Film I Chose To Study:Sweeny Todd: The Demon

Barber Of Fleet Street (2007)

Directed By: Tim Burton

Plot Summary:

• In London 1840s, a barber named Benjamin Barker is married to a beautiful woman Lucy and they have a lovely child, Johanna. The beauty of Lucy attracts the attention of a cruel man, Judge Turpin who falsely accuses the barber of a crime that he did not commit and abuses Lucy later after gaining control of her. After fifteen years in prison, Benjamin returns to London under the new identity of Sweeney Todd, seeking revenge against Turpin. He meets the widow Mrs. Lovett who is the owner of a meat pie shop who tells him that Lucy committed suicide by swallowing arsenic many years ago, and that Turpin adopted Johanna. Benjamin opens a barber shop above Mrs. Lovett's shop, preparing a crime of revenge by murdering people who made him suffer and lose his beloved family.

Question 1: Analyse the use of at least two pieces of dialogue in the extract, How is each piece used to develop

character or ideas?

• Chosen scene; When Benjamin first receives his old, hidden barber knives after being in prison for 15 years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urggCDC-Eqk (dialogue 1: 0:26-1:20, dialgoue 2: 1:47-2:10)

Dialogue 1:• This close up camera shot of Benjamin's blank

face in this scene, when he is talking to his knives as if they’re his ‘friends’ for the first time after 15 years (‘speak to me friends.. whisper I’ll listen.. I know, I know you’ve been locked out of sight all these years, like me my friends’) shows that the directors intention was to show the audience that the knives portray Benjamin as they relate to Benjamin as they’ve both been locked up for a long amount of time. In this scene it shows Benjamin preciously talking to the knives as if they’re the only thing that understands how he is feeling and what he has been through. This makes the audience feel very sorry for what Benjamin has been through.

• Benjamin was a very talented Barber (he used these knives to shave customers) he was happy and had a good job, when he gets back to London after being in prison, he uses his great talent (his barber knives) to let all his emotions out and to gain revenge. This scene shows the theme revenge in several ways, the dialogue of Benjamin planning to ‘soon unfold’ the knives as if he plans to use the knives to get his revenge on those who ruined his life. Also he says ‘you’ll soon drip rubies’ to the set of knives, meaning the knives will drip valuable blood. This makes the audience feel nervous and tense as they question what will happen and how he will go through this evil plan to succeed.

Dialogue 2;

• The piece of dialogue of a close up shot of Benjamin's face whilst Mrs Lovett's face is sort of out of focus, Mrs Lovett softly speaks to Benjamin ’I’m you’re friend too, Mr. Todd’..’...’if you only knew Mr. Todd’..’Oh, Mr. Todd, you’re warm in my hand’...’always had a fondness for you’ shows that Mrs Lovett has begun to tell Benjamin that she’s always loved him and still does, but as Benjamin is too focused on his precious knives, Benjamin shows no interest in Mrs. Lovett at all, he ignores her while she's beginning to tell him that she loves him, as he’s speaking and giving all his attention to his knives. Mrs Lovetts dialogue clearly shows the audience that there is the theme love in this film, as later on in the film, there is more evidence of more love, as the audience learn that Mrs Lovett dreams on becoming a family with Benjamin also hoping to adopt Johanna (Benjamin’s daughter).

• The audience see the theme of love through this dialogue, they understand that she is lonely because she would do anything to have Benjamin, she loves him and was driven by love. Later in the film she ends up dying from love as she lied to Benjamin about Lucy dying (because she loves him, and wants him to be with her), she wishes that Benjamin would let Lucy go and accept her so they can ‘get by’ together in the future.

Question 2: Analyse the use of at least two costumes in the extract. How are they used to develop character or ideas?

