What else happened this year? Watergate? Yep. That's enough for now.
What is the plot - in one sentence? A young musician has some of his music stolen by a nightclub-owning, record-priducing bigwig, and seeks revenge.
I don't have time, just spoil it for me? He's tricked into writing an entire opera, is disfigured, and spends time getting revenge - Phantom Of The Opera style - on various miscreants before he's able to get revenge on the bigwig, whose name is Swan. The Phanton has a bunch of swans's tapes destroyed, which are in 'Dorien Grey' style, keeping him looking young. He ages immediately, and dies, and it seems like the Phantom does too, but he's shown playing the piano in the end credits. Look, it's a rock opera, the plot doesn't matter.
What is the meaning of the title? The playhouse they're operating in is named 'the paradise' - so he's the phantom of that.
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| So here's Swan on the left, the Phantom on the right, and blurred in the background is the 'muse', a singer named Phoenix. That's also enough. |
Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? It's really of it's time. I mean really. There's a bunch of stuff about casting couches played for laughs, and the guy who is hired to sing in the club is a 'tough guy on stage' / 'camp guy behind the scenes' which isn't funny anymore. The weirder thing is that this is like Rocky Horror Picture Show without the songs, or the sense of humour, and it's still regarded as a cult hit by people I used to be friends with.
Any thoughts? The bigwig, Swan, is played by an odd looking little guy. It seems that his life's ambition, as he's already an immensely powerful record producer, is to open a nightclub called the Paradise. When he hears a nerdy guy obviously miming to a song on piano, he quips to an underling that the music is what he's been waiting on for... all these years. The music is some generic, sub-Elton John dawdling. All of the music in the movie is uninspiring.
The original singer,
the guy on the piano, finds his 'muse' while trying to find Swan for
various reasons. He's sure that she's perfect for the role immediately. However, she's
not a good singer, looks small and frail, especially when surrounded
by models and more glamorous looking people, and dances like a freaking
maniac at least 4 times in the movie. Seriously, she bobs her head and makes a chicken wing dance while people go crazy for her. She's played by the same woman who was in the original
Suspiria. for the record, and she's not very convincing here.
Something similar happens when they find the 'Frankenstein' guy a singer who is to perform instead of Phoenix, that Swan chooses because of his talent - he
plays with what would be referred to as camp sexuality - but his
songs, and his singing, are mediocre at best. You wouldn't choose that guy.
Wikipedia tells that the music for the movie was written by the guy who played Swan. He's who I know as the writer of 'Rainbow Connection,' a song made famous by Kermit the frog. He's apparently written many other songs and is genuinely famed, but in this movie the music is pretty generic, and not very entertaining. This is a real shame for a musical, as it puts a limit on how good the movie can be.
The Frankenstein guy, who I think is played for laughs but isn't funny, is electrocuted on stage by the Phantom - who is allowed to just roam around despite the fact that Swan is a control freak and has security cameras everywhere. The crowd, stunned at this literal death on stage, calms and then goes berserk for Phoenix who comes out and
sings a soppy ballad.
It's just a generic balled played out by someone who's not a great
singer. The same three guys act as singers in three different bands, a send up of rockabilly, the beach boys, and sort of goth metal, but none of the songs is good, and as a satire, it's not very biting.
There's a lot of cocaine logic in this movie, and that's a problem. For example, we only learn quite late on in the movie that Swan's habit of recording everything is what keeps him looking 'young' and he's unable to be killed without a magic video recording being destroyed.
As for the phantom himself. He's robbed of his music, falsely imprisoned, and then squashed in a record player when he escapes. This squashing causes him to wear a mask and his need for vengeance means that he continues to cause havoc around the heavily-surveilled club until swan gets his comeuppance. The comeuppance is ill-explained even by rock opera logic.
Would you recommend this? No, I didn't enjoy this one. Perhaps coming so soon after Tommy, which was much more interesting. The logic wasn't sound, the performances not great. As a rock opera it was just pretty interesting, while as a 'comedy' rock opera it wasn't funny. I couldn't tell whether it was supposed to be one or the other, and I don't see why it's so highly regarded.
This is directed by Brian De Palma, and features the use of split screen to show two things happening at once. It's used in most of his movies, and only works sometimes. For example, Carrie is shown getting ready for her prom, while those other guys are shown getting ready to pour pig's blood on her. That makes sense. The uses here don't. I don't like that method and find it annoying at the best of times, and this wasn't the best of times.
Final thoughts? I've increasingly realised that 'cult' movies need to be viewed at the right time in life, at the level of sobriety or drunkenness, and a few other factors. They may even need repeat viewing to be appreciated. I think I was at the wrong level for all of these, and didn't enjoy it much. I'll suggest Rocky Horror, or Tommy,* which I didn't even particularly like, but that was much better at what this did.
What was Swan's plan? to perform an elaborate, live stage show every night at enormous expense? Isn't he already vastly wealthy? Would people we willing to pay huge amounts of money to watch a pretty shoddy Rocky Horror Knock off? Let's say yes and move on with our lives.
This is the 50th one. I can;t believe it either. My dreams are coming true. The rest can be found right here.
*this movie pre-dated Tommy. I stand by everything else.
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