Labyrinth
Short description
Sarah is a teenager who prefers her fantasy books and daydreams to the responsibility of looking after her baby stepbrother, Toby. After an evening of resentment, she wishes aloud that the goblins would take the child away, and the wish is granted: Jareth, the Goblin King, carries Toby off to his castle. Given a limited amount of time to undo what she has done, Sarah must make her way through the vast labyrinth that surrounds the goblin city. The maze is full of trickery, strange creatures and puzzles, and not everything in it is what it appears to be; if she fails to reach the castle in time, Toby will remain with Jareth.
Jim Henson directed the film, the fourth of the five features listed for him, following The Dark Crystal and arriving between that film and Dog City. Terry Jones wrote the screenplay, Eric Rattray produced, and the large credited cast of 88 includes David Bowie as Jareth, Jennifer Connelly as Sarah, Toby Froud as Toby, Shelley Thompson, Christopher Malcolm and Brian Henson. The production was a British and American one, made by Lucasfilm and TriStar Pictures among others, with a reported budget of 25 million dollars. It earned about 13 million dollars worldwide on its 1986 release, though it has since found a wider audience: on IMDb it holds 7.3 out of 10 from roughly 164,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.3 from a much smaller 2,860 votes. A critics' rating of 6.7 from 55 reviews places it below both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- A significant portion of the roles in the film were played by puppets or dolls operated by people from the inside. For example, the filming of the Dance Magic scene involved 45 puppets, 53 puppeteers, a child, Bowie, and 5 frantic chickens. The children were simply told to run and jump as they pleased, with some having strings attached to make their jumps higher, and Charles Owens was brought in to stage Bowie’s movements, bringing a vibrant dynamic to the performance. The most challenging part of the staging was working with Toby, as he was capricious and it was difficult to elicit the desired facial expression.
- The body of the doll depicting the huge metallic robot protecting the goblin city was made of fiberglass, and its height was four and a half meters. The doll was moved by six people, and another controlled other movements.
- Jennifer Connelly was selected through an open audition held by George Lucas and Jim Henson. Initially, they were looking for an actress between 18 and 19 years old, but no candidate satisfied the jury. Then the age limit was lowered by 2-3 years, and the choice fell on Connelly – Henson later claimed he made his decision as soon as she walked through the door. Bowie, however, said that his partner reminded him of a young Elizabeth Taylor.
- The scenes with the Red Band were filmed in a completely black velvet room, with puppeteers dressed in black; the background was filmed separately from the same point and at the same speed, in order to later combine it into a single scene using special effects. The fairies were controlled in several ways: some had their legs attached to the legs of the puppeteers, their arms were controlled by sticks by other puppeteers, and sometimes four people controlled each individual doll. Due to the different control methods, each doll developed its own unique style of movement.
- Michael Jackson or Sting could have played the role of Jareth.
- Bowie received the script during his 1983 tour of the United States. He liked the idea from the start and actively participated in the film's creation, both as an actor and a musician.
- Labyrinth was built and filmed at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, England. The opening scene was shot in North London's Hampstead Heath. Subsequent footage of Sarah running in the rain through the streets was filmed in Upper Nyack, a suburb of New York. The scenes in the Williams' house were also filmed on sets, and only the porch was actually built for exterior shots.
- The ballroom scene is the only large-scale scene in the film that does not feature a single puppet; however, the filmmakers aimed to show that all the characters present are actually goblins merely playing humans. To this end, costumes and masks were developed. Cheryl (Gates) McFadden was brought in to choreograph the scene. Jennifer herself had never danced before, so she had to take dance lessons.
- Two actors were required to operate the Ludo doll; a small video camera was mounted on the right horn of the doll, allowing them to see what was happening around them on a monitor located inside.
- The Hogl doll was considered lost for some time after filming; it was lost in airport baggage, and later found and purchased as unclaimed baggage by a store in Scottsboro, Alabama.
- The scenes of Jareth juggling crystal balls were filmed without the use of any special camera techniques or visual effects. It wasn't David Bowie who was juggling the crystal balls, but a professional juggler – the film's choreographer.
- The set for the labyrinth of staircases that Sarah enters upon arriving at Jareth’s castle was based on Escher’s painting “Relativity.” This painting hangs in the heroine’s room. The scenes in this set were filmed using special technical equipment and a stunt double made up to resemble Bowie, and this episode was the most thoroughly storyboarded due to its complexity. The scene where the crystal ball thrown by Jareth lands in Toby’s hands was filmed using reverse motion.
- Jareth the Goblin King’s hairstyle was ranked among the ten best film hairstyles by The Contentenders, taking 2nd place in the ranking.
- Each doll was created specifically for the film, taking into account the role it was to play. It took over a year to create everything necessary to move the dolls’ bodies, heads, and other parts, but it all came together in the last few weeks before filming began. Many actors had to train to coordinatedly control the characters: for example, to create Hogl’s facial expressions, 18 motors were created, controlled by radio by 4 people who had to ensure that their actions led to a single, realistic result. In addition, a fifth person sat inside.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