• Chosen scene: When Benjamin first enters Mrs Lovett’s pie shop.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVI6pGfHB2c

Costume 1:• In this scene (the first time the watches sees Mrs Lovett in the

film) a mid camera shot of Mrs Lovett's costume wearing a dark, long frilly, red lace gown with black fingerless lace gloves and black boots. This shows the time period the film is set in- mid Victorian 1840s as this costume is similar to what woman back in those days would wear. Mrs Lovett's costume shows that she is not high class, but isn’t low class either, she's in the middle class considering she owns a business of what she calls ‘the worst pies in London’ several times in this scene. Also, In this scene it shows there's bugs all over her cooking bench, the floor and one crawling out of Benjamin's pie she gave him.

• This shows that Mrs Lovett is desperate for customers –mid shot of Mrs Lovett’s face of shocked, with excitement when a customer (Benjamin) walked in her shop, she tells him that she hasn’t had any customers for ‘weeks’ and makes him sit down. This links to the theme of desperation, as the director has showed this through her costume and how Tim has set up the scene, to make the audience understand that Mrs Lovett needs money urgently to fix her business up, other wise she’ll end up losing her business and will end up being poor living on the dangerous London streets.

Costume 2:• • Benjamin's costume in this scene (mid and long shot of Benjamin

walking to Mrs Lovett’s pie shop) shows he’s wearing a white men's dress shirt, a black and white thin scarf/tie, a dark brown vest, a medium long black leather jacket, a black back pack, black skinny looking trousers and black boots. I feel that the director has used this costume to deliberately make Benjamin look like a dark presence or a grim like villain person, returning back to London to go with his new identity of Sweeny Todd. The colours of his costume are dark colours (symbolising his emotions), also his hair is all dark black with a strip of white going through it (symbolising the only little goodness he has in him, being his new identity) to represent his feelings and actions throughout the film. No characters suspect or judges him as being a big bad scary person (except for young little Toby later on near the ending of the film), even though he looks like a dark grim. Although, some of the characters such as Pirelli, the beggar woman (Lucy) and Mrs Lovett later on in the film do recognize his real identity and remember him from 15 years ago.

• When he gets back from prison being a new insane person ready to seek revenge on the corrupt judge and other characters who ruined his life and family, they and going to prison for 15 years for a crime he did not commit lead him to feel nothing but anger. This links to the theme of madness as later on in the film it shows that prison and the characters who ruined him, lead him to such anger which then lead him to slitting the throats and robbing over 160 innocent customers who came to him for a shave.

Question 3: Analyse the use of at least two shots and/or camera movements in the extract. What is the purpose of

each and how is it developed?

• Chosen scene: When Benjamin first receives his old, hidden barber knives after being in prison for 15 years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urggCDC-Eqk

• In this scene, there are many camera shots of Mrs Lovett behind and looking at Benjamin whilst Benjamin is in front of her admiring, sweetly starring and giving all of his attention to his knives. To me, I feel like the director has purposely has done this camera shot as it really showed the love triangle as it shows that Mrs Lovett is in love with him and always has been (behind him), whereas Benjamin loves.. A set of razors (in front of her). Later on in the film, it shows that Mrs Lovett is willing (and shows) to give all of her love and attention to Benjamin. In these camera shots, Benjamin clearly shows he’s giving his kindness and love to his knives, but never to Mrs Lovett. The director shows this because its to make the audience understand that he is not one bit interested in Mrs Lovett and that he’s still stuck in the past, still in love with his wife Lucy. This obviously shows the theme of the love triangle, as its shown in this scene through the camera shots, and is also shown in all sorts of ways throughout the film, this camera shot symbolises that Mrs Lovett loves Benjamin, but Benjamin does not love her back as it shows that he is more interested in his knives than he is interested in her.

Question 4: Analyse the use of music in the extract. How does it create mood or develop

character, ideas or mood?

• Chosen scene: When Benjamin discovers he had killed his wife without knowing it was her.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoHF2iwnKWk (0:00-2:53)

• The music in this scene of a low angle close up shot of Benjamin's face recognizing that he had just killed his wife Lucy, is very sad discovery music, as all this time Mrs Lovett had lied to Benjamin about Lucy committing suicide years ago with poison because she's so madly in love with him, it shows through out the film that she would do anything for him even sacrifice little Toby, who she loves and cares about as a son. Throughout the film it shows that Benjamin was so obsessed with wanting to kill Judge Turpin that he got driven by madness, and loses his life. he had plenty of choices when he got out of prison, he could of made a new life or he could of just been happy with Mrs Lovett. He could of even had the potential of ending up with his wife and/or child if he hadn't been so blinded with vengeance.

