(Photo Courtesy of MoMA)
The Hidden S takes in the career of Tim Burton...
Hard to believe but Tim Burton has been a major filmmaker for well over 20 years. Despite being noticeably past the midpoint in his career, his legacy and influence are still not settled. It might be helpful to compare his work to the other major filmmaker who is at the same point in his career: Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino is the most influential filmmaker of his generation and therefore the most mimicked filmmaker of his generation. Tarantino’s influence is an up-to-the-minute thing as well, having influenced a film as recent at The Hangover with its non-linear storytelling, instant catchphrases and fetish for exotic villains and suitcases full of mystery.
It is hard to see Burton’s influence as easily. His film work is particularly his own and it probably would be hard to copy him with any kind of ease. A couple of films -like Lemony Snicket's A Series of Misfortunate Events- have shown some of his influence, but it's definitely one of the few. On top of this, he is one of the few bankable filmmakers who works on the outside of popular tastes. Works such as Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow and The Nightmare Before Christmas are not obviously commercial films. It is to the public’s credit that most of his film’s have been successful and a couple like Edward Scissorhands are beloved. There are plenty of filmmakers working who are thought of as being something close to an artist like Woody Allen and Pedro Almodovar, but their films typically don’t have the mainstream appeal that Burton’s films have had.
Despite his popularity, Burton has just gotten the retrospective treatment by the Museum of Modern Art. This exhibit, several months old at this point, has been wildly popular for the museum. I attended this weekend and fought through a crowd of Williamsburg hipsters, art geeks and comic book dorks to get a look at the ephemera of Burton’s life and work. Indeed, the exhibit encompasses much more than Burton’s work; there are Super-8 films rolling that Burton made as a kid as well as evidence of participation in school and community activities in his native home of Burbank, California.
The heart of the exhibit is of course the evidence of his film work. There are a couple of surprising notions about Burton's approach to film making and they are 1. It does not seem to have changed much over time; he makes sketches of characters in his film on paper and these sketches are transformed into a finished project (Burton's sketches appear to be done quickly and are typically ragged and raw). 2. He apparently has kept everything he has ever done. The exhibit is full of drawings and sculptures of characters only realized in his fertile brain (Stain Boy anyone?).
As much as there is, and there is a lot, what is somewhat intriguing is what is/could be missing. In the late 90's there was a lot of press about a Burton directed Superman starring Nicolas Cage. It is intriguing to think of what might have been but there are no sketches here of Burton's take on the Man of Steel. Does that mean that none exist? Probably. Does it mean that Burton never sketched his version of Superman, The Fortress of Solitude, etc? Probably not. I imagine that he simply may have trashed them when the project did not come to fruition.
The other odd thing in the exhibit is the lack of acknowledgment of the legacy of Hammer Films in Burton's oeuvre. The great old English company was well known for its bloody and sexy takes on old warhorses like Dracula, Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Burton has paid tribute to these films in works such as Sleepy Hollow and in using icons of Hammer Film like Christopher Lee and Michael Gough (Alfred in the Keaton/Kilmer/Clooney Batman films).
To comic fans, Burton launched the contemporary comic film with the original, highly influential Batman starring Michael Keaton. In my mind, it ranks as the best comic book film of this era since without it there is no The Dark Knight, no Spider-Man, no X-Men. Batman Returns from 1992 is in some ways better than the original, with a more coherent script and a better showcase for Keaton's geeky heroism. Burton has shied away from comic films for awhile which is surprising since he is one of the few filmmakers who has that sensibility in his DNA (Tarantino is another).
It would be great to see him do a Justice League film or even the reboot of Superman. With the record breaking opening this past weekend of Burton's take on Alice in Wonderland some of the studios might be reminded of Burton's following and the magic he can spin out of pop material. I dream of a Frank Miller adaptation starring a late, middle-aged Michael Keaton ten years from now, but that's just me and I'm a dreamer...
(The Exhibit runs until April 26th-Special thanks to Justin Rigby and Paul Jackson Museum of Modern Art)
S
(Photo Courtesy of MoMA)
The Hidden S takes in the career of Tim Burton...
