Language - English
Genre - Gothic, horror, musical
Swan
is the best musician/producer in the business who runs death records
and now he wants to open the ‘Paradise’, the best rock club ever.
everything is ready for the opening he just needs to find the
perfect song for the opening.
Winslow
Leach is a struggling musician who is writing a modern musical of
Faust. Swan hears one of Winslow’s songs and decides it would
be perfect for the opening of the Paradise the only thing is he does
not want Winslow and he won’t let anyone else sing it. Swan
steals Winslows music and tries to ignore him and block all of his
attempts to find out what is going on but Winslow won’t give up and
keeps trying to see Swan. During one of these attempts Winlow
meets a young singer called Phoenix who he thinks could sing his
work.
After
one of Winslows attempts to break into Death records he is framed for
drug abuse and is thrown into ‘Sing Sing’ jail where he is kept
for 6 months until he escapes.
After
his escape Winslow attempts to blow up Death records but instead ends
up getting his head crushed in a record press. Winslow survives
this but is left unable to speak. As his attempts to sabotage
the record label he sets his sights on destroying the Paradise. He
blows up one of the rehearsals for the opening night and then sets
out to find Swan. When he finds him Swan cuts a deal with
Winslow saying he will run the Faust play how Winslow wants it
if he will keep writing for him, Winslow agrees and signs a contract
with Swan (in blood)once swan has agreed to let Phoenix sing the
lead. Swan betrays Winslow again and Winslow goes on a rampage
but his attempts to destroy the Paradise only lead in better
publicity for Swan and end up pushing Phoenix into Swans arms.
Winslow attempts to kill himself but find he can not die until Swan
dies. Winslow then finds that Swan is planning on killing
Phoenix on stage. Winslow then has to attempt to find a way of
killing Swan.
Phantom
of the Paradise starts out as an ambitious remake of the Phantom of
the Opera bringing it up to date (in the 1970’s) and setting it in
the corrupt world of the music industry. A lot of the familiar
scenes and characters from phantom of the opera are present. Winslow
is the Phantom and Phoenix is Christine. Instead of living in
the sewers under the theatre the Phantom lives in the theatre and has
access to a number of secret passages that Swan was already using.
The opera is replaced with Winslow’s musical version of Faust
which is more rock than opera. The chandelier is replaced with
a neon thunder bolt.
Technically
only the middle of the film is a retelling of Phantom of the opera,
the beginning of the film covers how Winslow becomes the phantom.
Winslow starts out as a quite musician and seems to be the type
of person who wouldn’t harm anyone he is the total opposite
of Swan. The only thing that Winslow cares about is his play
and it is the loss of this that becomes his downfall. As
Winslow has very little proof that he wrote Faust he can't go through
the courts and as Swan has most of the police in his pocket he would
have probably lost any way. we watch as Winslow becomes more
and more obsessed with getting his work back. At one point
there is an almost light-hearted approach as Winslow first
meets Phoenix who he seems to fall for straight away and then in the
next scene he is dressed in drag and looking quite silly. This
is the last time we see Winslow resemble anything normal as it is
straight after this though when the film takes it dark turn and
Winslow is sent to jail and we watch in a few short scenes his
desperation turn to madness. The last of Winslow is lost with
his voice, the last thing he had to hold onto.
The
end of the film differs from that of Phantom of the opera as story
changes to mimic that of the Faust Play or of the picture of Dorian
Gray. There are clues earlier in the film that swan is
not all he seems to be. He is very secretive and offers
temptation and corruption and the viewer could easily assume that he
is the devil. He even gets the Phantom to sign his contract in
blood. The first real clue we get to the true nature of Swan is
a short scene where a woman is trying to speak to him, she claims
they went to school together in the 1950’s and has a picture of him
where he looks no different, as the film is set in the 70’s he
should have been showing some age.
The
play of Winslow’s version of Faust is interesting, the main part we
see is more reminiscent of Frankenstein with the main character being
brought to life by lightning with the main actor being killed off
with a neon lightning bolt in this film's version of the chandelier
scene. There is something about this part of the play that is
reminiscent of the Rocky Horror show. The lightning bolt
also seems to represent a change in the phantom, he is no
longer under Swans control and will now do whatever it takes to break
all connections with him. Even when the Phantom finds out the
truth about the contract he signed and with Swans threat to make
Phoenix disappear the Phantom’s goal is to get away from Swan and
to protect Phoenix.
The
costumes and the music both play an important in the film as well.
The music itself mimic what is happening in the film, both in
tone and lyrics. The music and the bands that are under Swan
change and get darker as the film progresses.
Winslow’s
costume changes as he changes from winslow to the phantom with the
two biggest changes being when his teeth are replace with metal ones
and when his face is burnt
Swan’s
appearance only changed twice first when he signed his contract and
at the end.
It
had been a long time since i had last seen Phantom of the Paradise
and there was one scene that i actually thought was from another film
and that was when the Phantom was hooked up to the organ to get his
voice back, I that this was a scene from one of the Doctor Phibes
films
So basicly Phantom of the paradise starts out as an updated version of Phantom of the Opera but then detours into the picture of Dorian gray and pays homage to to Frankenstein and is absolutely brilliant.
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