Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Not being a great fan of musicals and reckoning that the phantom is probably my least favourite movie monster, it may not be surprising that I have never until now seen this film. This being despite always having been a DePalma fan. As it turns out this is not as bad as I feared, being particularly clever and amusing at times. Obviously there must have been budgetary restraints but the director pulls off both sound and visuals with some aplomb. Made the year before Rocky Horror Show, this is much more restrained on the 'camp' front and although Paul Williams is rather annoying offset by the charming performance from an angelic Jessica Harper in her first film.

I love this movie, and is probably my favorite Brian De Palma film. It is excellently written, it has memorable characters, and of course, great music. The plot follows record label owner Swan (Paul Williams), as he searches for musicians to play at the opening night of his rock palace, The Paradise. He hears a song from Winslow Leech (William Finnley), and decides not to politely ask him to play, but steals his cantata, and sell it to female singer. At Swan's palace, he meets Phoenix (Jessica Harper), who is auditioning to perform. He is then caught by Swan's security guards, and after a series of events, he gets his face morbidly deformed with a record press. He attempts to attack the paradise, by putting bombs in cars and electrocuting musicians, but I won't give too much away. 10/10.

This is one of those rare films that unfortunately flew under the radar. I hope that is no longer the case. I had a copy of this and watched it over and over over the years, but I lost my DVD. Just watched it again and DVR'd it from cable. God how I still love this movie!! Very operatic and melodramatic. If you are a lover of musicals, Faust, The Phantom of the Opera, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Beauty and the Beast must get the tongue in cheek humor, the glam rock "Kiss" references, and the ultimate tragedy of a talented geek who had the unfortunate luck of meeting the Devil. Paul Williams' understated and perfect pitch portrayal of Swan is wonderfully perverse with a good dose of wink, wink, nudge, nudge... His cherubic outer image juxtaposing his inner evil was simply delicious! (I'm licking my lips. Can you tell?) And his score is still strong enough to pull me back through the years to a magically specific point in time. I'm really pushing for a musical on Broadway. This is just a natural for that venue! And Mr. Williams could expand on his score. It would be perfection. It's nice to know I can still dream.....

Talented underground creators. How great it is to be in their worlds! that's when we get them at the height of their more uncontrolled and pure creativity. unmanipulated, wild. The outcome of what they do when they work within the underground is hardly the best work they produce, but it's often their more passionate creations, and practically always indicates what they will master when they "grow up".Here we have a film that exists in 3 levels (at least 3 that matter to me): this is a film within a social and cultural context. The kind of music we hear here (not the multiple parodies, but the music that is intended to be "good") was a reaction to the 60', or the next step of the evolution. Within the same underground spirit that created this film, there was a growing tendency to extend and invent forms that would accommodate the fantasies of new musicians. That's what today we know as progressive rock. This film would pave the way for Tommy, for Live at Pompei, and for The Wall.Paul Williams, great mind, great talent. Much of what works here is his vision, from the mood even to some roots of the story. His parodies are great, but his real stuff is good enough. I enjoyed getting to know him better, and it Is funny that he comes to perform the guy who steals his own music.de Palma, who was my first interest when coming to this. The fact is i didn't know so well what to expect, and i ended up appreciating more the other levels than this one of the director. Apparently by this time he had clarified what he wanted to explore, but he was far from mastering any of his enormous visual skills, or this film was such a collective work that he just couldn't make his personal statement so well. Anyway we have here eventually the first split screen of his career (i'm not absolutely sure of this), something he would take all his careers with incredible results. Other than that, we don'te have his magical camera eye yet.The story matters only for the fact that we have a battle between creative and money grower, something that all the people involved here might know pretty well back in those days.Jennifer Harper has a pretty face, and illuminates the set when she sings.My opinion: 4/5 http://www.7eyes.wordpress.com