De Palma a la Mod

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

SC MIRA COVER 'PHANTOM' SONGS ON MEDLEY
HALLOWEEN-THEMED "MIXTAPE" FROM WINNIPEG DUO AVAILABLE TO STREAM OR DOWNLOAD

Sc Mira, a musical act from Winnipeg made up of Sc (Stephanie Catherine) and Tyler Wagar, released a Halloween-themed mixtape last month made up of three songs, including two Paul Williams-penned numbers from Brian De Palma's Phantom Of The Paradise: "Somebody Super Like You" and "Life at Last." You can listen to the mixtap, titled Candy Apples and Razor Blades, via the YouTube video embedded below. The third song is a cover of the Misfits' "Halloween."

Sc Mira received some attention this year for its single, "On My Own," and have an EP (Waiting Room Baby) all ready to go for next year that was mixed by Arcade Fire producer Howard Bilerman, according to MetroNews' jrockarolla. In that same article, Sc tells jrockarolla that she grew up watching Phantom Of The Paradise. "I’ve seen that movie so many times," she tells jrockarolla. "My dad showed it to me and my siblings as kids, and I remember thinking it was so scary." Wagar then adds, "Winslow’s mask still freaks me out."

Last month, the members of Sc Mira discussed their love of Phantom Of The Paradise with Sam Tweedle at Confessions of a Pop Culture Addict:

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Sam: So this is a gem you’re sitting on. Now I read you have a Halloween project in the works.
Tyler: Yeah. We just had a Halloween EP released about a half an hour ago. We recorded a couple of our favorite Halloween tunes.
Sc: Yeah. It’s free on-line as a Sound Cloud stream, but Exclaim! did an article on it. We did it as a free release to get some content out there because we are sitting on the EP. Its three songs. Two are covers from the soundtrack of The Phantom of the Paradise.
Tyler: Oh yeah.
Sam: Phantom of the Paradise is one of my top three all-time favorite films!
Sc: Nobody usually knows what it is.
Sam: What songs did you do?
Sc: We did
Life at Last and Somebody Super Like You because the themes are very Halloweeny. The last song we did is Halloween by the Misfits.
Sam: Now it’s Winnipeg that has that strange Phantom of the Paradise cult following, right?
Tyler: That’s defiantly Winnipeg.
Sam: Yeah – that film was a hit in Winnipeg and nobody else in the world.
Sc: Yeah. I grew up watching Phantom of the Paradise. I’ve seen it so many times. My Dad would show it to us and my siblings. I guess Tyler watched it as a kid too.
Tyler. Yeah. It was also my Dad’s favorite musical film.
Sc: So it just seemed natural because Phantom of the Paradise is common ground for both of us. We both already knew the songs. I listen to the record year round.
Sam: So do I. I have it on my computer in my office. It’s one of my all-time favorite film soundtracks.
Tyler: When we were working on the EP in Montreal last year we ended up in a vintage store and ended up finding the record just lying around.
Sc: I had been looking for that record for a long time. We found it for three dollars in some shop that we went into. We both went in and thought I might find something worth taking home and I found it at the very back of the stack.

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Posted by Geoff at 9:26 PM CST
Updated: Wednesday, November 12, 2014 9:28 PM CST
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'SUPERNATURAL' WRITER DREW FROM 'PHANTOM'
IN CRAFTING LYRICS FOR MUSICAL 200TH EPISODE

The CW series Supernatural aired its 200th episode last night, and presented it as a musical. Series writer and producer Robbie Thompson tells TV Line's Vlada Gelman that Phantom Of The Paradise contributed to the vibe of the songs.

"Unlike something like ‘Once More, With Feeling,’ which is integrated into the story, this is more the boys seeing a music version of their lives,” Thompson explains to Gelman. "So it’s a little more presentational.” Thompson tells Gelman that he listened to “mostly musicals and one movie, Phantom of the Paradise, which is this ’70s, weird Brian De Palma movie which I just love from my childhood. So somewhere in between Rent and Phantom of the Paradise, which is a weird mix."

