PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE

PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE

Winslow (William Finley) is a waif-like geek who's had his head buried in his piano for years, working on his rock opera based around the story of Faust. Whilst toiling on his latest song one evening in the same studio where sensations The Juicy Fruits are performing for their adoring fans, his efforts are overheard by their music mogul boss, Swan (Paul Williams).

Swan's right-hand man Philbin (George Memmoli) approaches Winslow shortly afterwards, advising that his boss wants to buy the music for his new band to use. Winslow's mortified, and retorts that his work comes as a conceptual whole (this is the 1970s, after all).

Undeterred, Swan acquires Winslow's music and harbours the notion of premiering a show based around it on the opening night of his newly built nightclub, The Paradise. On the night of auditions for a lead vocalist for the project, Winslow attempts to gate-crash the party and introduce himself to Swan as the writer of the revered tunes. It's here that he meets pretty Phoenix (Jessica Harper), who ultimately bags the opera's lead role.

Winslow, however, is denied credit for his work: on the contrary, Swan has him evicted and picked up by two cops shortly afterwards on a bogus drugs charge - the budding songwriter is swiftly carted off to Sing Sing prison.

Having suffered the trauma of having his teeth removed (a favourite request of Sing Sing's warden), Winslow endures more pain when he learns of the success Swan is having with the stolen Faust songs. Infuriated, Winslow makes a daring escape from jail - only to have his face mangled when he gets caught in one of Swan's record-pressing machines and then fall into the ocean, presumed dead, a short while later.

But, Winslow isn't dead. He has been, however, transformed into a vengeful ghoul who is now obsessed with ruining Swan. He appears temporarily pacified when Swan gets him to sign a contract which suggests Winslow can oversee the rock opera at The Paradise, with his chosen Phoenix as the star.

But this all turns sour when Swan double-crosses Winslow and employs thick-headed glam rocker Beef (Gerrit Graham) to front the show instead. Winslow has finally had enough, and he wants revenge...

Brian De Palma's 1974 film is a gleefully daft mix of PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY and FAUST, with a healthy dose of cynical commentary on the cut-throat nature of the music industry thrown in for good measure. More than this though, it's a film that's clearly in love with the process of making movies: De Palma employs lots of trickery from cinema's history - fast-motion, split-screens, pop video montages, surrealist set designs etc - and dips into genres such as horror, comedy, sci-fi and musical along the way.

All of which can be a little disorientating, especially given the frenetic pace and boundless energy with which it's all delivered. But the calibre of this production on every other level ensures that any such misgivings are soon cast aside.

De Palma's direction, for a start, is taut and knowing while focused on eliciting a sense of fun. The performances are pitch perfect - just the right side of camp. For a semi-musical film, it would be a shame if the songs were crap; fortunately they're great (especially the Kiss-style performance by shock-rockers The Undeads later in the film [incidentally, played by the same folk who represent The Juicy Fruits in the movie]). Art direction, costumes and cinematography really are collectively firing on all cylinders.

Going back to the actors, this is very much Williams' film. Finley's good too, as is Graham. They're all brimming with enthusiasm, but Williams has that air of cool, arrogance and the sinister that makes him a truly formidable villain. Harper makes for a feisty love interest too; her role here won the attention of De Palma fan Dario Argento, who in turn cast her as the lead in some little-seen obscurity called SUSPIRIA...

Inevitably for a film that attempts to cover/pay homage to so many different styles of cinema, it's not going to be easy to please all of the people all of the time (I personally have issues with the brief forays into screwball comedy territory during the first half-hour). But you'd have to have a heart of stone to not find PHANTOM an ultimately enjoyable, endlessly inspired and consistently gorgeous piece of cult cinema.

De Palma may have made technically better films, but none have been quite so entertaining or colourful.

PHANTOM is presented uncut in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Encoded as an MPEG4-AVC file with full 1080p resolution, the film does look very good. Strong colours compete against solid, compression-free blacks to impress. There's a nice presence of natural grain present too which suggests no DNR has been employed.

In fact, this is a more filmic presentation than the celebrated French blu-ray from a couple of years back. While the transfer here is a tad darker, has slightly duller colours and does look a little softer as a whole, I'd argue that it looks its most natural here.

English audio is offered in both 2.0 stereo and a sterling DTS-HD Master Audio mix of the original theatrical 4.0 soundtrack. Excellent work by Arrow here - they even go the extra mile and proffer an isolated music and effects track.

The disc opens to an animated main menu page. Pop-up menus include a scene-selection menu which allows access to the film via 12 chapters.

Extras are plentiful.

They begin with "Paradise Regained", an excellent 50-minute retrospective that also featured on the French disc (albeit with burned-in French subtitles). Free from such distractions here, this is a highly engrossing account from the players and their director concerning how the project got off the ground, how people got their gig and the fun they had on the sets. The likes of De Palma, Williams, Graham, Finley and Harper are all present to offer talking head-style recollections throughout this expertly edited piece. Guillermo Del Toro interviews Williams in a fantastic new 72-minute feature which finds these friends chatting very informally. As a result, it's by equal turns light-hearted, candid and extremely thorough. It also looks fantastic in HD. It's also cool to consider that the director of big Hollywood films such as PACIFIC RIM is still such an unabashed fanboy.

13 minutes of deleted scenes are a real find, and are gratefully accepted here even if they do show the wears of age.

A 2004 interview with costume designer Rosanna Norton is shot on timecoded video and last for 9 minutes. Despite its rather amateurish handheld approach, this remains worthwhile thanks to Norton's good memory and fond account of turning Finley into the Phantom.

"The Swan Song Fiasco" is an 11-minute featurette detailing how the filmmakers had to change their planned name of Swan's fictional record label following intervention from Led Zeppelin's manager. It's pretty fascinating stuff.

A 34-second outtake from the "Regained" documentary has Finley advertising a doll of the Phantom that was clearly prepared as merchandise back in the 1970s.

Finally for completists, we get two pillar-boxed trailers, a handful of radio spots and a nice gallery.

Also included in this set but unavailable for review purposes are a collector's booklet and double-sided reversible cover art.

Please note that, alongside the regular keepcase blu-ray release, Arrow are also putting the film out in a rather beautiful-looking Steelbook packaging.

Sterling stuff.

By Stuart Willis


 
Released by Arrow Video
Region B
Rated 18
Extras :
see main review
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