Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

Genre

Comedy | Drama | Horror | Musical

Director

Brian De Palma

Country

United States

Cast

William Finley, Paul Williams, Jessica Harper, Gerrit Graham, Raymond Louis Kennedy, George Memmoli, Archie Hahn, Ron Serling

Plot

After hearing Winslow Leach (William Finley) perform a song from his Faust rock opera, impresario Swan (Paul Williams) decides that Winslow's opera would be the perfect debut attraction for his new rock palace, the Paradise.

Swan steals the music and has Winslow imprisoned, but not before Winslow meets aspiring singer Phoenix (Jessica Harper). Jumping prison, Winslow breaks into Swan's Death Records factory to ruin the recordings, but a record press accident disfigures him. Winslow, known from now on as the Phantom, then tries to sabotage Swan's show, but Swan, however, cuts a deal with him to finish his cantata: he promises that Phoenix only will sing it. 

Opinion

Brian De Palma's Phantom of the Paradise is a brilliant and visionary revisiting of Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera, Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust.

The acting is good and Paul Williams's Swan is a real villain, maybe the best ever seen. The costumes and the makeup were amazing, The Phantom was brilliant. Loved the music. 

Quotes

Swan: Ink isn't worth anything to me, Winslow.

Rating

7.5/10