Click the Picture or Title to purchase this
item from Amazon.com -- a new browser window will
open.
 One of
the Two Films by the Director That Are Worth
Watching
Phantom of the Paradise
Dir: Brian DePalma;
with Paul Williams, Jessica Harper
|
Wonderful black
comedy.
Casting Paul Williams as the evil producer,
Swan, was a brilliant stroke; watching chubby,
cute Paul Williams menacing and terrorising
the six-foot, leather-clad Phantom is almost
worth the cost of admission by itself. (A
similar touch is used in Altman's The Long Goodbye, in
which the minuscule Henry Gibson terrorises
six-foot-plus Sterling Hayden.)
Perhaps the most amazing aspect of this film
is the way in which it predicts some of the
future trends in the industry, to the extent
that what was considered over the top at the
film's initial release is seen as rather
quaint and tame, looking back from the vantage
point of today.
Crossing the Phantom of the Opera with
Faust and giving the result a
rock'n'roll setting was a brilliant idea; but
it would have been a total and complete flop
without the soundtrack contributed by
Williams, in his other guise as composer.
Perhaps the best part of the music is the
horrible ways in which the actually rather
pretty "Faust" Cantata is degraded and
twisted, while still remaining (barely)
recognisable.
And the end-title theme ("The Hell of It") is
a wonderfully cheerful meditation on the
well-deserved damnation of a major character,
with an infectious ricky-tick piano chorus.
William Finley, as Winslow Leech/The Phantom,
manages to actually (mostly) convince us that
he is feeling what the script says he is,
which, given the absurdity of the script, is a
pretty good accomplishment. Paul Williams, as
Swan, is so wonderfully slimy and egotistical
[note] in such a
cheerful evil-little-boy manner that you
almost want to take him home and put him on a
shelf somewhere. Jessica Harper, as Phoenix [another note] is
sufficient unto the part.
The songs are all well-performed and produced,
the production values are good, and it's a lot
of fun to watch.
(Watch out for Yet Another Psycho
Homage...)
(The other dePalma film worth watching,
incidentally, is "The Untouchables", if only
to compare it to "Once Upon a Time in America"
and see how thoroughly and perfectly he
imitated the style and techniques of Sergio
Leone)
Note 1: Notice that, when
he electronically gives the Phantom a voice
to replace his own ruined one, it's his
(Swan's) own voice, rather than Winslow's
original voice) {return
to whence you came}
Note 2: There're a lot
of birds in this film -- notice that the
Phantom's mask is a stylised owl... {return to whence you
came} |
|