• He loses every opportunity he had due to his inability to look past his anger and loss. This shows the theme of revenge is not the answer. The audience feels shocked to find out that all this time the beggar woman was actually his wife Lucy. This scene shows that Benjamin was driven with madness and Mrs Lovett was driven with love. This music changes from sad discovery to dramatic music then to intense music when he turns to Mrs Lovett, pretending to forgive and accept her. The intensifying music gets louder as it builds up whilst they dance together closer and closer to the open oven, then suddenly with anger on Benjamin's face, he throws Mrs Lovett into the oven, then the music stops as an organ finishes the intensifying music off. This makes the audience feel even more shocked and terrified of Benjamin's actions.

Question 5: Analyse how any other film convention(s) not mentioned above have been used to develop characters or

ideas in the text

• Film convention: Props (the knife and rolling pin)• Chosen scene: When Mrs Lovett suggests to cook

human flesh in her pies, after Benjamin killed Signor Pirelli

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atSbk0vLuRw (4:19-4:40)

• In the film, this scene of Mrs Lovett thinking out loud of an idea of cooking Benjamins customers in her pies for her business to rise, theres a little mid shot, scene of Benjamin holding a butchers cleaver and Mrs Lovett holding a rolling pin whilst they’re dancing in a circle together in her pie shop, which shows that they’re a team in this brutal plan of Mrs Lovetts idea, as the butchers cleaver obviously symbolises that he’s the butcher (killer/slaughter of his customers) and that Mrs Lovett (holding the rolling pin) is his accomplice, the baker who bakes the victims flesh Benjamin killed, in her pies to serve to her customers and to earn more money.

• This shows the audience the theme of teamwork as through out the film doing this evil plan together, they cooperate together and succeed with killing and robbing over 150 customers who went to Benjamin for a shave. The audience feel that this plan is horrible and sickening, but also feel that the props (rolling pin and butchers cleaver) the director used for this scene is very clever as it clearly shows the meaning of the shot to the audience.

Question 6: Analyse the use of lighting in the extract. How does it create mood or develop character/ideas in the

extract? How does it manipulate or affect the audience?

• Chosen scene: When Benjamin flashes back to his wife and daughter when he returns to London.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNPrZH4y95U (0:00-1:14)

• The soft, high key lighting in this scene of Benjamin flashing back to his wife and child, is to capture the mood and feeling it portrays to the audience which is happy and innocence. This flash back shows the theme of happiness, because you can see that Benjamin was happy with his wife and baby before the corrupt judge convicted him with a false charge and sent him to prison for 15 years. This flashback shows how innocent Lucy and Benjamin were, they were happy, in love together and things were going great for them, they had nice clothes, a child and a good business barbering. The audience can really see the difference comparing the flashback to the present time through out the film, making the audience feel sorry for Benjamin and his family. The director used this lighting technique just once throughout the film as in the rest of the film, Burton used a low-key, dark, dull lighting and also melancholy lighting which created the mood, angry and sad. He uses this in the foggy London streets, in the pie shop and Benjamin's barber shop and also in Mrs Lovett's basement where she makes the human pies.

• There was also happiness when Mrs Lovett dreams of what their life could be like together as a family, it shows the audience how clear and happy it looks verses to other scenes in the film. Burton used a cool, bluish look but also used desaturated with the colours to look less intensive, but nearly to the point of being black and white at times. These lighting techniques is the moods that flowed and followed the story line, the colour and lighting only lit up when the characters such as Benjamin's mood did so as well. This lighting helps the audience identify the moods of Benjamin, making it easier to figure out what he is feeling about the flash back and certain other situations and memories, also showing what exactly he is feeling as he walks through the different scenes.

The End

• Written by Narelle Rawles