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Today, the film “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is released worldwide, the sequel to Tim Burton’s cult mystical comedy from 1988. The film, which premiered at the 81st Venice Film Festival, was warmly received by audiences and critics. Let’s find out why everyone should evaluate the director’s new project and remember the previous one.
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Tim Burton, in an interview with The Guardian, said that he did not intend to make a big sequel for the sake of money. This decision was motivated by personal reasons, as well as by disappointment in the film industry. “I decided that if I made another film, I would make it for the soul. Before starting, I did not watch the first part again, because I remembered the spirit of the film and all its characters well. For me, this project was a charge of joy, a return to what I love to do, how I love to do it and those with whom I love to do it,” said the director. According to the plot of the new part, the Dietz family returns to Winter River after the death of Delia’s husband Charles. Her daughter Lydia and granddaughter Astrid arrive at the same house where the family first met Beetlejuice more than 30 years ago. In the attic, the girl finds a model in which a portal is hidden and calls the bio-exorcist again, which leads her to a series of encounters with the paranormal.
Beetlejuice – MICHAEL KEATON
In the original film, Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) is a “supernatural bio-exorcist” who helps the recently deceased couple Adam and Barbara Maitland (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) haunt the house’s new owners, the Dietz family. Burton’s genius lies in the fact that he shows the other side of the ghost story and talks not primarily about the world of the living, but about the other world, in which people interfere. Also in the image of Beetlejuice, he reveals the eternal question about the role of the “mask”, which helps the actor to transform. The director stated that the makeup allowed Keaton to relax and show a completely different side of his personality.
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“You don’t have to worry about being Michael Keaton anymore, you can allow yourself to be the character. It always fascinates and opens up new facets of an actor’s talent, whether it’s Johnny Depp in Edward Scissorhands or Jack Nicholson as the Joker. It’s like Halloween: people dress up and it allows them to go crazy, to become someone else. That’s what I always loved about the filmmaking process: the transformation of people,” the director said in the book “Tim Burton. Interview” by Mark Salisbury.
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Keaton, in turn, told Entertainment Weekly that he was actively involved in the work on the image, with Tim giving him complete freedom. Michael asked the makeup artists to sculpt his character’s face (with moss, mold, a broken nose, and wrinkles) and to style his hair as if he had just stuck his fingers in an electrical socket. By the way, the iconic striped costume (a classic of every Halloween) was invented by the director. It also appears in the second part (but in a more modern interpretation), as well as the same burgundy tuxedo from the wedding scene with Lydia Dietz. There is also a new item of clothing in Beetlejuice’s wardrobe: a warm gray cardigan from “Grandpa,” which he wears over a shirt with a bow tie. The entire image of Beetlejuice (both makeup and clothes) hints at his essence: he is an ironic player who serves as a guide between worlds, an eccentric trickster and a force that “eternally wants evil and always does good.”
Fun fact: Variety reported that Keaton insisted on almost completely eliminating computer-generated special effects in the sequel. He believed that “everything should look like it was done by hand.”
DELIA DIETZ – CATHERINE O’HARA
Burton skillfully works with the theme of death and masterfully rethinks it in an unconventional vector for Western culture: he talks about it without unnecessary pathos, mourning and morality, sometimes with jokes and mockery. The sequel begins with the death of the head of the Dietz family, Charles, played by Jeffrey Jones. He dies somewhere in the Amazon and on the grave is written: “Father, husband, bird watcher.” His wife, artist Delia Dietz played by Catherine O’Hara, is desperate, lovingly remembers the deceased and covers the house.
In the first part, Delia is introduced as a sculptor from New York who wants to renovate the house in a postmodern style, which causes a conflict with the deceased owners of the house and forces them to turn to Beetlejuice. She decides to move house, as she is not at all used to country life. At first, Delia is shown as a snobbish, harsh and demanding person, whose character constantly brings her into conflict with her daughter. They are two opposing forces that may never get along, but in reality they are very similar: artistic, sensitive and fashionable women who get dramatic from time to time.
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In both the original and the sequel, the heroine’s image reflects her character and type of activity: she is a real “mad artist”, an upstart who ties tiara-shaped gloves on her head and wears huge chandelier earrings, various hats and frilly dresses. The reincarnation of the characters in the sequel was done by Burton’s longtime friend, costume designer Colleen Atwood, who has been nominated for an Oscar eight times and received four statuettes. She also worked with the director on Edward Scissorhands, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Alice in Wonderland, Dumbo and the recent Netflix hit Wednesday. Colleen said about Delia’s image in an interview with Vogue: “She is a creator, and to emphasize her authenticity, we decided to use references to the original style. Of all the characters, Delia’s clothes are the most ’80s-inspired, so we wanted to keep them as they were before.” And one of the heroine’s traits, red or pink lipstick, appears in the sequel, as does fiery red hair, which seems to have gotten brighter over the years.
