Stéphane Berla directed Dionysos’s romantic music video, Tais-toi mon coeur. The cinematography, editing, and art direction are simply beautiful (with nods to Tim Burton and Yuri Norstein Borisovich). The video looks like stop-motion claymation, but is surprisingly all digital.
The best thing going for Sweeney Todd is the art direction. There are times when it feels too dark, but Burton does a good job of setting the tone and doing all the costumes. Unfortunately, that’s also the only thing going for it.
The music, though interesting, would’ve been better served by a pair who can actually sing. Depp and Carter do a fair job, but their diction made it difficult to understand what they were saying at times. Not that there was a lot of plot or narrative in the songs, but trying to understand what they’re saying really takes you out of the moment.
Still, without the music, the entire narrative is really predictable. Granted, that may be a function of just having seen a lot of movies or understanding storytelling.