NOTE: This review pertains to the Region 2 UK release.
By Mark Mawston
There
are some films that stick with you- films that made a real impact but were
impossible to track down after that one fleeting TV screening in pre-DVD and
streaming days. Could they be as good as you remember or were they obscure for
a reason? This was my worry when I was given my review disc of Brian De Palma’s Phantom of The Paradise, a film I’d been wanting to revisit
for years.
I
remember watching this in my room after college one late Monday night and
thinking it was the epitome of the term “cult movieâ€. I simply loved it.
I was fully aware of the huge following The
Rocky Horror Picture Show had
and was shocked that this film wasn’t as famous. For years I’d asked anyone who
mentioned Richard O’Brien’s cult classic if they felt the same about Phantom of The Paradise and most of the time I was met
with “Phantom Of The What?†I thought I was in a minority who loved this film
but on watching Arrow’s superb transfer of the film and its stunning extras, I
see that the film has a healthy following amongst the great and the good of
movie cultdom, including Edgar Wright, Quentin Tarantino and especially
Guillermo del Toro.
Phantom
of The Paradise is
now available from the Arrow Video label. The feature-packed disc is released
as both a Limited Edition Steel Book and deluxe Blu-ray featuring original and
newly commissioned artwork by The Red Dress. This exciting Blu-ray release also
includes an exclusive collector’s booklet featuring new writing about the film
by festival programmer Michael Blyth and an exploration of the film’s troubled
marketing history by Ari Kahan, curator of SwanArchives.org, illustrated with
original stills and promotional material.
Arrow’s release includes, as ever, a bumper crop of bonus features such as Paradise Regained, a 50 minute documentary on the making of the film featuring director Brian De Palma, producer Ed Pressman and members of the cast and the wonderful The Swan Song Fiasco. This is a “new to this release†piece exploring the changes forced onto the film in post-production. It’s one of the most fascinating small docs of the year, focusing on how Led Zeppelin’s infamous manager Peter Grant made sure that all references the film villains company logo “Swan Song†were removed from the final print. Grant had set up this exact same label name for Led Zeppelin. Once he found out about it, he demanded that all references to Swan Song were removed from Phantom.
Unusually for a piece like this, Ari Kahan and Arrow have tracked down and compared, in De Palma split screen style, all the unedited first versions with the post production work. It’s simply fascinating. Add to this alternate takes and bloopers from the cutting room floor, original trailers, a gallery of rare stills and a newly filmed (slightly too long at 70 minutes) interview where renowned director and huge Phantom fan boy Guillermo del Toro interviews Swan himself and actor and composer Paul Williams.
Brian De Palma’s Phantom of the Paradise came hot on the heels of his early horror film Sisters. De Palma planned both films at the same time but the complex production design and sets forced Phantom into second place due to budgetary constraints. For those who found Sisters to be too much of a Hitchcock rip-off, Phantom of the Paradise is a very different film and finds De Palma working with his most wicked sense of humour in this gothic masterpiece which comes over like a 70s rock concert version of Elvis and The Colonel. The film’s main character Winslow Leach (William Finley) can be seen as the maligned Dr. Faustenfurter, minion to Tim Curry’s domineering Dr. Frankenfuter of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
The similarity of the pastiche songs within the film with Rocky Horror are so obvious (the stage show of Rocky Horror started the year before and the film version was released the year after Phantom) that I’m very surprised that this isn’t mentioned at all. They would make the perfect Midnight Movie double bill. The Williams songs are fun -especially the Beach Boys/ Sha Na Na styling’s of the fictional band “The Juicy Fruits†but it is the vocal capabilities of Jessica Harper (later to find fame with Dario Argento) that really surprise. De Palma also pulled off a master stroke in having The Twilight Zone’s Rod Serling do the narration- only Orson Welles could have matched it in gravitas!
De Palma’s inspired rock ’n’ roll fusion of Faust, The Phantom of the Opera and The Picture of Dorian Gray boasts an Oscar-nominated score by Paul Williams, who also stars as an evil record producer who not only steals the work of composer/performer Winslow Leach (William Finley) but gets him locked up in Sing Sing - and that’s not the worst that happens to him along the way.
Few revenge scenarios have ever been so amply justified, but the film is also constantly aware of the satirical possibilities offered by the 1970s music industry, exemplified by Gerrit Graham’s hilariously camp glam-rock star. Jessica Harper (Suspiria) appears in her first major role as the naïve but ambitious singer, on whom Winslow secretly dotes.
Prodigiously inventive both musically and visually, this is one of De Palma’s most entertaining romps, not least because it was so clearly a labour of love.
The super-deluxe package, which is available both as a standard Blu-ray and as a limited edition Blu-ray SteelBook, is full of special features and bonus material including:
· High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation of the feature, available in the UK for the first time
· Original uncompressed stereo PCM / 4.0 DTS-HD master sudio options
· Isolated music and effects soundtrack
· Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
· Paradise Regained – A 50 minute documentary on the making of the film featuring director Brian De Palma, producer Ed Pressman, the late star William Finley, star and composer Paul Williams, co-stars Jessica Harper and Gerrit Graham and more.
· Guillermo Del Toro interviews Paul Williams (72 mins, 2014)
· The Swan Song Fiasco: A new video piece exploring the changes made to the film in post-production
· Archive interview with costume designer Rosanna Norton
· William Finley on the Phantom doll.
· Paradise Lost and Found: Alternate takes and bloopers from the cutting room floor
· Original Trailers
· Radio Spots
· Gallery of rare stills including behind-the-scenes images by photographer Randy Black
· Collector’s booklet featuring analysis of the film by festival programmer Michael Blyth and an exploration of its troubled marketing history by Ari Kahan, curator of SwanArchives.org, illustrated with original stills and promotional material
· Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by The Red Dress [Amaray release only]
· Limited Edition SteelBook™ packaging featuring original artwork [ SteelBook only]
· Booklet featuring essay film by John Kenneth Muir, author of The Films of John Carpenter, as well as a re-print of an interview with production designer John Lloyd and make-up effects artist Steve Johnson on the design and effects of the film, illustrated with archive stills and posters
CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON UK