Posted by Geoff at 12:34 AM CST
Updated: Tuesday, November 11, 2014 11:42 PM CST
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Friday, October 31, 2014

PAUL WILLIAMS, JESSICA HARPER TALK 'PHANTOM'
ESQUIRE WRITER ALSO TALKED TO WILLIAM FINLEY IN 2012

Brian De Palma's Phantom Of The Paradise was released in theaters 40 years ago today. Esquire's Peter Gerstenzang posted an article today to celebrate "THE MOVIE NO ONE SAW BUT EVERYONE LOVES," featuring fresh interviews with Paul Williams and Jessica Harper, along with fresh quotes from William Finley, who spoke to Gerstenzang shortly before Finley's death in 2012.

"I often wonder why movies like ours develop cults," Harper tells Gerstenzang. "I think, in part, it's because we're like the rescue dog that nobody wants. The film comes out, it gets rejected by people, and it's up for grabs. And it's something that you can call your own, if you want. It's yours. People like to form communities around things. So why not a movie?"

Williams tells Gerstenzang, "It's always been intriguing to me that Brian came to me to play Swan in this kind of a movie, considering the kind of work I was known for at the time. It's amazing he would pick the guy who co-wrote 'We've Only Just Begun' to pen songs for a film that was supposed to be depicting the future of rock. But Brian saw something in my music that made him think I could span the various kinds of genres in the film. Plus, the great treat for me was that I was able to satirize the kinds of music I love, like the Beach Boys and '50s stuff."

Williams also discusses how De Palma at first wanted him to play Winslow Leach, and how perfectly Finley embodied that role. "Throughout the movie," Williams tells Gerstenzang, "the Phantom plays his songs wearing a mask that shows only one eye. There's only one actor who could let you see just an eye and make you cry as a result. And that was Bill Finley." Williams adds, "When I was up in Winnipeg for the movie's premiere, some awestruck kid asked me, 'Hey man, a guy selling his soul to the devil, did you make that up?' And I said, 'Well, no, there was this guy named Goethe who did that.' Still, I think that it's so mythologically powerful, the Faustian idea of a guy selling his soul, combined with the Dorian Gray element. And Larry Pizer's gorgeous cinematography is essential, too. That draws you in. But mostly it's our audience, who keeps finding the movie on their own, on cable or through friends. When you love something that the world ignores? You become impassioned!"

FINLEY: DE PALMA USED TO HANG OUT AT THE FILLMORE A LOT AND TAKE PICTURES
Gerstenzang also quotes Finley from 2012: "Brian wrote the script originally in 1969. He used to hang out at the Fillmore a lot and take pictures. And he noticed, as the '60s were ending, that we were starting to see a lot more preening self-regard by the frontmen of bands. And the kids having an unhealthy attraction to it. I actually think that Robert Plant was the original model for Beef, but the character kept evolving. Still, I think Brian was very prescient about the coming of glam rock and the narcissism that came with it. He always had a good read on rock culture."

Posted by Geoff at 9:55 PM CDT
Updated: Friday, October 31, 2014 9:59 PM CDT
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Posted by Geoff at 6:35 AM CDT
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Saturday, October 18, 2014

'PHANTOM' TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT IN SANTA CRUZ
AND 'CARRIE' OUTDOOR SCREENING TONIGHT IN L.A., PRESENTED BY TRAILERS FROM HELL

Sorry for the late notice, but Brian De Palma's Phantom Of The Paradise is the midnight movie this weekend at the Del Mar Theatre in Santa Cruz, California. The film screened last night at midnight, and will play again at midnight tonight. The cost is only $6.50, and there are said to be prizes involved.

Meanwhile, tonight in Los Angeles, on the "lush west lawn of Hollyhock House," Barnsdall Art Park Foundation and Joe Dante’s Trailers From Hell present a screening of De Palma's Carrie on a high resolution screen, with a surprise guest on hand to introduce the film. Carrie is the final event of a five-film series called "School Nights." The other four films were School Of Rock, Election, Rock 'n' Roll High School, and Fast Times At Ridgemont High.

For $25 tonight, you get the movie and tasting (3 pours of beer or wine courtesy of Silverlake Wine). The movie-only tickets for Carrie, which went for $10 each, are sold out already. There is, however, free parking, and, according to the web site, "you are welcome to bring your own food, soft drinks, and a blanket; however, NO outside alcoholic beverages will be permitted. No dogs are allowed. Movies start at dusk on top of Los Feliz’s scenic Olive Hill. This fundraiser is a 21+ over event." According to the Barnsdall specific Carrie page, "All profits from the wine tastings benefit Barnsdall Art Park Foundation programs and projects, such as Free Sunday Art Classes for children and families in the community, as well as capital projects like the Monument Sign."

