(Brian De Palma, 15, Arrow, 1974)
In 1974, after a decade making low-budget, semi-underground movies, Brian De Palma thought he was about to enter the big time when 20th Century Fox paid $2m for this wild satire on indulgent rock musicians and the corrupt industry that exploited them. Basically it's a transposition of The Phantom of the Opera to the modern pop world, where an evil impresario, Swan (the diminutive, baby-faced composer Paul Williams,, who also wrote the songs), steals a pretentious rock cantata from Winslow Leach, its naive author, and frames him on drugs charge.
After he's been disfigured by a record-pressing machine, Winslow returns to seek revenge by haunting Swan's theatre, the Paradise. The piece also draws on Goethe's Faust, Wilde's Dorian Gray and Edgar Allan Poe, and refers to movies ranging from Psycho (the shower scene is reprised using a plunger) and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari.
But De Palma...
In 1974, after a decade making low-budget, semi-underground movies, Brian De Palma thought he was about to enter the big time when 20th Century Fox paid $2m for this wild satire on indulgent rock musicians and the corrupt industry that exploited them. Basically it's a transposition of The Phantom of the Opera to the modern pop world, where an evil impresario, Swan (the diminutive, baby-faced composer Paul Williams,, who also wrote the songs), steals a pretentious rock cantata from Winslow Leach, its naive author, and frames him on drugs charge.
After he's been disfigured by a record-pressing machine, Winslow returns to seek revenge by haunting Swan's theatre, the Paradise. The piece also draws on Goethe's Faust, Wilde's Dorian Gray and Edgar Allan Poe, and refers to movies ranging from Psycho (the shower scene is reprised using a plunger) and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari.
But De Palma...
- 3/9/2014
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
It’s Brian De Palma’s 1974 musical take on The Phantom Of The Opera, and it’s quite odd. But as Jeff explains, Phantom Of The Paradise is also rather good…
From Rod Serling’s moody opening monologue, right to the end credit sequence repackaging the entire film into a music video, it’s clear there’s a passionate vision behind Brian De Palma’s Phantom Of The Paradise. Here’s an example of a creative team able to squeeze the muscle of the studio system to make something idiosyncratic, groovy, and just plain weird. It was the 1970s, after all. Now pushing 40, is Phantom merely an interesting relic of an era, or does it stand the test of time?
This 1974 film takes the plot from Phantom Of The Opera and the Faust legend and churns them together into a unique brew. Failed singer-songwriter Winslow Leach (William Finley) signs a...
From Rod Serling’s moody opening monologue, right to the end credit sequence repackaging the entire film into a music video, it’s clear there’s a passionate vision behind Brian De Palma’s Phantom Of The Paradise. Here’s an example of a creative team able to squeeze the muscle of the studio system to make something idiosyncratic, groovy, and just plain weird. It was the 1970s, after all. Now pushing 40, is Phantom merely an interesting relic of an era, or does it stand the test of time?
This 1974 film takes the plot from Phantom Of The Opera and the Faust legend and churns them together into a unique brew. Failed singer-songwriter Winslow Leach (William Finley) signs a...
- 11/21/2011
- Den of Geek
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