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World Fantastic Cinema

The Phantom of the Opera

Dario ARGENTO

Italy1998105min 35mm Color

Synopsis

Paris 1877. The Grand Opera house of Paris, several workman are suddenly devoured, swallowed up, killed by a mysterious force. On the stage of the deserted theater, the young soprano Christine Daae is rehearsing a scene. The Phantom of handsome and noble bearing, is utterly enchanted by her talent and her beauty. Although she is attracted by the elegant courtship paid to her by the Vicomte Raoul De Chagny, Christine is intrigues by the attention the Phantom lavishes on her. Mearwhile, the Opera is struck by a series of mysterious accidents- another person is found murdered in the theater’s sinister subterranean vaults. One night, Christine is called on to replace the prima donna Carlotta. Her performance is sublime. A real triumph. The young singer has rendezvous with the Phantom is underground vaults and they are overcome by a wild passion. The Phantom is determined to launch Christine as Paris’s greatest soprano. But to do this, he will have to remove the cumbersome Carlotta from the scene. When her moment Comes, Christine Perform superbly until the theater ratcatcher stoms onto the stage and accuses her publicly of being ‘the Phantom’s whors’….

Diretor

Dario ARGENTO

Bario Argento made his feature dubut with The Brid with the Crystal Plumge in 1970. Since then, he released Suspiria (1977), Inferno(1980), Phenomena (1985) and The Stendhal Syndrome(1980), buliding a reputation as a pioneer of ltalian horror movies.