As posted yesterday, Carrie also screens at midnight tonight at the Landmark E Street Cinema in Washington, DC.

Posted by Geoff at 11:27 AM CDT
Updated: Saturday, October 18, 2014 12:48 PM CDT
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Tuesday, October 14, 2014

'PHANTOM' BACK IN BUFFALO TUESDAY & FRIDAY
AND WINNIPEG SUN ARTICLE ABOUT UPCOMING SHOWS AT THE MET

According to The Buffalo News, Brian De Palma's Phantom Of The Paradise will screen tonight (Tuesday) at 7pm at the Screening Room Cinema Cafe in Buffalo. Phantom will also play there this Friday, October 17th, at 9:15pm, just after a screening of Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein. Both films are celebrating their 40th anniversaries this year.

Meanwhile, The Winnipeg Sun's Doug Lunney posted an article yesterday in anticipation of the upcoming anniversary celebration screenings at The Met on November 1st. Phantompalooza's Gloria Dignazio is quoted extensively in the article-- here's the first part of it:
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It was 1975, I was 10 years old and for some reason I felt compelled to bring my Phantom of the Paradise album to school.
Most of my classmates at Angus McKay School brought theirs as well. Our teacher certainly didn't allow us to play it, but at breaks we would gather to read the lyrics, gawk at the soundtrack cover and discuss the movie.
Gloria Dignazio, like me, first saw the movie at the downtown Garrick Cinema.
"The album is fascinating to look at," said Dignazio, 51. "I remember drawing it in Grade 6 -- the pink, the neon and the lightning bolt.
"We brought it to school because it was so cool."

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Posted by Geoff at 5:41 PM CDT
Updated: Wednesday, October 15, 2014 12:00 AM CDT
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Saturday, October 11, 2014

'PHANTOM' IN KANSAS, IRELAND, BUFFALO
EX-FLAMING LIPS DRUMMER PART OF POST-SCREENING CONCERT IN KANSAS

It's getting difficult to keep up with all the screenings of Phantom Of The Paradise happening around the globe as it celebrates its 40th anniversary. Last night, Brian De Palma's classic screened at the Buffalo International Film Festival, according to Art Voice.

On Thursday, October 30th, Phantom will screen at 7:30pm at the Lawrence Art Center in Lawrence, Kansas. After the screening, there will be a concert that will include Kliph Scurlock, the drummer from the Flaming Lips who was fired from that band earlier this year. According to an article by Lawrence Journal World's Nadia Imafidon, "The different characters in the film will be represented by soloists onstage."

And on November 9th, Phantom will screen at Triskel Christchurch as part of the Cork Film Festival.

And of course, don't forget the anniversary screenings coming up in Winnipeg at the Met on November 1st-- as tickets sold quickly for the evening screening, an afternoon screening has been added at 1pm.

(Thanks to Chris, and to the Swan Archives!)

Posted by Geoff at 12:03 PM CDT
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Saturday, August 30, 2014

'PHANTOM' AT THE MET IN WINNIPEG NOV. 1ST
AND GLENN KENNY CAPSULE REVIEWS THE 'PHANTOM' BLU-RAY

Tickets go on sale this Tuesday (September 2nd) for a special dinner-and-a-movie event at the Metropolitan Entertainment Centre in Winnipeg, celebrating the 40th anniversary of Brian De Palma's Phantom Of The Paradise. The event will take place November 1st, with a cocktail reception at 5:30pm, a buffet-style dinner at 6pm, and the movie itself at 7:30pm.

Phantompalooza's Gloria Dignazio tells the Winnipeg Free Press' Randall King that she brought her personal copy of the Blu-ray to the Met to test it out. King writes that she "was thrilled to note how much the refurbished Donald Street venue actually resembles the 'Paradise' of the film, especially in the scene in which Gerrit Graham's glam buffoon Beef is electrocuted onstage." Dignazio then adds, "It's gorgeous. The theatre has got two balconies on either side (of the screen) and we're actually going to put the Phantom mannequin up there in one of them. It's going to be pretty cool."

(Thanks to Rod!)

