Music Tycoon Swan has been at the top of the music world for nearly 20 years, having sold his soul to the devil for eternal success and youth. His latest scheme revolves around stealing music from a young, meek composer Winslow Leach, whose completely naive to how the music industry works. Swan plans on using Winslow's music for the opening of his new venue, The Paradise, the largest rock venue of its kind. When Winslow discovers Swan's plan he tries to stop him but suffers an accident in the process, horribly disfiguring him. Taking refutre in the Paradise, Winslow becomes the venue's Phantom, planning revenge on Swan for his deception. Brian De Palma's Phantom of the Paradise is a stylized rock opera that is most likely not quite like anything you've seen before. The film is silly and a lot of fun but it's also a seething commentary on the music business, exposing the deception of minimal talent required. Phantom of the Paradise never falls victim to taking itself too seriously, opting for a very silly, over-the-top tone that works both as a comedy and a commentary. The narrative by itself isn't all that interesting but I don't think De Palma intedned it to be, using a mixture of Faust and Phantom of the Opera as a framework to tell this hilarious and quirky story. Even though Phantom of The Paradise is not like anything else De Palma has done his style is very prevalent, given its use of split screens, point-of-view shots and other signature De Palma stylistic decisions. Brian De Palma's Phantom of the Paradise is off-beat, strange, and silly as hell, making it completely understandably as to why it has become such a cult classic.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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