Fun fact: the main character’s name contains a pun. “Beetlejuice” in one version of the English transcription is the name of the star Betelgeuse, and in another it is translated as “beetle juice.”
LYDIA DIETZ – WINONA RYDER
In the original Beetlejuice, Lydia, played by Winona Ryder, is a teenager who, unlike her parents, sees the other world and quickly finds a common language with it. The costume designer for the first part, Edgey Gerard Rogers, said in an interview with Elle that when she met the actress, she was still very young (Ryder had just turned 16). They worked together on the look and searched for almost all the clothes with her mother at the American Rag second-hand store in Los Angeles. “In the final scene of the film, Winona decided to wear her plaid school uniform over a long black skirt. It was her idea. I think that by the end of the film, all the actors clearly felt the character of the characters, and that is why things reflect their nature so well,” Agee said.
Young Lydia often wore gothic dresses, chokers, and lace, but her most striking look was a custom-made red dress with a full skirt. Rogers was inspired by the wedding dress worn by the house’s original owner, Barbara Maitland (also found in Brenda’s Bridal). In the new feed, Lydia still loves black clothing, preferring floor-length coats and trench coats (like the 14-year-old girl from the first part). It’s been decades since her last encounter with Beetlejuice, and she still wears lace, plaid, school skirts, chokers, and sunglasses.
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Colleen Atwood wanted to reimagine her love of gothic imagery and give it a modern twist. The costume designer admitted that she could have simply chosen a dress for the heroine from the Simone Rocha or Alexander McQueen assortment, which are very suitable in aesthetics, but she still decided to work with vintage and sew the outfits herself. “I sewed 75% of all the looks. We used a couple of jackets by London designer Elena Dawson because they were gothic but modern,” Atwood told Vogue. The hairstyle is also a tribute to the first part: the same long bangs and dark hair, but with a more modern cascading design. She also wears a red dress in the sequel, in the scene where she goes to hell to save her daughter.
Fun fact: Beetlejuice is often categorized by film critics as part of a little-known fantasy subgenre: Bangsian. The title refers to comedian and satirist John Kendrick Bangs, known for his comedic tales about the afterlife and ghosts.
ASTRID DIETZ – JENNA ORTEGA
The death of the head of the family forces his wife, daughter and granddaughter to return to Winter River. The latter appears for the first time in the sequel: her name is Astrid (Jenna Ortega). The director introduces a new generation into the film’s narrative to raise the eternal question of the relationship between children and parents. If in the first part the audience was presented with differences in the relationship between Lydia and Delia, the second focuses on the misunderstandings between Lydia and Astrid. Cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos confirmed that the new Beetlejuice is a film primarily about family: “It’s been 30 years since the first part, and the sequel raises the question: what allows you to maintain relationships for so long in the crazy world we all live in?”
After the funeral, Astrid, who misses her late father very much, finds the same model in the attic, opens the portal and calls Beetlejuice again. Jenna Ortega’s heroine seems to continue her image from Wednesday: she does not depend on the opinions of others, does not understand her peers and does not believe in her mother’s capabilities. The punk aspect of her look continues in her wardrobe: she wears short skirts, torn striped sweaters, high leather boots and floral dresses. Atwood admitted that she wanted to combine anger and melancholy in her image: “Astrid, in fact, did not want to be near her mother and her strange world. She was more into old movies and music, so I made her vintage clothes. I made her a dress with a daisy print that I have had for a long time and paired it with a denim jacket and boots.”
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Fun fact: Beetlejuice won an Oscar for Best Makeup in 1989. Makeup artists Steve La Porte, Vi Nill and Robert Short worked on the character likenesses.
DOLORES – MONICA BELLUCCI
Another heroine in the sequel who had not appeared before, Beetlejuice’s former lover, the dead girlfriend Dolores, was played by Monica Bellucci (she is also Burton’s new lover). The character has the ability to suck souls and kill even the inhabitants of the underworld. Dolores wants revenge on her ex-husband and pursues him throughout the film. The actress herself, at a press conference at the Venice Film Festival, spoke about Dolores to Vogue: “She is a real villain, but there is also something touching and dangerous about her. However, she also has funny character traits.”
Bellucci noted that during filming, she was made up with scars every day for three hours. The actress also had to take several choreography lessons: “This is the first time I’ve played a dead woman. I used pantomime to look like a broken doll.” Dolores’ black corseted dress deserves special mention: Atwood also sewed it herself from a vintage dress, lace and fabric. The costume designer wanted to create a new universe, while maintaining the familiar atmosphere and adding new characters: “Tim and I work together a lot, so we only talked about clothes for about five minutes. We wanted everything to be simple, visual and understandable.”
Fun fact: Tim Burton is a long-time fan of Frank Herbert’s Dune and Denis Villeneuve’s film adaptation. Thus, both the first and second installments feature the same sandworms that the inhabitants of Arrakis encountered.
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