Youth Without Youth/Sweeney Todd: Hold the Meat Pies

At a press conference for his new film “Youth Without Youth,” Francis Ford Coppola, the famed “Godfather” director told a story about the 1993 film “Little Buddha,” starring Keanu Reeves. The filmmakers wanted Johnny Depp for the lead. The studio wanted a better-known actor. That was once upon a time in Hollywood, a laughable irony at Monday night's premiere of Tim Burton's “Sweeney Todd” at the Zeigfeld. In the title role, bedecked in Burtonesque raccoon-eyed Goth, Johnny Depp does his gruesome barber-y on a dozen men, before they are baked in pies. Deserving a best actor Oscar for this role, Depp can do anything. And can he sing! As snake oil salesman and blackmailer Sacha Baron Cohen is especially slimy sporting a tight racing blue jumpsuit! “Sweeney Todd” is the spectacular of the season with delicious villainy by Alan Rickman, as evil Judge Turpin, and Timothy Spall, his beadle. Helena Bonham Carter, Burton's wife, is Mrs. Lovett, Todd's accomplice in revenge. Fleet Street's rats and roaches cavort to Stephen Sondheim's classic score. Let the squeamish be ware. At the premiere, the audience: a previous Todd, Michael Cerveris, the cast of “Spring Awakening,” “Cymbeline”'s Martha Plimpton, presidential historian Douglas Brinkley, among the artsy crowd, whooped with glee as each closely shaved body thudded down a shaft. “Sweeney Todd” is a tragic tale about characters whose lives and dreams have been taken away, and “Youth Without Youth” is the inverse: a parable of an old man, played superbly by Tim Roth, given back his life and dreams. Oh, to be in love one last time!

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