Cinema
Edward Scissorhands
Tim Burton · 1990
Synopsis
A grandmother tells her granddaughter where snow comes from. Peg Boggs, a door-to-door cosmetics saleswoman, sells nothing in her pastel housing estate and goes up to the Gothic castle that overlooks it. There she finds Edward, a timid and solitary young man, created by an inventor who did not finish him: he has blades in place of hands. She brings him home, to her husband, her son and her daughter Kim. The neighbourhood is enthusiastic: Edward trims hedges into sculptures, grooms dogs and styles the neighbours' hair. He falls in love with Kim, whose boyfriend Jim distrusts him.
Context
The origin is a drawing the director made as a teenager, a man whose hands are scissors, to express his isolation. Caroline Thompson wrote the screenplay, and the success of Burton's previous film, drawn from a comic strip, hastened the project, which he preferred to a sequel. The role of the inventor went to Vincent Price, a childhood idol who had become a friend; it was his last film role released in his lifetime. The shoot took place in Florida, near Tampa, in a housing development whose houses were repainted, Burbank having changed too much.
Who it is for
A film of one hour forty-five minutes, suitable for all audiences, whose main character says almost nothing.
Prizes and reception
Eighty-six million dollars at the box office on a budget of twenty, an Oscar nomination for make-up, and the British award for production design for Bo Welch.
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