Happy almost Friday everyone! I’m a bit late to the TMP party but I love this week’s topic that I still want to participate. The Thursday Movie Picks blogathon was spearheaded by Wandering Through the Shelves Blog.
The rules are simple simple: Each week there is a topic for you to create a list of three movies. Your picks can either be favourites/best, worst, hidden gems, or if you’re up to it one of each. This Thursday’s theme is… SECRET DOORWAYS/WORLD.
When I saw the topic for this week, I immediately thought of ‘Narnia!’ so naturally I had to include that in this list. There is something so wonderfully escapist about films that take their characters into a different world. As we’re all in stay-at-home mode during this endless pandemic, the movies have become our not-so-secret ‘passageway’ to another world.
In any case, here are three of films I like containing a secret passageway:
PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
A young soprano becomes the obsession of a disfigured and murderous musical genius who lives beneath the Paris Opéra House.
One of my all time favorite tragic disfigured characters is Gaston Leroux’s Phantom. Though the 2004 movie version’s not perfect, there are tons of things I love about it, and I think Joel Schumacher’s artistic rendition is appropriately seductive and eerie, which goes perfectly with Andrew Lloyd Weber’s haunting music. I especially love this scene where Christine (Emmy Rossum) first met her disfigured ‘angel of music’ (still remains Gerard Butler’s most seductive scenes of his career) who lured her to his secret underground lair through the mirror.
Yes, in real life it’d be creepy to have some guy behind the mirror who can spy on everything you do in your dressing room, but in a fantastical opera, it sure has a mesmerizing effect.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Four kids travel through a wardrobe to the land of Narnia and learn of their destiny to free it with the guidance of a mystical lion.
Who hasn’t said the word ‘Narnia!’ whenever one sees a giant wooden closet/wardrobe? I know I do. Though I hadn’t read the Narnia books when I saw the film, the scene when Lucy discovered this secret world while playing hide and seek with her siblings are so indelible. I wish I’d discover a hidden magical land somewhere that I could escape to without fear of some virus or some violent act… I find that my dreams during this pandemic has become so vividly strange and bizarre at times, perhaps that’s my brain trying to find ways to ‘escape’ this physical confinement, ha!
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
An orphaned boy enrolls in a school of wizardry, where he learns the truth about himself, his family and the terrible evil that haunts the magical world.
It’s been ages since I saw this movie, but this scene still puts a smile in my face. Crazy how the kids have grown now, ahah. I spent some time in a boarding school as a kid, but man I wish we had a magically-concealed platform to take me to school like these Hogwarts students! There’s something about train stations that I always find magical, as it conjures up the idea of travel and adventure.
What do you think of my picks? Have you seen any of them?
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Great picks! The 2004 Phantom is a mess, but I find it a little endearing lol.
Yeah, POTO is a flawed movie for sure but yet still highly entertaining!
Now those are awesome picks. I’m one of those that actually liked the film version of Phantom of the Opera as it was just a cool musical. Plus, I think it’s the last great film that Joel Schumacher has made.
There are stuff to pick apart about 2004’s POTO but yeah I think Joel Schumacher was the perfect filmmaker to bring it to live cinematically. The production design was gorgeous, though I wish some scenes weren’t filmed like a music video (i.e. where Christine walked in the cemetery) but overall it was an entertaining musical and the songs are still as amazing as in the theatre version. In fact, in some parts I LOVED Butler’s and Rossum’s rendition compared to the ones in the original play, it’s much more seductive and emotional.
Excellent fits for the theme but I can’t say I’m overly fond of any of them.
Narnia isn’t really my kind of film, though I’ve seen another version of Lion, Witch….that was on TV years ago with Pam Dawber.
I like the Phantom story and most of the music from the stage show but I thought this version was a mess. I’d take the Chaney, Rains or Lom takes on the tale any day over this one.
This first film in the Potter series is my least favorite of any of the movies. It’s not the story but the execution that is at fault. I thought it was deadly dull and all the films that follow improvements. It’s one series that I think got better with each installment. I do like all the books, I’m not an ardent fan but I listened to them all on audio.
I did pick an HP film but at the other end of the cycle and two classic tales.
Alice in Wonderland (1933)-Alice (Charlotte Henry) goes down the rabbit hole and tumbles into a crazy world where Cary Grant is the Mock Turtle, Gary Cooper the White Knight, W.C. Fields Humpty Dumpty, Edward Everett Horton the Mad Hatter and a raft of familiar but less famous performers other characters.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 & 2 (2011)-The final two films in the Potter series and perhaps the best find Harry, Hermione and Ron battling Voldemort to destroy the Horcruxes.
Peter Pan (1953)-Animated Disney film where the magical boy Peter Pan and the faithful Tinkerbell whisk the Darling children off to the enchanted world of Neverland where they help him battle the wicked pirate Captain Hook.
Hi Joel, hey totally ok that you aren’t fond of my picks. I actually haven’t seen the Lon Chaney’s Phantom but I think I much prefer the ones w/ Lloyd Webber’s music. I agree that the final two HP films are definitely better than the first one, I only used that one in particular because that’s the first time Harry saw Platform 9-3/4 to get to Hogwarts, so that scene was indelible in terms of a secret gateway to another world.
Thanks for dropping by!
I haven’t seen Phantom of the Opera, but I do like your other picks. We match with the Narnia movie!
Hello! Welcome to FlixChatter. Glad we have one movie in common. Phantom of the Opera is worth a watch even for the music and production design alone.
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We match with Harry Potter! I love that scene and wish to take that train. i love trains and stations for the same reason you stated. I own That Phantom of the Opera and love the music and cinematography but Gerard Butler was a weak Phantom. I have to admit I love the Chaney, Rains and Lom versions a bit better. I still have to see Narnia and I will view all 3 one day.
Hi Birgit! Yeah I’m with you about wanting to take that train in that HP scene! I have a soft spot for Butler as Phantom, probably not the best but his chemistry w/ Emmy was swoon-worthy.
Some parts in this POTO movie was miscast, but I really like the masquerade scene.
Yeah that scene is indeed great! Must have been quite complex to shoot too with so many extras.