2012 Dark Shadows: Barnabas and Angelique

[Lydia]

It's Halloween, so I'm thinking about michael c's suggestion that we have a discussion of the 2012 movie today:

deppshadows "watching project"

I've seen the movie twice: once on May 11 in a movie theater, and once on October 2 on DVD.  And I've thought about how Johnny Depp watched the series when it was originally broadcast, as I did.  Depp and I appear to have been seeing Barnabas completely differently, however.

Johnny Depp's Barnabas seems to me to be unattractive, clueless, and annoying.  These are all things that Jonathan Frid's Barnabas was not.  I'm not much of a moviewatcher, but I've seen Johnny Depp in a few other movies, and I know that he can be attractive, intelligent, and interesting, even when he's playing a bad guy.  A lot of other Dark Shadows fans have loved the movie, so I gather they are seeing things that I am not.

My dislike for Depp's Barnabas causes me to feel that Eva Green's Angelique is all wrong as well.  I like her far better than I like Lara Parker's Angelique - but she doesn't make sense.  Parker's Angelique is totally self-absorbed.  It makes sense that she should have carried the torch for Barnabas for over a century, whatever his faults, because ultimately everything is all about her.  Later in the series we see some emotional growth in her, and that's interesting - but in the time of the series that corresponds to the movie, that hasn't happened yet.  The movie Angelique is another story.  The self-absorption isn't there.  So it seems out of character for her to be fixated on an unattractive, clueless, and annoying person like Barnabas.

Would somebody care to set me straight?

[retzev]

Interesting insights, Lydia. I don't know the answers but I like the questions.

[Lydia]

Thanks, retzev!

[michael c]

on the OS we got to see barnabas and angelique's relationship develop, and evolve, and regress, and change, day after day, week after week, for four years. culminating in barnabas' rather strange eleventh hour declaration in 1840.


given the film's two hour time constraints we don't get that opportunity. we sort of just have to take it on faith. and with the small glimpse we were given of pre-curse barnabas he was certainly handsome. perhaps he was less "clueless and annoying" than he is in the vampire state. only she would know because she's the only person in the film who knew him then.

for me what's more of a stretch is why she's still harassing these people after 200 years. i get that she was a maid working for the family and all but there's really no indication that she was mistreated.

[KMR]

for me what's more of a stretch is why she's still harassing these people after 200 years. i get that she was a maid working for the family and all but there's really no indication that she was mistreated.

She was jilted, and apparently that was enough to do it. Remember, she had been after Barnabas since childhood (or at least that's what was implied from the first scene).

[Mysterious Benefactor]

To me, Angelique's continued persecution of the Collins family follows the same pattern as how she[spoiler]killed Barnabas' father, mother, and even the family dog because he couldn't say he loved her.[/spoiler]Any and every member of the family, no matter how many generations removed from Barnabas they may be, is fair game simply because they're related to Barnabas, and even if he wasn't around to see how she was making them suffer through the centuries. It was enough that she derived satisfaction from the persecution. And, of course, once things come to a head after Barnabas' release and more of his rejection, all hell breaks loose in the film's finale. It all seems like a perfectly natural progression given Angie's complete inability to take rejection/no for an answer and her need to lash out with punishments that far outweigh any supposed 'crimes' committed against her. To say Angie holds a grudge, whether deserved or not, would be an understatement! 

[quentincollins]

Someone else's love and hate often don't make sense to an outsider looking in.
There is limited time in the movie to explain Angelique's motivations, but I felt like I understood what was going on. She was obsessed with Barnabas, and took out her anger and hate over how he had treated her on his family.
Since we only saw Barnabas and his parents in the movie flashback, it was left pretty vague where the modern day family came from. I assumed they were descended from an unseen cousin Daniel, but to be fair, I can see where my imagination was having to fill in a lot of gaps.

[Lydia]

It all seems like a perfectly natural progression given Angie's complete inability to take rejection/no for an answer and her need to lash out with punishments that far outweigh any supposed 'crimes' committed against her.

That makes sense...but I still come back to the original question: why did Johnny Depp's Barnabas inspire such strong feelings?  The only feeling he inspired in me was, "Oh, go away."

Someone else's love and hate often don't make sense to an outsider looking in.

In real life, that's the case.  In a movie, part of the task is to give the viewer some understanding.

[michael c]

i guess there are different ways of looking at things and beauty is in the eye of the beholder.


i mean jonathan frid was a 'distinguished' looking middle aged man who wore a smoking jacket like nobody's business but that doesn't really explain why every SYT and lady doctor in collinsport threw themselves at his feet.


yes depp's barnabas did look silly in the vampire state but our brief glimpse at him before he was cursed he was a looker. i mean didn't depp recently get "people magazine's" annual "sexiest man alive" cover?

so again perhaps that's what "angie" was seeing.