The Talkies
Stein, Benjamin
"The Talkies" I went to see The Phantom of the Paradise by mistake. I thought I was going to see Luis Bunuel's new movie, The Phantom of Liberty. I think it was because I was confused by having just eaten a Big...
...The Phantom cries out his love for the girl singer, but she cannot understand anything except that excitement feeds on itself...
...And coming from everywhere, dominating everything, the fans scream in the background...
...Was television the last refuge for those who want to be entertained instead of bored...
...It has fantastically imaginative and funny scenes...
...The movie begins with a diminutive but overwhelmingly powerful and important rock producer named Swan trying to decide what his next musical venture should be...
...Neither had the slightest sense of humility...
...The former had been sickeningly perverse and dull...
...That was the key incredible fact about The Phantom of the Paradise—it was a pleasure to watch...
...The writer tries to sneak into Swan's estate, "The Swannage," where he sees an endless line of beautiful and pneumatic girls, each awaiting a chance to try out the casting couch, in the hope of becoming a rock star...
...The Phantom approaches the young girl he loves and tells her that she must choose between true love and fickle fame...
...The Phantom of the Paradise moves along at such a breathtaking pace, is so much fun, has such a good message, that it is hard to believe I saw it at a theatre...
...Without thinking twice, the girl chooses fame...
...Without the slightest bit of pretension, The Phantom of the Paradise strikes its target, the utter insensitivity and exploitative nature of the old rock music business...
...I was concentrating so hard on what symptoms I would have that I forgot everything else...
...When...
...The Phantom of the Paradise captures the essence of movies—it is visual, it has action, it moves along at a terrific pace...
...I think it was because I was confused by having just eaten a Big Mac and an order of French fries...
...Five minutes of The Phantom of the Paradise had me unclenching my fists...
...Of course, -Beef" is a prancing queen...
...By the time the titles got to the director, I knew I was not in the place I had wanted to be...
...The Phantom throws a neon lighting sign into the heart of a singer on stage (whose name is "Beer) and as "Beef" fries and is jolted to death, the audience goes wild with delight...
...But it was a lucky accident, because if you took all of Bunuel's films, great and small, and roiled them into one all-beef-enchirito, they would not be anywhere near as much fun as just one Phantom of the Paradise...
...As the final struggle between the Phantom and Swan unfolds on the stage and both men stagger around the platform covered with blood, the audience goes into a frenzy of ecstasy...
...All kinds of shenanigans follow...
...It works on every level...
...But life is surprising...
...Swan introduces his new star—"Beef"----at a deserted airstrip, -Beef" emerges from a coffin, gives a horrible screaming growl, and then returns to the coffin...
...At the end, the dead protagonists are surrounded by sweating, screaming teeny-boppers who neither know nor care to know the difference between death as entertainment and death as the end...
...There he confronts Swan,who persuades him to sell his soul in order to have control over the new rock cantata that Swan is using to open the Paradise...
...Swan throws out the girl whom the writer loved and wanted to be a star...
...After ten minutes I was smiling, and by the end I liked it so much I sat through it another time...
...Inspiration comes when Swan sees a singing performance by a small-time writer and pianist, whose work Swan so loves that he arranges to have it stolen by the motorcycle thugs in his employ...
...When the writer hears that his stolen music is going to be used to open the new theatre, the Paradise, he vandalizes the prison, breaks out, tries to set fire to Swan's record company, is maimed, and escapes into the shadows...
...He has been through everything and is currently working with a nostalgia group called "The Juicy Fruits...
...The director, Brian DePalma, has, with the help of his casting director, put together a scene which shows the beauty, innocence, and rapacity of youth all at once and makes it funny...
...The latter had been repellingly stupid and long winded...
...But the movie itself is a rock music piece, with genuinely excellent music...
...Were "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and its many progeny the only places where people could laugh at themselves...
...When the writer tries to get his material back, he gets beaten...
...Swan throws the writer out, has him framed for possession of heroin, then goes about renovating an old theatre to make it the ultimate of rock concert palaces...
...Both were pompous and ponderous beyond words...
...The story is a combination of a rock opera about Faust, a subplot based on the Phantom of the Opera, and a satire of the rock record business...
...He returns to the Paradise and is henceforth the Phantom, dressed as a creature from outer space...
...I think I'll see it again to be sure I wasn't dreaming...
...In the same week I had forced myself to sit through The Night Porter and The Trial of Billy Jack...
...But Swan, the agent of the Devil, has tricked the Phantom...
...Neither had the slightest modicum of sense of humor...
...I was depressed...
Vol. 8 • February 1975 • No. 5
