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:: Sunday, June 29, 2003 ::
"Phantom Of The Paradise" came out in 1974. I have a Beta version, which I can't play anymore, and don't think it has ever been released on Laserdisc or DVD. I recorded it on the Tivo in letterbox, hooked the machine up to the HDTV on Zoom, and watched it for what must be fifteenth or twentieth time. (Not including the four times in a row at the Cinerama dome with my late lamented friend Tom in a revival in the late seventies. I love the movie, it is an 11 of 10 on the Mikometer, and still packs a punch with me, even all these many years later. (A "spinning newspaper shot' of Rolling Stone magazine is back when they were still in Frisco, and the font face really dates the mag for anyone who has been reading it that long. (Or perhaps stopped reading a while back, like me!) Brian De Palma is a joyous filmmaker, even, I might add, when he is deep into repeatability hell, but after the his fabulous "French Movie" last year, I know he's still in his cups, and can be forgiven for the fact that he doesn't make blockbusters, even though he sure tried after "The Untouchables" gave him a handsome return and then he tried too hard. "Phantom" is, first and formost, not only a cultural blender type story about the music biz, it is a musical, and has some very good music by Paul Williams, who plays the pop god "Swan". William Finley, Jessica Harper, an amazing Gerrit Graham, who makes Gary Glitter look like a rank amateur, the cast is magnificent, the timing is still fresh. This was once destined to become a "cult classic", and when I saw the revival at the Dome it had already attained some of that status. But it also shines as a "Hollywood Musical", and not just one of the Rock Opera riffs like "Tommy" by Ken Russell, either. When the cast is shown at the end of the movie, with Paul Williams singing the theme over the closing credits, I never left the theater untill the lights came on. Rousing good entertainment, and it still shines. (UPDATE 7/4/03: Now the link will take you to the ElectricMovies pages for "Phantom" which incorporates still images culled directly from the digital copy on the Tivo. It does take a while to "create" pages with so many images, but I must admit, the results are rather good. Check it out!)
:: Michael Nyiri 6:02 PM Leave a Comment on this Post ::
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