Dude Movies: Phantom Of The Paradise April 26, 2009
Posted by madkevin in Dude Movies, Uncategorized.trackback
What’s it about?
De Palma’s glam-rock rewrite of Phantom Of The Opera, with bug-eyed De Palma stalwart William Finley as the titular Phantom and malignant dwarf Paul Williams as rock record mogul and Paradise club owner Swan.
Any chicks in the movie?
Cutie-patootie Jessica Harper, who in the 70s never met a cult movie role she didn’t like. Here she’s an aspiring singer-songwriter in the Carly Simon mode named Phoenix who wins the coveted role in the Paradise’s production of Faust by exhibiting all the dancing skills and pure rawk charisma of a freshly beheaded chicken.*
Awesomeness Factor?
Harper’s limb-flapping aside, Phantom Of The Paradise is one hell of a movie. De Palma freestyles his way through a mash-up of Phantom Of The Opera, The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Faust and a little dash of The Portrait Of Dorian Grey for good measure while his director’s id conjures up references** to Hitchcock, German expressionism, glam rock, Orson Welles, Grand Guignol, doo wop, and anything else he can think of to throw at the screen. (My favourite part is when the script calls for a bomb to be planted in a prop car on-stage in an attempt to assassinate Swan’s nostalgia act The Juicy Fruits, De Palma decides to shoot it as a direct homage*** to the opening tracking shot of Touch Of Evil, except split screen.) Musically, the score is no great shakes, although it’s better when it’s hilariously pastiching the nostalgia craze of the 70s or bad Beach Boys surf than it is with the glam and rock stuff. But what really cranks Phantom from a mere De Palma curio to balls-out awesomeness is the wildly entertaining casting. Paul Williams sinks his tiny, childlike teeth into the role of a lifetime as Swan, although it should be noted for the faint of heart that you get to see Williams work his semi-nude mojo on Jessica Harper, which is a little bit like watching shaved Ewok porn.**** And cult stalwart Gerrit Graham damn near steals the movie as the flamboyantly homosexual glam-rock sensation Beef, who Graham plays so hilairously broadly I kept expecting Paul Lynde to wander on-screen to ask him to “Tone it down, sunshine.”
Mitigated By?
If there’s one thing that abominable Repo: The Genetic Opera has shown us is that they literally don’t make movies like Phantom anymore. The other thing it teaches us is that most people shouldn’t try.
* I was hoping to find a YouTube cut of Phoenix’s audition, but all I could find was the trailer. You can catch a glimpse of Harper’s – well, I guess we’ll have to call it “dancing” in that she is flailing her limbs whilst music plays – at about the 45 second mark:
** OK, rip-offs.
*** Ibid.
**** OK, it’s a LOT like watching shaved Ewok porn.
My favourite moment in the movie: Beef has just been electrocuted and is burning to a crisp on stage. Everybody stares in disbelief. A look of horror on everybody’s face.
Then Feldman yells “Somebody get a fire extinguisher!”
As a kid I loved the spectacle of the film, but as an adult I love its quirks. So many weird things happen, but the best ones are understated…the way that all the doors are half-height to accommodate Paul Williams, and the list of names in Swan’s rolodex which includes David Geffen and Dick Clark, and the way — in a totally unrelated moment — Feldman yells at his ever-present female sidekick “THIS CREEP GETS NO COMPS.”
It’s obvious that DePalma had a few bees in his bonnet that he needed to get out. That said, I just watched the movie and it’s pretty shabby and awkward in a lot of ways.
As for the music, it sounds much better on CD…the DVD mastering is flat and includes a lot of extra whizziness. Plus you get a bonus adult contemporary version of “Faust.” You’ve got to love the way Swan corrupts Winslow’s lyrics and imagery in the most obnoxious ways possible, turning a tender love song into teenage beach-pop about car upholstery.
Harper’s dance: I’ve heard that that was the first scene she filmed in the movie, and she was extremely nervous…she just did a little dance at the end and they kept it in.
Bonus trivia: Sissy Spacek as set designer!
Finally, regarding the “Any Chicks” category, take another look at the Undead number “Life At Last.” DePalma has stationed an extremely bouncy woman with enormous breasts right at the edge of the catwalk. She’s hilarious but you sort of have to know she’s there before you notice her.
Another thing: There is ALWAYS something going on in the background during this film. The trailer above reminded me of something I noticed for the first time tonight: one of the out-of-costume Juicy Fruits has his arm in a cast during Beef’s “You better get yourself a castrado” speech…but check out his HAND! It’s ENORMOUS!
What the heck. I mean, I guess he’s wearing a cast because of the car explosion earlier, but why does it look like THAT?