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Phantom of the Paradise (1974) - Page 2

post #51 of 87
6/1/09 at 6:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by soylentgreen View Post
I just caught him in a little role
Why you gotta make it about size? That's fucked up.

His drunken appearances on Match Game PM are highly recommended.
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post #52 of 87
6/1/09 at 6:04pm
Saw TWO Phantom dolls at Monsterpalooza, but they were $180. Couldn't justify that. So I bought $180 worth of other junk.
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post #53 of 87
6/1/09 at 6:08pm
I think mine was half that when I got it, sheesh, 9 years ago? There were two versions - one with a knife and one with a toilet plunger. No-brainer.

I'll dig it out of the basement and take pics later. That'll get the wife good and hot for me.
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post #54 of 87
6/8/09 at 2:35pm
Saw Phantom again, this time with my girl. She loved it so i guess this means i have to marry her now.

I still don't know what the fuck happens in the end. That whole Wedding business is an acid trip mixed with shrooms.
Swan dies because Winslow destroys the tapes? So he's vulnerable again? Why does Swan die? What happened to his face? Why did he want to kill Phoenix? Don't know, don't care. Movie gets better every time. Picking more and more details. I really can't get enough of Beef. He's just amazing in every scene.

And the songs are awesome!
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post #55 of 87
6/8/09 at 2:39pm
Swan's face is burning because the tapes are burning. He's also open to being hurt now as a result, so Winslow stabs him with the bird head from the dancer. Great shit.

Beef steals the movie.

yes, marry her.
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post #56 of 87
6/8/09 at 5:31pm
He's trying to kill her because he's a showman - "An assassination on live tv - now THAT'S entertainment!"

He has her (and Winslow) sign contracts because he's gathering souls for the devil (I guess?).
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post #57 of 87
6/8/09 at 5:35pm
He controls them when they sign their souls away. Winslow's contract terminates with Swan, so Swan essentially owns him.
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post #58 of 87
6/8/09 at 5:37pm
And Winslow can't kill himself (can't die) while he's under contract to Swan, but Phoenix apparently can, so it's clear Swan has a variety of boilerplate agreements for each situation.

A buddy of mine co-organized that Monsterpalooza thing, Devin. Hope you got some good shit.
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post #59 of 87
6/8/09 at 5:38pm
It was a great convention. Probably the best I've been to in years. Tell your friend everyone I know who went really enjoyed it. Lots of favorable comparisons to old Chiller shows.
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post #60 of 87
6/8/09 at 5:42pm
It's a collective of Don Post mask nerds from NY who got tired of cons being all about Fredy, Saw, and scream queens. I know they had some usual suspects, but their lineup was pretty FX artist/sculptor heavy last I looked. Sorry I missed it!
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post #61 of 87
6/8/09 at 5:47pm
Yeah, it was super industry. KNB had a booth! The talent that was there was a little disappointed that they weren't drawing the autograph hounds, but everybody seemed to have a lot of fun.

And they served booze.
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post #62 of 87
6/8/09 at 7:45pm
Special to me and Jessica Harper's performance of that song is something special. She looks really awkward at times and her little dance moves are so stilted that it makes her endearing. Harper was cute as a button in her prime and an actress that could soon win your sympathy. It was a good casting decision picking her.

I was pleasantly suprised by Phantom, camp rock opera's aren't really my thing and i do think it starts on shaky feet (that could just be down to getting settled into the tone of the movie) but once the transformation into the Phantom has taken place it really kicks off and doesn't let up.

I do really liked the electrocution effect used for Beef's demise which according to the Swan Archives was achieved by a shuffling of the frames. Simple yet very affective.

(Does anybody else see a slight resemblance between "flashback Swan" and Simon Pegg?)
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post #63 of 87
6/8/09 at 7:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tati View Post
Swan dies because Winslow destroys the tapes? So he's vulnerable again? Why does Swan die? What happened to his face?
The film is such a mish-mash of rip-offs...Phantom of the Opera meets the Picture of Dorian Gray with a dash of Faust.

The Swan thing is Dorian Gray.

Quote:
I really can't get enough of Beef. He's just amazing in every scene.
"I know drug-real from real-real!"

Beef tops Frank N. Furter in the "best ac/dc gender-bending camp rock musical star" category.

They are both named after meats...this is significant, yes?
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post #64 of 87
6/8/09 at 11:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chavez View Post
The film is such a mish-mash of rip-offs...Phantom of the Opera meets the Picture of Dorian Gray with a dash of Faust.

The Swan thing is Dorian Gray.
There's also Poe's The Cask of Amontillado, when Swan has Winslow bricked up in a room.
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post #65 of 87
6/9/09 at 12:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg David View Post
There's also Poe's The Cask of Amontillado, when Swan has Winslow bricked up in a room.
True; I'd say that's more of a quick nod than a major plot point.
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post #66 of 87
6/10/09 at 10:36pm
It is, but it amused me.
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post #67 of 87
6/13/09 at 7:46am
This film and Sisters (and to a lesser extent his other sub-Hitchockian thrillers like Body Double etc.) make it so I can never really write DePalma off, even when so much of his filmography disappoints. One of my favorite guilty pleasure flicks, probably right up there with Big Trouble in Little China, Coffy, etc. in my book. Just a fun, fun, fun flick all around.

