On the stage below, a man named Winslow Leach sneaks past security, and rolls a small piano into position. I did a review of it on Letterboxd which sums up my feelings.A man named Swan sits behind a one-way mirror, in a booth perched in the balcony of The Majestic theater.

Miraculously, you probably won't notice any of them if you know where to look. But this was so late in production that they couldn't re-do a lot of the shots with the Swan Song logo in them, so there are tons of cuts they were forced to make. That's especially impressive if you know how screwed up the production was Led Zeppelin sued De Palma for naming Swan's company 'Swan Song', forcing him to change it to the 'Death Records' in the final film. The whole movie is timed and structured perfectly to the soundtrack, not a moment seems off. That is, of course, not mentioning the music. It's intended to be his 'Phantom of the Opera' disguise, but the suit looks simultaneously like Darth Vader and a BDSM costume, and I'm near certain the helmet inspired the character Griffith and his alter-ego Femto from Berserk. The Phantom's costume in particular is a stroke of genius. The bright, bold, contrasting colors and flamboyant costuming works perfectly to communicate the neon 70s aesthetic melded with the eerie thriller style. It's a masterpiece, combining Gothic fantasy-horror with caustic satire and some of the most beautiful, vivid cinematography I've ever seen. I'm from Winnipeg, one of only two cities where it was a major success (we've had festivals dedicated to it) and own the soundtrack on CD. You're not alone, there's a lot of fans out there!Įasily one of my favorite movies. Also, Paul Williams (and his musicians) are all over Random Access Memories. Take one look at their robot uniforms and compare 'em to Winslow Leach's Phantom garb.

They just happen to share a campy horror take on rock 'n' roll/glam rock.įrench duo Daft Punk have often shared their love for PotP. RHPS didn't lift much of anything - it was it's own entity in the form of a stage show a year before PotP was released. I never understood the Rocky Horror argument.

I love the humor, the music, the energy, etc.Īre there any other DePalma movies like it? Not really, but there are a few touches here and there - it's more in line with his late 60's/early 70's work (Greetings, Hi Mom!, Get To Know Your Rabbit), Carrie has some of it's goofy humor (the sped-up tuxedo scene) and Body Double has a Frankie Goes to Hollywood music video dropped in the middle of it. I'm typing this under a poster of PotP at this very moment. I'm a big Brian DePalma fan, and Phantom of the Paradise is one of my favorite movies.

Phantom of the paradise