The Jill of All Trades
Emma Thompson could do it all.
The two-time Academy Award winner made her New York stage debut in Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd", earning rave reviews. A remarkable feat, as she last took to the stage twenty five years ago. She may be too refined for the role of Mrs. Lovett, a working-class survivor with blood and dirt under her fingernails. But the star of "Sense and Sesibility" and "Nanny McPhee" showed them all.
Sweeney Todd first appeared in a Victorian penny dreadful, "The String of Pearls" (1846-47). He was a barber and murderer, dispatching his victims as they sat in the barber chair. Mrs. Lovett was his partner-in-crime, baking their flesh into meat pies for unsuspecting customers. It was hard to tell if Sweeney Todd was real or reel; he appeared in "Pickwick Papers" and "Martin Chuzzlewit", both by Charles Dickens. He seemed to be a product of an urban legend, which may be why Dickens used him (in his works). Some believed he was real, Joseph Fouché being one of them. He was the Duke of Otranto, also the Minister of Police under Napoleon I. The French statesman's account included a description of a barber and wig maker of the Rue de la Harpe in Paris, who slit his customers' throats, relieved them of their valuables, and had their bodies made into meat pies. It sounded too fantastic, which may be the reason Fouché wasn't taken seriously.
Nonetheless, the tale had a power of its own, drawing viewers. This could be the reason why it was adapted one too many. Tim Burton's version, depicting the unlikely couple as mentally unhinged, was arguably the best.
Thompson's turn as Mrs. Lovett came after her Oscar snub for her brilliant portrayal of P.L. Travers in "Saving Mr. Banks". The film was a rollicking account of how Walt Disney persuaded the author of "Mary Poppins" to give her nod in adapting her book to the big screen. Director John Lee Hancock shown a number of brief scenes, which suggested that there was more to tell. One was both Disney and Travers don't take NO for an answer. Don't be surprised, then, that it took twenty years for the major figure in American figure industry to woo Travers. It also wasn't hard to imagine that there were repeated clashing between the two, which could be the reason why the Australian-born writer refused to give the rights for the filming of the sequels, namely "Mary Poppins Opens the Door", "Mary Poppins in the Park", "Mary Poppins from A to Z", "Mary Poppins in the Kitchen", "Mary Poppins in Cherry Tree Lane", and "Mary Poppins and the House Next Door".
In "Saving Mr. Banks", Travers was depicted as an acerbic, old lady, a lonely woman looking for a father figure. Flashbacks revealed the young Travers adoring her father, a dreamer who succumbed to alcoholism. This happened when she was eight years of age, the experience inspired her to pen the Mary Poppins series. It was a walk on the dark side, but Walt Disney preferred the brighter side of life.
