Phantom of the Paradise
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Movie Reviews of Phantom of the Paradise
Movie Review: Dear, dear "Phantom" (SPOILERS!)
Summary: 5 Stars
Like many others, I saw this film in early adolescence, and it's stayed with me all this time. I still enjoy the heck out of it, watch it every couple of years and am sorry when it ends. By age 13, I knew that "sarcasm" existed (thanks, Uncle Arthur of "Bewitched"!) but until I saw POTP I was unaware of this stuff called Black Comedy, and my world was well and truly rocked. "Somebody get a fire extingusher!" indeed.
But, as I aged, it occurred to me that it doesn't make any sense. Why would a character with as much to lose as Swan risk it all just to screw over Winslow Leach? You want his music? BUY IT, fer cryin' out loud. The guy's an unemployed songwriter* in 1974, he made what, $3K last year? Oh, he's in love with Phoenix? Let's see how he feels after this blonde goes on her knees. Why single him out for humiliation (all the prisoners get to put the tiddlywinks in the boxes, note, but only WINSLOW gets to wear the little hat)? Why do everything in your power to make sure this guy is going to come after you?
The answer, I think, lies in the set design--all those mirrors-- and in the casting of Paul Williams. We know from the mirrors he's a narcissist, but when 5'2", overweight guy speaks lines like "You know how I abhor perfection in anyone but myself," you know he's a DELUDED narcissist. And it is in Winslow, a narcissist so deluded he thinks an audience gathered to hear Sha-Na-Na wants to hear his 400+ page contata on the life of Faust (sung by him!) that Swan finally finds his perfect mirror, the mirror in which, like Narcissus himself, he will eventually drown. Once these two characters meet, the end is assured. Sorry, Phoenix.
I wonder though, given that this was one of De Palma's early films, if HE was aware he was writing about a homoerotic death spiral? A commentary on the DVD would have been nice. I also wonder if it wasn't trimmed for time by Fox, as there seems to be a scene missing before WL enters the tape room.
*Oh, that reminds me. I really want a t-shirt that reads MAD TUNESMITH BITES BULLET.
Movie Review: Overlooked rock music film which was somewhat prophetic
Summary: 5 Stars
The 1974 rock music film Phantom Of The Paradise is perhaps one of the most unusual and intriguing films i've ever come to know. This film was one of Brian DePalma's best films to date next to 1976's Carrie, 1983's masterwork Scarface and 1987's The Untouchables. The film is seen as somewhat as a rock and roll version of Phantom Of The Opera but it's a film about getting revenge on those who have hurt us. The hero in the film is nerdy and disgruntled composer Winslow Leach(played by William Finley) whose rock cantata about the magician 'Faust' whom was stolen by music impressario Swan. Swan had his own record label Death Records(originally Swan Song before Led Zeppelin coincidentally came up with the record label name and the producers changed the label to Death) and his own music channel(predated MTV by many years. Swan then proceeds and destroys Leach's life (steals the lovely Phoenix from Winslow, has him wrongfully framed, arrested, teeth pulled and had metal teeth in its place(predates the look that rappers and rockers like Marilyn Manson would adopt) and appearance). After being badly disfigured, Leach disguises himself as a phantom (whose Phantom outfit and make-up could easily have been the predecessor to the Goth Rock era of the 80's) wreaking havoc on the devilish (and that terms comes in quite handy here) and will stop at nothing to terrorize Swan. He tries arson (blowing up the set design during one of the 'Faust' rehearsals with a Beach Boys send-off The Beach Bums) and even murder (electrocuting over-the-top singer hard rock singer Beef mid-performance whose backing band look like what KISS would appear like a few months after this film was made. Also, the people at the door scene predicts the Studio 54 scene by a few years as does the partying/wedding scene at the end. The music in this film is great and the story proves that in the end, the nerds win over the arrogant types! Highly recommended!Movie Review: "Carburetor's man.....That's what Life's alla bout"!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