Hard to believe but Tim Burton has been a major filmmaker for well over 20 years. Despite being noticeably past the midpoint in his career, his legacy and influence are still not settled. It might be helpful to compare his work to the other major filmmaker who is at the same point in his career: Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino is the most influential filmmaker of his generation and therefore the most mimicked filmmaker of his generation. Tarantino’s influence is an up-to-the-minute thing as well, having influenced a film as recent at The Hangover with its non-linear storytelling, instant catchphrases and fetish for exotic villains and suitcases full of mystery.
It is hard to see Burton’s influence as easily. His film work is particularly his own and it probably would be hard to copy him with any kind of ease. A couple of films -like Lemony Snicket's A Series of Misfortunate Events- have shown some of his influence, but it's definitely one of the few. On top of this, he is one of the few bankable filmmakers who works on the outside of popular tastes. Works such as Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow and The Nightmare Before Christmas are not obviously commercial films. It is to the public’s credit that most of his film’s have been successful and a couple like Edward Scissorhands are beloved. There are plenty of filmmakers working who are thought of as being something close to an artist like Woody Allen and Pedro Almodovar, but their films typically don’t have the mainstream appeal that Burton’s films have had.
Despite his popularity, Burton has just gotten the retrospective treatment by the Museum of Modern Art. This exhibit, several months old at this point, has been wildly popular for the museum. I attended this weekend and fought through a crowd of Williamsburg hipsters, art geeks and comic book dorks to get a look at the ephemera of Burton’s life and work. Indeed, the exhibit encompasses much more than Burton’s work; there are Super-8 films rolling that Burton made as a kid as well as evidence of participation in school and community activities in his native home of Burbank, California.
The heart of the exhibit is of course the evidence of his film work. There are a couple of surprising notions about Burton's approach to film making and they are 1. It does not seem to have changed much over time; he makes sketches of characters in his film on paper and these sketches are transformed into a finished project (Burton's sketches appear to be done quickly and are typically ragged and raw). 2. He apparently has kept everything he has ever done. The exhibit is full of drawings and sculptures of characters only realized in his fertile brain (Stain Boy anyone?).
As much as there is, and there is a lot, what is somewhat intriguing is what is/could be missing. In the late 90's there was a lot of press about a Burton directed Superman starring Nicolas Cage. It is intriguing to think of what might have been but there are no sketches here of Burton's take on the Man of Steel. Does that mean that none exist? Probably. Does it mean that Burton never sketched his version of Superman, The Fortress of Solitude, etc? Probably not. I imagine that he simply may have trashed them when the project did not come to fruition.
The other odd thing in the exhibit is the lack of acknowledgment of the legacy of Hammer Films in Burton's oeuvre. The great old English company was well known for its bloody and sexy takes on old warhorses like Dracula, Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Burton has paid tribute to these films in works such as Sleepy Hollow and in using icons of Hammer Film like Christopher Lee and Michael Gough (Alfred in the Keaton/Kilmer/Clooney Batman films).
To comic fans, Burton launched the contemporary comic film with the original, highly influential Batman starring Michael Keaton. In my mind, it ranks as the best comic book film of this era since without it there is no The Dark Knight, no Spider-Man, no X-Men. Batman Returns from 1992 is in some ways better than the original, with a more coherent script and a better showcase for Keaton's geeky heroism. Burton has shied away from comic films for awhile which is surprising since he is one of the few filmmakers who has that sensibility in his DNA (Tarantino is another).
It would be great to see him do a Justice League film or even the reboot of Superman. With the record breaking opening this past weekend of Burton's take on Alice in Wonderland some of the studios might be reminded of Burton's following and the magic he can spin out of pop material. I dream of a Frank Miller adaptation starring a late, middle-aged Michael Keaton ten years from now, but that's just me and I'm a dreamer...
(The Exhibit runs until April 26th-Special thanks to Justin Rigby and Paul Jackson Museum of Modern Art)
S
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