Phantom of the Paradise is Brian de Palma’s brilliant musical loosely based on the Phantom of the Opera, Faust, and the Hunchback of Notre Dame and it’s pretty awesome. Musicals usually make me wanna kill myself (with one big exception). Like that shitshow Rent movie!? Ugh I still want that hour and a thirty five minutes of my life back. But I digress. Our protagonist Winslow Leach (Creepy William Finley from Sisters) is a singer songwriter creating a cantata based on Faust. Swan, a famously sleazy and may I mention elf like music executive likes what he hears and wants to use Winslow’s music to open his new music venue The Paradise.
Unfortunately for Winslow, Swan wants the music to himself and uses his shady connects to get him sent to prison and out of the picture. Winslow decides to bust of of the joint and gets burnt along the way, literally?! Half of his face is melted in an accident and now he is THE PHANTOM (!!!): wearing a bird like mask, silver grill, and black cape he’s ready to sabotage The Paradise. Somewhere along the way we also meet Phoenix, played by Jessica Harper from Suspiria and she kinda sucks. Her character seems tough but in the end she sleeps with troll like Swan just to become famous. Gross! But my favorite character of all is Beef, the queeny rock Prima Donna who is addicted to Speed. This movie is so great, it could only be made more perfect if Meat Loaf, the king of dramatic songs had a cameo.
Dedicated to my girl Malia and the lovely people over at Trendcentral.com!
Factoid: Paul Williams who plays Swan co-wrote “The Rainbow Connection” one of the greatest songs of our time.
