Dir: Tim Burton & Mike Johnson
DoP: Pete Kozachik
Year: 2005
Things To Consider
- Burton’s interests and passions are laid out clearly here. The film adopts a somewhat flat look until the Bride shows up, once she arrives the film gets a lot more visually interesting. There’s much richer colours, the same purple/green combination that Burton used so effectively in Beetlejuice. The Land of the Dead is a far more colourful and exciting place than the land of the living.
- The film is full of references to both German Expressionism and early horror movies. Burton manages to sublimate these and make them his own, he’s clearly referencing films he loves but he’s not underlining it in the same way that Quentin Tarantino does. Do you feel this is a more or less genuine mode of homage?
- I particularly love the way the Bride is shot, the dramatic shadows, the strong backlight give her a fitting otherworldly quality. She can be both menacing and deeply sympathetic, and she is shot both ways multiple times. I definitely see links between how this Bride is shot and how another Bride (of Frankenstein) is shot.
Further Research
- Tim Burton, The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari & Stop Motion
- Shot on What – Tech Specs
- Comparison of Dr. Caligari and The Corpse Bride – Video Essay
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