

* Door into Darkness
* The Three Mothers
* Dario Argento Panico

* v
* t
* e

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

Books|

* The Phantom of the Opera (1909–1910)
* Phantom (1990)
* The Canary Trainer (1993)
* The Phantom of Manhattan (1999)

Stage|

* Phantom of the Opera (1976)
* The Phantom of the Opera (1986)
* Phantom (1991)
* Love Never Dies (2010)

Film and
television|

* Das Phantom der Oper (1916)
* The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
* Song at Midnight (1937)
* Phantom of the Opera (1943)
* The Phantom of the Opera (1962)
* The Phantom of Hollywood (1974)
* Phantom of the Paradise (1974)
* The Phantom of the Opera (1989)
* Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge (1989)
* The Phantom of the Opera (1990)
* The Phantom Lover (1995)
* The Phantom of the Opera (1998)
* Phantom of the Megaplex (2000)
* The Phantom of the Opera (2004)
* The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall (2011)

Characters|

* Erik
* Christine Daaé
* Viscount Raoul de Chagny
* The Persian
* Carlotta
* Madame Giry
* Meg Giry
* Joseph Buquet

Songs|

* "The Phantom of the Opera"
* "The Music of the Night"
* "All I Ask of You"
* "Learn to Be Lonely"
* "'Til I Hear You Sing"

Other|

* Adaptations
* Don Juan Triumphant
* Palais Garnier
* The Phantom of the Opera (pinball)
* Phantom Power (Rick Wakeman album)
* Return of the Phantom

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