Phantom of the Paradise
Phantom of the Paradise
Directed by Brian de Palma
Photographed by Larry Pizer
1974
Starring: William Finley, Paul Williams, Jessica Harper, Gerrit Graham
De Palma immediately places you in this world of deceit and lies within the first 10 seconds of the film, with a narration contextualizing the roller coaster we’re about to embark. Kind of like the scroll at the beginning of Star Wars- before Star War. If the haunting and powerful and memorable voice sounds familiar, that’s because it is. Rod Serling- as in the mastermind behind The Twilight Zone – takes on this responsibility, starting us too well. This film can be watched any day at any time with anyone. It is by far one of the most entertaining pieces of cinema. Right from the beginning with the Juicy Fruits singing Goodbye Eddie Goodbye- soundtrack written by Paul Williams (YES PAUL FUCKING WILLIAMS)- we are thrown into this colorful world but a s the film unravels, we slowly start to realize this vibrance serves merely as camouflage for the true darkness that this movie holds. It is so perfectly stylized, like a rebellious Hitchcock filmed it, which is exactly what De Palma is. It is painfully difficult to write about this film, because I hold it very near the mountain top of favorite movies. I don’t wanna sell it wrong, but then again that is not what I’m attempting to do. Like I previously mentioned the brilliant soundtrack was written by Paul Williams and it most certainly is one of the films forte…. (along with its style.) The music is so perfectly synched with the story that you may run the risk of turning your 3-piece living room in to a full-blown party. The film was written by De Palma and based on the works of Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray) and Gaston Leroux (The Phantom of the Opera), amongst many others. It’s a modern day dark rock n roll fairy tale. Oh! And a young Jessica Harper was cast in the female Lead (Phoenix), she wouldn’t later move on to star in Dario Argento’s Suspiria.
