Day Nine: Phantom of the Paradise (1974)
The musical that most people watch around this time of year is The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but, excluding the Meat Loaf number and Tim Curry’s performance, I always found that film to be better in theory than reality. Phantom of the Paradise is that reality, a pop culture blender imbued through and through with director Brian De Palma’s pure cinematic fervor.
You may exhaust yourself trying to play the game of spot the reference. Here’s a head start: The Phantom of the Opera (clearly), Faust (also pretty clear being that the film, typical of its super reflexive nature, works it into the plot), The Picture of Dorian Gray (tied to Faust in an amusingly ludicrous way), Edgar Allan Poe, German Expressionism, Glam Rock, The Twilight Zone, Folk, The Beach Boys, Psycho, etc.
Those were the things I caught watching it myself, I read a few reviews after watching the film and they mentioned others, but I will be fair and not include those here. The most remarkable thing about Phantom of the Paradise is that these references don’t bog it down. The film is a lean, hellfire 88 minutes, and the references fuse and compliment one another in ways that mark De Palma as a swifter and more inventive screenwriter than is generally acknowledged.
The film’s more contemporary at the time musical numbers may be dated, but De Palma’s central black theme is as ageless as a certain someone’s portrait: our infinite moral and artistic flexibility in the pursuit of fame and money. De Palma’s film isn’t weighted down by this though, its a joke, and its underlined by how many people in the film are revealed to have made a Faustian pact (at least three characters, and there aren’t too many more characters in the movie.)
The Faustian pacts ultimately bring our three characters down though, because one of them, Swan (Paul Williams, who also wrote the music, and is very effective here), has an ego too large to properly protect his contract with Satan. It’s hidden along with other records and documents helpfully labeled: Contract. Our hero, Winslow Leach (William Finley), now the Phantom, finds it and turns the tables in a garish climax that’s a comment on garish climaxes, but is still a garish climax in its own right.
The third character is Phoenix (Jessica Harper, from another genre milestone, Suspiria) and she is the object of Swan and the Phantom’s rivalry. Swan seems more interested in her as an instrument to torment the Phantom, and the Phantom is the sort of perpetually hung up artistic putz who thinks she’s the only one to sing his music. Phoenix sells out too, gets hooked by Swan on various drugs, and becomes the embodiment of everything the Phantom loathes, though he doesn’t ever seem to realize it.
De Palma’s techinique can sometimes drown the story he’s chosen to tell (though that’s the point most of the time), but Phantom of the Paradise is the kind of reflexive hall of mirrors that perfectly suits his masturbatory, speed demon cineast tendencies. The film is one of De Palma’s fastest and surest, and works confidently as musical, slapstick comedy, post modern art, and, at times as a straight piece of intense operatic melodrama. It’s also, and this is important, not afraid to be a little silly. It’s a Brechtian Mel Brooks horror film, which, in short, means its a classic Brian De Palma film.
October 9th, 2007 at 10:28 am
I think the goofy charm of Phantom eluded me the first time I saw it, yet I kept thinking “I should be into this”. It appeals to the same audience as Rocky Horror, but it never found the cult to go with it which is too bad.
I admit I run hot and cold with De Palma. He’s usually interesting, but often frustrating. I wonder how Redacted will turn out.
October 9th, 2007 at 10:36 am
I’m mixed on De Palma myself, though when I like him, I REALLY like him. Redacted sounds like Casualties of War as remade in the approach of an early De Palma movie. That idea is intriguing, but I have to admit that I’m not super excited. I hated Black Dahlia. Apologists can call it pure cinema or a joke or whatever they want, but to simple little old me, it was bad, laughable, boring noir, no more, maybe less.
October 10th, 2007 at 8:20 am
Disliked Casualties of War, have I mentioned that already? If I was writing reviews back when I saw Black Dahlia, I would’ve been cautiously positive. I actually sort of enjoyed it when it flew off the rails near the end. Had there been more of that, I might’ve been happier with it. Otherwise, a more straightforward retelling of the already fascinating story would’ve been nice.