Also, for some reason whenever I watch this, the shot near the end of the Phantom racing down the hallway to get to the stage always seems to kick-start my adrenaline; without fail, that moment always keeps me pumped through the very end of the film. I can't even explain that one.
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post #68 of 87
7/4/09 at 8:35pm
Recently saw this film due to the following on this board and a few other sites and it is an amazing film and the songs are brilliant. Did notice that Swan (Paul Williams) was the doctor in Rules of Attraction- 'It's "Toe Tag Time in Teenville Tonight"
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post #69 of 87
11/9/09 at 11:11am
Check out this good shit right here.
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post #70 of 87
11/9/09 at 12:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post
How that song wasn't a Top 40 hit in the 70's is beyond me. So fucking good.
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post #71 of 87
11/9/09 at 2:04pm
Every time I see this thread get another post (or am otherwise reminded that this film exists) I want to watch it again. It's such a strange film, but it works so damn well. I was a big fan of Phantom of the Opera when I was in my early-mid teens, and always avoided this version because it didn't look faithful to the original (which, of course, it isn't) - I preferred the book and the 2005 movie of the musical (it's flawed, but oh so pretty). I finally tried this when I bought the DVD for my boyfriend as a Valentines Day gift, and we both loved it.
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post #72 of 87
11/9/09 at 7:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ratty View Post
How that song wasn't a Top 40 hit in the 70's is beyond me. So fucking good.
It's got that awesome dichotomy of a cheerful chorus melody underlining bitter, caustic lyrics.
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post #73 of 87
11/9/09 at 10:32pm
It's been sitting here a good while and I came back to it after seeing Jessica Harper in Suspiria. Totally off the wall film in every way possible; The Serling intro, Winslow's mangling, The Juicy Fruits demise, The Undead's Rise, BEEF. The list goes on and on right up to that batshit insane ending.

If the rest of De Palma's early output is as crazy as this and Hi, Mom I don't think my mind will ever stop reeling. If Rothman really loved his wife, he'd pull some strings on a special edition with some bells and whistles.
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post #74 of 87
11/9/09 at 10:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Joe View Post
If the rest of De Palma's early output is as crazy as this and Hi, Mom I don't think my mind will ever stop reeling. If Rothman really loved his wife, he'd pull some strings on a special edition with some bells and whistles.
That's a really good point. It's time Rothman made his wrong-headedness work for me.
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post #75 of 87
11/12/09 at 11:39pm
I'm addicted to that goddamn song.
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post #76 of 87
11/13/09 at 10:21am
I used to not be able to get the garbled-until-Swan-filters-it version of "Faust" out of my head, and it's still one of my favorite scenes in the movie, but this song is the shit.
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post #77 of 87
11/25/09 at 4:57pm
There are ten available! We can start a gang!

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post #78 of 87
11/25/09 at 5:02pm
Ha, now i know what to ask Jeremy to spend my 200 bucks on!
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post #79 of 87
12/27/09 at 1:57am
DVD Beaver has a review of the new Region B Blu-Ray up with screencaps.

Make of them what you will.
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post #80 of 87
1/3/10 at 7:01am
Finally saw this after your recommendations. Trying to branch out to musicals more but sp pften I either dislike the music or the filmmaking bothers me. This wins on both fronts. Dug the music and the trippy, low budget direction. And De Palma actually makes the plot more interesting than the original (I read the synopsis to the book on wiki.) Thanks for the tip!
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post #81 of 87
3/28/10 at 3:21am
My LG Blu-Ray is playing the French Region 2 with no glitches, but I think it might be playing it a hair fast. Is that even possible?
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post #82 of 87
3/28/10 at 4:14am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post
My LG Blu-Ray is playing the French Region 2 with no glitches, but I think it might be playing it a hair fast. Is that even possible?
Maybe it has a special "As the film appears to a coked-up DePalma" feature you activated.
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post #83 of 87
3/28/10 at 3:28pm
I'm not up on HD video standards, but that sounds like a PAL-to-NTSC issue.
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post #84 of 87
3/28/10 at 3:37pm
Sonofabitch, this ain't on Instant anymore. Added to queue!
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post #85 of 87
4/7/10 at 6:27pm
Early heads up: See Swan on the big screen June 12th at the Cinema Arts Centre on Long Island, on a midnight double feature with Heavy Metal. (Phantom screens first)
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post #86 of 87
12/1/10 at 10:24pm
So I netflixed this after reading about it here on our very own CHUD. Wow, what a trippy movie. I appreciate that it didn't end up being Phantom of the Opera in 1974, but it didn't really know what it was.

I guess that didn't matter. The music rocked, it had a similar 1950s meets goth-glam meets space aliens feel to Rocky Horror, and I give it credit for having a female lead that wasn't overly sympathetic. She went for the fame, fortune and cocaine pretty quickly actually.

Scott Pilgrim comparisons are provocative now in retrospect. There's a similar whimsy and aesthetic to both, like anything can happen at any moment, but what I appreciate about both is the way they present music. There's a power in the creation of it, a power that can make a person feel supernatural up on stage, or able to kung-fu an enemy until they burst into coins.
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post #87 of 87
12/2/10 at 4:00am
That's a borderline genius idea for a double feature. I may have to do that.
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