Tim Burton: The Dark Side

The Nightmare Before Christmas

This is a wonderful time for cult director Tim Burton, the man behind dream-like, gothic adventures including Beetlejuice and Sleepy Hollow. A month ago, in Venice, he was awarded a Golden Lion for a Lifetime Achievement and at 49, he is the youngest director ever to receive the coveted gong. Next week, his masterwork The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) will hit the big screen again in 3D – right in time for Halloween - and his next movie, Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, is released in January. Not only that, but wife Helena Bonham-Carter is expecting their second child in December.

But what is at the root of his unchained fantasy and passion for all things spooky and strange?

Born in 1958 and raised in Burbank, California, he spent his childhood secluded in his room, drawing and inventing fantastic stories.

 “I loved being told fairytales and I have always liked their symbolism, “ he says of those early years,
“ But I also loved stories and people that looked weird: horror actors Peter Lorre and Vincent Price became my first idols. That kind of glaring villain has inspired most of my work”.

After high school he attended the California Institute of the Arts and went to work as an animator for Disney.
Despite creative differences, Disney allowed him to make his first animated short, Vincent (A homage to Vincent Price).
 Burton’s following work, Frankenweenie, was considered too dark for children; but actor Paul Reubens noticed the director’s groundbreaking imagery, a mix of poetry, horror and childlike sweetness, and asked him to direct his first feature, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985).
It was the beginning of his glittering career, and Burton has now treated his audience with varied works, all carrying his hallmark of childlike other-worldliness: Edward Scissorhands, Batman, Ed Wood and Planet Of The Apes.

Says Burton: “I’ve always felt lucky because I was categorized both as an indie author and a studio one. It feels very invigorating and encourages me to move on and do always different films.”

 He is currently in production with  film version of the musical Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street  starring his wife, Sacha Baran Cohen and  Johnny Depp as the cutthroat hairdresser.

And of his longtime collaborator, Depp,  he says:
 “I connect perfectly with Johnny. His company is just enjoyable. I love actors who can be very different characters, they keep renewing themselves; there are other kinds of actor who always play their real self, and I don’t connect that much with them. But working with Johnny is like always discovering new territories."

In the meantime, we can enjoy peering through our hands at imginery, (rather than human) monsters.
The Nightmare Before Christmas is still regarded as Burton’s masterpiece, even if he didn’t actually direct it.

The film’s inspiration came when he witnessed the Halloween merchandise display in a store being taken down and replaced with Christmas decorations:  the juxtaposition of ghouls and goblins with Santa  sparked his imagination.
So he went on scripting and producing it, but had to hand direction to animator Henry Selick, due to his commitment in shooting Batman Returns.
It's regarded as revolutionary: it was the first movie to be fully realised using the complex stop-motion puppet animation technique – Burton used it again in 2005 for Corpse Bride.
It's a conscious decision to shy away from over-use of computer technology:

“I try to keep my films as human as I can; one of my rules of thumb is to use as little computer graphics as possible. It is also a matter of money, I never have enough so I must find more inventive ways to shoot my scenes. Now that many films are being done with an overload of technology, but I don’t rely that much on it.”

The result is that Burton's films are all the more believable, realistic - and scary!


The Nightmare Before Christmas is released in 3D on 19th October, showing at the Vue West End, www.myvue.com  and Odeon Surrey Keys, Hatfield and Wimbledon, www.odeon.co.uk


 

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