In a partnership resembling a prehistoric Hollywood studio contract combined with Manchester United's player loan programme, they've collaborated on seven (soon to be eight) features since the inception of Depp's career in Wes Craven's A Nightmare in Elm Street in 1984.
Their latest, Alice In Wonderland, was the actor/director's first foray into the third dimension; a fluff re-imagination of the classic tale that saw Depp goofing as an imbalanced (both physically and mentally) computer-generated Mad Hatter.
Burton is one of the most imaginative film directors of the last twenty years. Still, the repetition of his choice of actors, which includes wife Helena Bonham Carter, is becoming tedious. No longer are their roles as fresh and bewitching as they used to be, and the style of direction has become- though a trademark- predictable and samey.
Everything started in 1990 with Edward Scissorhands, a darkly comic fairytale about loneliness, exploitation, love, and envy. Brilliantly original in both story and style, it starred Depp as Edward, the 'human' creation of an aged inventor- incomplete but for his hands, instead possessing long, razor sharp shears. Whisked from his tower by an over-empathetic Avon saleswoman he tries his best to fit into the garishly dull suburbia and soon he discovers that his individuality and creativity brings new life to the townsfolk; but not everyone wants him there.
Depp's performance ignited a career that would see him hailed by many as one of the finest actors of our generation and his mug is firmly slapped across the bedroom ceiling of every fifteen-year old girl in Christendom. Brilliant it is. Uttering only something like 172 words during the whole film, he twitches, snips and pouts his socks off, perfecting physical comedy in several hilarious spurts of deranged panic (waterbed+giant scissors= ha ha ha).
Winona Ryder- Burton's pre-Carter kooky gal in residence- knocks socks off as dreamy teenage daughter Kim, for whom Edward falls in... love? Her buttery shhhh-shy voice and puppy dog eyes excuse the daft unconditioned yellow mop, which pales in comparison to the barnets of her neighbours- over-tanned chicken-coop alpha-females shifting out of identikit bungalows.
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| She could steal from my department store any day, mate! |
Talking of which, the set design is unbeatable and thank days that this was visualised before the improvement of CG because I just know that it would all have been done the easy way if made today. The various towering hedge sculptures are amazing (and real), though I shall forgive for there not actually being a castle on a giant mountain right next to the set.
Vincent Price gave a memorable last performance in the movie before his sad passing in 1993, his last ever scene ironically being the character of the inventor dying on-screen when presenting Edward with his hands. The role was said to have been written for the actor, who enjoyed a long career- most famously in the horror genre, thanks to his distinctive voice.
The only thing that I don't like about this film is the cheesy bracketing of the story with an old lady Winona telling it in a form of a fairytale to a little girl in a bed ten times too big for her. It's not just the fact that Tim Burton suddenly turns me into a gilf-lover every time I watch this movie, but that it almost ruins the magic of it, you know?
Sorry, I'm lying.
I don't like it because when Winona tucks the little girl into bed and it zooms out through the window towards Edward's castle and it's all beautiful and he's there snipping at the ice sculptures and there's one of Kim then Danny Elfman's choral score floats over the top, it soaks up all the love in my soul and I start crying because its so sad that Kim and Edward can't be together.
Oh, all right. Bollocks to you.
It's really because Me and Winona can't be together, alright? Are you happy now?
Bloody hell.
So what's next for Depp and Burton? Dark Shadows: "a gothic-horror tale centering on the life of vampire Barnabas Collins and his run-ins with various monsters, witches, werewolves and ghosts." Very much Burton territory, but I'm skeptical as to what Depp can bring to this role that he hasn't in previous collaborations. True, his canon contains more variation than a box of quality street, but highly problematic for this actor is that the status of his celebrity makes every role henceforth unmistakably a Johnny Depp Performance. He seems to have lost the ability to disappear into a character, which is exactly what he has been so highly regarded for.
It's the drunk pirate that did that, didn't it!
Anyway, this leads to me to consider other director-actor dream teams over the years (since the studio system that is, when contracts used to stick them together for a determined number of flicks).
Most notably for me has been Martin Scorcese and Robert De Niro's cinematic relationship, though since Gangs of New York Marty's pinned the best mates birthday badge to a rougher, matured Leonardo Di Caprio. Alfred Hitchcock was fond of James Stewart. Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg extend beyond movies into producing pals. Christopher Nolan's right hand man looks a lot like Christian Bale.
A good, lasting actor-director combo is a hard thing to find, especially when the artists are both at the top of their game.
All I'm saying is that I don't want another 'New Tim Burton and Johnny Depp Movie'. I want another great, original movie that you can lose yourself in that is directed by Tim Burton and stars Johnny Depp.
Ya dig?
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