L'altro Medioevo: archetipi e atmosfere

Il mistero di Sleepy Hollow

(Sleepy Hollow)

1999, regia di Tim Burton

Scheda: Nazione: USA-Germania - Produzione: American Zoetrope, Dieter Geissler Filmproduktion, Karol Film Produktions, Mandalay Pictures, Paramount Pictures - Distribuzione: Cecchi Gori, Cecchi Gori Home Video, Argentina Video Home, CIC-Taft Home Video, Constantin Film, Filmes Lusomundo, Herald Film Company, Paramount Pictures, Pathé, United International Pictures - Soggetto: dal romanzo La leggenda di Sleepy Hollow di Washington Irving - Sceneggiatura: Kevin Yagher, Andrew Kevin Walker - Fotografia: Emmanuel Lubezki - Montaggio: Chris Lebenzon, Joel Negron - Art Direction: Ken Court, John Dexter, Andy Nicholson - Scenografia: Rich Heinrichs, Peter Young - Costumi: Colleen Atwood - Musiche: Danny Elfman - Effetti speciali: Industrial Light & Magic, Kevin Yagher Productions, The Computer Film Company - Formato: Color DeLuxe - Durata: 105'.

Cast: Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon, Casper Van Dien, Jeffrey Jones, Christopher Lee, Richard Griffiths, Ian McDiarmid, Michael Gough, Marc Pickering, Lisa Marie, Steven Waddington, Christopher Walken, Claire Skinner, Alun Armstrong, Mark Spalding, Jessica Oyelowo, Tony Maudsley.

Trama e commenti: cinematografo.it - kataweb.it - film.spettacolo.virgilio.it - tempimoderni.com - cinefile.biz - mymovies.it: «... un piacevole film di Burton con un ottimo Deep e una Ricci diventata cult girl. Un orrendo e misterioso cavaliere senza testa batte la plaga tagliando a sua volta la testa a tutti i suoi (ex) nemici. Depp indaga, trova l'amore e scopre la verità dopo una discesa in un vero e proprio inferno. Il clima sa di stampa d'epoca. Ma il linguaggio cinematografico è aggiornatissimo. Citazioni del metodo Sherlock Holmes. Da cineteca di genere».

Plot Summary, Synopsis, Review: IMDb - entertainment.msn.com - haro-online.com - tvguide.com: «Roll over, Washington Irving. Tim Burton's stylish and creepy homage to the Hammer horror films of the late '50s is also the most atmospheric piece of grand guignol gothic since Mario Bava's Black Sunday. This time out, Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) is a New York City cop in dutch with the department because he prefers searching for clues to torturing suspects. As punishment, a nasty judge (Hammer star Christopher Lee) dispatches him upstate to investigate three mysterious decapitations; once there, the fiercely rationalist Crane is disturbed to learn that the locals blame the deaths on the Headless Horseman, the ghost of a monstrous Hessian soldier (Christopher Walken at his feral best). Crane also discovers he's not much of a hero (he twitches and faints a lot), and begins to have troubling dreams, perhaps inspired by the beautiful Katrina (Christina Ricci), the witchy daughter of the village's richest citizen. What follows — an extremely convoluted mystery rife with countless suspects and plot reversals — may be silly in the abstract, but Burton renders it with total conviction and a poet's eye, with woods that seem literally alive and a sensational showdown in a burning windmill à la Frankenstein. He also makes great use of a terrific cast — even the usually wooden Casper Van Dien seems to be in on the joke for a change — and in a particularly sly touch he gives the various village bigwigs the corrupt, overfed look of characters in a Hogarth illustration. A triumph of genre filmmaking» (Steve Simels).

Approfondimenti: Movie Review

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