Though she’s fallen into a bit of a slump with the coolly received The Tempest and the controversial Spider-Man musical, Julie Taymor has proven herself to be one of the finest visionaries of stage and screen. She directed the fantastic stage adaptation of The Lion King, and her movie director credits include Titus, Frida, and Across the Universe. These movies are highly poetic and thus aren’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea. Still, their visual majesty is impossible to deny. Taking Shakespearean material and transforming it into a visual frenzy of color and sound is quite a feat, and Across the Universe is a strange but beautiful ode to Beatles music and young love. Hopefully the experience with Spider-Man hasn’t robbed her of all inspiration, and she can mount a comeback worthy of her earlier work.
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