If you happened to populate in Winnipeg in the mid-1970s , you may well have think that Brian De Palma’sPhantom of the Paradisewas a box office smash kin toThe Godfather , Chinatown , or any other hit that stemmed from the burgeon movement known as New Hollywood . After all , it play on and off in the Canadian city foran entire yearand became such a favorite that it later spawned its ownPhantompalooza fete .
In the rest of North America , however , the audacious rock’n’roll opera — which skeweredThe Picture of Dorian Gray , Faust , and , as its name suggests , Gaston Leroux’sclassic novel — was a commercial-grade washout : Although some of the critical reception was kind ( “ You much get a energizing charge from the breakneck wit he put into it,”The New Yorker ’s esteemed Pauline Kaelenthusedabout De Palma ’s direction),Phantom of the Paradisewas mostly ignored by regular cinemagoers when it opened on Halloween in 1974 .
As the years passed , however , Phantom of the Paradisewas reevaluate — and many close that the folk in Winnipeg were onto something . Today , the film is viewed as a cult classic with a long legacy .
“Dream It Never Ends”
The concept ofPhantom of the Paradisewasn’t exactly a square - forward-moving sell . The narrative of a composer who “ sell his mortal for rock music and roll ” wildly veers from industriousness sarcasm to classic horror to musical parody and back again . Although De Palma ab initio hoped for stars the caliber of The Rolling Stones and The Who to put up the soundtrack , he ended up go with Carpenters / Three Dog Night hitmaker Paul Williams ( de Palma also hurl him as confidential information villain on noting his comparability toNapoleon ) . And while the director himself would presently link up the Hollywood elite with the two - time Oscar - nominatedCarrie(whose lead , Sissy Spacek , worked as a rigid dresser onPhantom ) , his crowing movie at that stage had beenSisters , amorbid thrillerabout a homicidal conjoined Gemini .
Those who did jump on boardPhantom of the Paradise , however , were rewarded with an idiosyncratic flight of fondness that personify the quondam proverb “ they do n’t make ’em like this anymore . ” Williams in particular essay to be a Book of Revelation as the pic ’s key baddie , Swan . ChannelingPhil Spectorat his most unhinged , and the unscrupulousness of the music business as a whole , the record manufacturer exudes virginal wickedness every time he slide into crack .
Swan ’s first dastardly deed is to promise aspiring singer - songwriter Winslow Leach ( stage thespian William Finley ) the human race after hearing his original birdsong “ Faust”—in which Leach sings “ For one love who would sing my song / And fill this emptiness in me … Dream each other ’s smile / And dream it never ends”—only to steal it for his later female protégé , ignore all his calls , and then frame him for cover drugs , resulting in a womb-to-tomb sentence at Sing Sing prison .
Of course , this also proves to be the origin of Leach ’s homicidal alter - ego : He escapes from prison , burns the ripe side of his expression at the HQ of Swan ’s aptly - named Death Records , and appears to drown in the East River . Then , the vengeful ( and evidently invincible ) leaching headway to Swan ’s hip and pass off club The Paradise , where he don an owl - esque mask and black leather ness raided from the costume section and attempts to bomb the resident set now playing his textile before confronting Swan .
It ’s here wherePhantom of the Paradisestarts to list heavily into its central influence . Leach , now rechristened The Phantom , essentially ratify a Faustian pact with his tormentor , and after he ’s stabbed in the back again , he haunts The Paradise just like the more familiar Phantom did the Palais Garnier Opera House .
A Film Ahead of Its Time
De Palma pull off all the kill inPhantom of the Paradisewith both way and wit ; see how the bunch , in a darkly comical scene , interpretsThe Phantom ’s mid - performance burning of his drug - addled substitute Beef , play by Gerrit Graham as part of the show . The picture show also looks as spellbinding as its sounds , drawing upon everything from the German expressionism of Grand Guignol to the erotism of Italian giallo ( Dario Argento would later castPhantom of the Paradise ’s Phoenix , actress Jessica Harper , inSuspiria ) and vivid colors of American comic book .
The film was never afraid to take up from the yesteryear . Yet in many ways , it was also in front of its meter — particularly in how it spit the macrocosm of showbiz : A highly choreographed sequence about the manufacture ’s casting couch prank takes on Modern meaning in the wake of the # MeToo motion , while an seek blackwash on hot TV — of which Swan declares , “ That ’s entertainment”—speaks to today ’s glamorization of true crime .
On a unaccented annotation , Phantom of the Paradisewas also the first big screen sway opera house to be set within the rock world , arriving a class before the film version of The Who’sTommy , two years beforeThe Rocky Horror Picture Show , and decades before the likes ofHedwig and the Angry InchandTenacious D and the Pick of Destiny . Meanwhile , one could also indicate that its initiative number , The Juicy Fruits ’ doo - wop parody “ Goodbye Eddie Goodbye , ” foreshadowed thenostalgia boomthat often envision the eighties in thralldom to the ’ 50s .
" It ’s astonishing he would pick the cat who co - wrote ‘ We ’ve Only Just Begun ’ to pen birdsong for a moving picture that was hypothesize to be depicting the future of rock , ” Williams after toldEsquire . “ But Brian watch something in my music that made him consider I could traverse the various variety of genres in the film . Plus , the nifty treat for me was that I was capable to satirize the form of music I make love , like the Beach Boys and ’ 50 stuff . ”
The Legacy ofPhantom of the Paradise
WhilePhantom of the Paradiseremains a lesser have it away entrance in De Palma ’s wide - ranging filmography , it ’s since become a much more cherished one . There ’s Winnipeg ’s Phantompalooza festivals , of form , which Graham , Finley , and Williams assist in the mid-’00s . director likeEdgar WrightandGuillermo del Torohave alsocitedit as a dearie ; the latter is such a devotee that herecruitedWilliams for hisPan ’s Labyrinthmusical . And it ’s been hailed as a formative influence by electronic maestrosDaft Punk : Thomas Bangalter and Guy - Manuel de Homem - Christo first bond as teens overdozens of viewing . ( The cinema might also excuse their leather - clad , helmet - headed appearance . )
In 2018,Phantom of the Paradisegot a one - off transport from the concealment to the degree at New York underground venueThe Secret Loft . A year afterwards , the documentaryPhantom of Winnipegexplored why it ’s become such a phenomenon in the Canadian city .
And rent ’s not forgetPhantom of the Paradisearrived 14 years beforeThe Phantom of the Operaopenedon London ’s West End . Sure , Andrew Lloyd Webber ’s slightly more close adaptation might not have disfigured its antihero by sandwiching his head between a phonograph recording imperativeness . Nor did it have him menace his competition in the cascade with a pot piston . But it may well have shown the showman that the other 20th century novel could work in musical cast .
Some might even argue thatPhantom of the Paradiseboasts the superior songbook . After all , its original score picked upnominationsat both the Academy Awards and theGolden Globes . And its root on pastiches of breaker pop ( The Beach Bums ’ “ Upholstery ” ) , and glam rock ( Beef ’s “ lifetime at Last ” ) are more likely to stick in the computer storage than many of Webber’sOperaballads .
“ I ’m really , really proud of with the movie , and I ’m overwhelmed at the way it ’s grow through the years , ” WilliamstoldBillboardin 2019 . “ The magnanimous philosophical / spiritual example , I suppose , is do n’t write something off as a failure too quickly . ”
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