In Which I Use the Library as Netflix pt 3: No Place Like London

I'd say I was busy, but that would kinda be a lie. I finished everything on my to-do list for this week Wednesday morning, and then got distracted by a sewing project. Oops...

I didn't end up returning Vampire Hunter D to the library last week (it won't be due back until the 21st anyway), but I did check out a new film. Did I become a responsible adult now that I had a marginally better week and remember to watch Schindler's List? Or, did I notice something with a neat aesthetic as soon as I walked into the video section and completely forget I was supposed to do that in the first place?

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I'll keep this spoiler-free. I'm mainly talking about set design and costuming this week anyway.

First of all: I liked the movie a lot. Very good movie.

Second of all: way more blood than I was expecting. Wow. Like, I love horror media, but I am a bit squeamish. Would have been nice to get a heads-up regarding the sheer amount of blood that was gonna spray from people's necks in this film. Although, I suppose that's my own fault.

Third of all: I was not expecting Severus Snape to be in this movie??? And for him to sound exactly the same??? I was unaware that that's apparently just what Alan Rickman sounds like???

I was going to complement the relative historical accuracy of some of the costumes in this film until I looked it up and found out it's supposed to take place in the 1840s despite the fact that Mrs. Lovett is clearly wearing a bustle.

If we ignore that, however, there is some interesting environmental storytelling going on with the costumes. 

Bustles came into Victorian era fashion in the late 1860s. Prior to that, dresses had a kind of bell shape, with an even fullness all the way around until the early 1860s, when they began to be fuller in the back. As you can see above, Mrs. Lovett is dressed as if the film takes place past the 1860s. Most of the background characters seem to suggest that as well. There are only three characters in the film that are consistently dressed in pre-1860s fashion: Lucy and Johanna (the wife and daughter for whom Sweeny plots revenge), and the old beggar woman.

For Lucy and the beggar woman this makes sense. The scenes in which we are introduced to Lucy and see what happened to her are all set in the past, and the old beggar woman would presumably not have the money to buy new clothes. But for Johanna, its more interesting. 

It's made clear in the film that the reason Judge Turpin has kept Johanna throughout the years is because she resembles her mother, whom he was in love with. To him, she is just a replacement for Lucy- and thus he has her dressed like Lucy.

I'm trying to demonstrate here, but IDK if you can see it all that well. IMDB surprisingly doesn't have a lot of full body screenshots of Johanna and I'm too lazy atp to take them myself. Lucy is on the left and Johanna is on the right.

That could also not mean anything and have just been the result of the costume designers not really knowing what 1840s fashion looks like, but I thought it was neat.

I've yapped about costumes for too long. My only other point was that the depiction of London in this film really reminded me of the depiction of London in American McGee's Alice: Madness Returns. Very desaturated, grey, blue, and gloomy. It's been a minute since I played the game, but one difference I can remember is that Sweeny Todd's London feels a bit cleaner than Alice's. (With the exception of Mrs. Lovett's pie shop, of course). This screenshot is a great example. London looks almost monochrome here, leaving Anthony to be the only source of colour.

You can probably tell from the image of Lucy, too, that the flashback scenes are much more colourful and bright. Very neat. I love gloomy London.

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In conclusion, Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street gets a 9.5/10. There was indeed a barber on Fleet Street named Sweeny Todd. I took off half a point because he's not actually a literal demon. Although I could easily see someone - namely the beggar woman - mistaking him for one.