Guillermo Del Toro Phantom Of The Opera Remake Would Fuck So Severely

I never make claims about "the best" but after much consideration I've broken my own rule and have come to the conclusion that '06 Earl Carpenter was the best Phantom kisser IMO. I have no further comments at this time and will not be taking questions.

Franz Kafka, from a letter to Milena Jesenka featured in "Letters to Milena,

Tess (1979)

Recent Phantoms I've Watched in 1-2 Sentences

[Mostly in the order I've recently watched them, which is random.]

Ted Keegan: A legend. Very much "I know how I want to interpret this character and I will do it consistently well over 20+ years and still make you cry each time."

Jeremy Stolle: The acting is always there, but the voice comes and goes? King of mishaps.

Paul Schaefer: I've only seen one vid of him. His Phantom is literally diabolical up to the very last minute and it's...interesting.

Ben Crawford: Great voice before the post-COVID struggles, but questionable acting decisions. Oddly enough he grew more as an actor as his vocals declined.

Dean Chisnall: Such a shy and sensitive Phantom who sings every note with ease! He wins the award for best reptilian stomach crawl during STYDI.

Laird Mackintosh: He was a solid understudy in the 2010s, but I was awed by how he totally owned the role as a cover in 2023 up to closing. He really brings the heat in the first lair.

James Barbour: Ruined by the legal issues and the fact that I saw him as Rochester first.

Killian Donnelly: He's the perfect combination of sensitive acting and a great voice. Always sticks the landing in the final lair, but he does it a different way each time so every performance feels new.

Tim Martin Gleason: He has the most beautiful hands and I love how soft and tender he becomes after the kiss. He genuinely wants Christine and Raoul to escape safely, like what??

Norm Lewis: If Erik was your dad...but also your toddler?

New fandom level unlocked: I officially have an AO3 account.

POTO retelling loading. And maybe I'll even overcome my trauma and restart the Jane Eyre fanfic I lost more than a decade ago when my computer was stolen.

And of course I'm thinking about Phantom of the Opera.

panna a netvor (beauty and the beast), dir. juraj herz (1978) + anne williams - art of darkness: a poetics of gothic

Look, I'm very excited to see Jordan Donica in the Gilded Age, but all I know is THIS BETTER NOT INTERFERE WITH MY DARKEST DREAMS OF HIM PLAYING THE PHANTOM FOR THE NORTH AMERICAN TOUR. Listen to the voice. Look at the hands. Imagine the pants!! This man was made to play the Phantom. He is the second coming of Davis Gaines or Howard McGillan in the making.

Whoever is in charge...whoever I need to contact, petition, or pray to...MAKE THIS HAPPEN.

Made by @mattxiv on Instagram.

To say music is your life is an understatement. Music is what makes you wake up each day—albeit always in darkness. It’s the living substitute for the family and friendships your face, a damning accident of birth, has denied you.

Then one day you hear her voice from your desolate hiding place. You discover music personified in the form of a grieving girl just as lonely as you are. You can't explain why you took the risk of revealing yourself to her; you only know that there’s no meaning in music anymore without that seraphic voice in your possession. Molding it, controlling it, is your closest approximation to happiness.

It doesn’t end well. Your desire turns to a murderous obsession that nearly wrecks her. You forget that that messiness of the human heart is only partly transposed in the sheet music of an opera. She isn't music personified; she’s just a woman who belongs to the living world from which you're exiled. 

Still, she shows you compassion. For a moment she sees you. In that fleeting fraction of time, she understands you better than you've bothered to understand her in your relentless quest to own her. And so you release her. With one last goodbye, she returns the ring you gave her and your eyes follow her long after her form disappears from view.

You’ve accepted it. You nod your head in resignation and kiss the ring that once touched her fingers. You'll be brave! You’ll think of her fondly and savor the fragments of her that live in your mind's eye.

Then you hear her voice again: that call that first summoned you from the darkness; the instrument that shaped you as much as it was shaped by you; the melody on which you'd set all your wretched hopes. It possesses your body as usual. As it radiates down your spine, you react like a cobra to a charmer's flute. The angelic sound seems to await your response.

But your face crumbles when her rescuer sings back. In the notes of their duet you hear all the things you can't give her, all the grief you've caused, and the sure certainty that you've lost her forever. You hang your head and realize that you're not brave; you're sorry. So very, very sorry, and...

You love her. You love her desperately!