(...)Some people have no sense of Sophistication,satire,irony,and espically HUMOR!!!I remember coming out of the theater when "Spinal Tap"was first released,and hearing some nimrod "Dude"guy proclaim "gee,don't ya think they coulda gotten a better Band"?!As far as i'm concerned,this is by far the best film De Palma ever made.It is a hoot through and through.Memorable Funny music(i.e. the juicy fruit's Beach Boys send up that start's with the line "carburetor's man....That's what life's alla bout"!And as one Reviewer already noted Swan auditioning new acts with the same song "come together in me now".We have a motown version,a nashville cowboy version,a haight ashbury hippie version,and finally BEEF(Glam rock).Garrett Grahm(Beef)is a genius in this film as he is in "Used Cars".Memorable scene after memorable scene.Beef in the shower(genius)and after,when he try's to leave(more brillance).The paradise concert"somebody super like you",and "Life at Last",i'm laughing my butt off just thinking about it-especialy when Beef get's his with the "lightning Bolt Treatment".After Ms,Havishime's blood curdling screams in the original "Great Expectations"(later used to great effect on a disney haloween LP) and Fay ray's constant high pitched ones in "King Kong" Beef's Musically puncuated death shrieks in this film certainly take the Bronze medal as the three greatest screams in all of filmdom.The wedding-assignation finale is not to be missed.What can i say if you do not find any of this funny as hell,you're a ZOMBIE.I'm glad i grew up in the 70's,and saw this film in the theater.It was the last Decade of true creativity in pop culture and pop art.Music,film or otherwise.I suppose people today are not soley to blame,for the assault on our five senses to brain wash us with a steady diet of Five sense crap,is ruthless.Iv'e turned off my TV a year ago ,and i'm not looking back:except to watch gems like this film.Movie Review: A golden treasure !
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is unique. De Palma was in a efervescence creative in this decade as fery few directors in the story. I think the next film in his career Carrie made the people forgot this one, who in many aspects goes beyond Carrie due his artistic character and innovative resources.
Once more De Palma accepted the challenging duel to adapt this classic version but set and described from another perspective.
This film also allowed him to follow his bliss without the powerful presence of Hitchcok .
In other order of ideas , something similar happened with Chabrol , the french master , but the difference in the case of Chabrol is his major versality.
De Palma has reached the peak with this one. You feel Sisters and Phantom as his major achievements in this decade.
Don't forget one film that in a way was a twisted wrench of this one : I'm talking about the rocky horror picture show.
This was a decade in which the concern about others ways of expression were in the minds of many film makers.
Think in Ken Ruseell with Tommy , Jewison with Jesuchrist , Robin Hardy with The wicker man , Dario Argento with the cat with nine tails , The clockwise orange , Badlands , The harder they come , Pink flamingos, Walkabout , Don't look now or the honey moon killers. You felt besides the desperate spirit of the german cinema Fassbinder , Wenders (Paris Texas) , Herzog , Hauff and the french cinema under the kingdom of Truffaut , Chabrol , Molinaro Pierre Granier Deferre and Claude Sautet . This decade experienced an authentical creative and innovative tour de force in what concerns with new themes and proposals.
That's why this film wins, because it kept his level and status and still remains.
Watch this one and it will become one of your favorites!
Movie Review: A great satire of the music biz with literary overtones
Summary: 5 Stars
I think that those people who pan this film simply did not get it, or having heard it's a satire of the music business, were perhaps expecting something like Spinal Tap. The movie is a terrific satire of the music industry, mixing Goethe's Faust and Leroux's Phantom of the Opera (which probably drew on The Hunchback of Notre Dame) to tell the story. Like several other reviewers have noted, the film almost eerily predicts music trends to come (one wonders if Kiss got their idea for the makeup from this movie). It is also worth pointing out that Paul Williams can write music and lyrics that go well beyond "Rainy Days & Mondays" and "Evergreen". Just note the different styles he uses to adapt Winslow's "original" song for the other groups that performed it after Swan stole the music. And some of the lyrics are amazing, and not at all what one tends to think of when one hears Paul Williams' name attached to a song - "good for nothing, bad in bed, nobody likes you and you're better off dead" - hardly what the Carpenters or Barbra Streisand would have recorded.
While I'm on the subject of Paul Williams, his acting in this film is so beyond that for which he is better known (Smokey & The Bandit). He portrays a man who sold his soul to the devil to attain incredible success and eternal youth. Swan is an awful person, yet Williams manages to convey the man's misery in the short scene where he watches the videos that he is compelled, by the deal with the devil, to view every day.
Jessica Harper has a great singing voice and does a nice job; William Finley is fine; but Gerrit Graham is really fabulous as Beef - the scene where he leaves the theater after being accosted in the shower and asserts that he knows "drug-real" from "real-real" is priceless.