Meanwhile, Glenn Kenny posted a Blu-ray consumer guide on his Some Came Running blog, and included a capsule review of Scream Factory's Phantom set:

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The most eccentric of Brian De Palma’s ‘70s films, and if that sounds like a “and that’s saying something” kind of pronouncement, it sure is. But watch this and try to tell me I’m wrong. This new transfer has a very neon bright look, which seems appropriate to the pop art material. It is very different from the French version I got a few years back, which is much more subdued. And I never got the Arrow edition, which is apparently more subdued still. In any event, I like this garish version, makes the whole thing play like the sick live-action cartoon it at least partially is. And is also subjectively attractive to me. There’s a huge number of extras here, some more disciplined/informative than others. The De Palma interview is a real keeper. This is not a universally beloved movie—I saw a film critter of high standing, and not even a psychotronic-averse one, condemn it as “awful” on the Twitter machine just the other day—but if you DO love it, this is the edition to get. Guess where I sit on the issue. —A
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Posted by Geoff at 6:04 PM CDT
Updated: Saturday, August 30, 2014 6:05 PM CDT
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Friday, August 22, 2014

'PHANTOM' IN THE NEW YORK TIMES
"THE FILM'S NEW POPULARITY HAS LED TO TALK OF COMIC BOOKS, REMAKES & STAGE ADAPTATIONS"

An article by Marc Spitz in the New York Times looks at the "new popularity" of Brian De Palma's Phantom Of The Paradise. The article, which includes quotes from De Palma, several members of the cast, as well as Swan Archives' Ari Kahan and Phantompalooza's Doug Carlson, will be included in this Sunday's print edition of the newspaper. De Palma has mentioned several times in the past that the idea for Phantom formed after he'd heard a muzak version of a Beatles song in an elevator, but I don't recall him ever specifying which song before. It turns out it was the Beatles' most epic song. For this article, De Palma tells Spitz, "I heard a Beatles song, ‘A Day in the Life,’ coming out like Muzak. I saw the way that this stuff was getting corrupted."

GERARD WAY & 'THE BLACK PARADE'
For its "Most Anticipated Albums Of 2004" issue, Alternative Press reported that My Chemical Romance had been working on an album that the band described as "loosely based on Brian De Palma’s Phantom Of The Paradise." The magazine states that that album would become Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, but the opening track on the band's epic followup, The Black Parade, has definite echoes of Paul Williams' Phantom songs. My Chemical Romance's frontman Gerard Way (the band officially disbanded last year) tells Spitz that, by his estimation, he has seen Phantom 30 times. "When I was doing ‘The Black Parade,’” Way tells Spitz, “I thought about the film all the time, about its message of sacrificing integrity in order to reach more people.”

PRESSMAN: "WE'VE BEEN APPROACHED BY A NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN BOTH EUROPE & IN THE STATES"
Spitz' article concludes with the following three paragraphs:

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The film’s new popularity has led to talk of comic books, remakes and stage adaptations. “We’ve been approached by a number of people both in Europe and in the States,” Mr. Pressman said. “There was a false start years ago doing it in Las Vegas.”
Mr. Williams, who said he is working with [Guillermo] del Toro on adapting the director’s film “Pan’s Labyrinth" into a musical, said he could be on board for a stage version: “I still think it’s a great idea. I’d like to see it done.”
Mr. Williams, who in the fall will release a self-help book he helped write, seems to have the phenomenon in perspective. “Do not write something off as a failure too quickly,” he said. “The fact that it disappeared made it the great success it is today.”
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Posted by Geoff at 12:13 AM CDT
Updated: Tuesday, August 26, 2014 11:37 PM CDT
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Thursday, August 14, 2014

TWO ESSAYS ON 'PHANTOM' IN WINNIPEG
ROD WARKENTIN: "WHY NOT WINNIPEG?"

The Dissolve concludes its Movie Of The Week series on Phantom Of The Paradise with an essay Thursday by Alan Jones, which looks at the impact of the film in Winnipeg. "In summer 1975," Jones writes in the essay, "[Paul] Williams solidified the film’s popularity in the town by holding two sold-out shows, again mostly attended by so-called 'teenyboppers.' While he sang a number of the hit songs he wrote for The Carpenters and Three Dog Night, the crowd was there to see his numbers from Phantom Of The Paradise. According to Andy Mellen’s review of the show in the Winnipeg Free Press, much of the singing was 'drowned out by the constant screaming of "We love you, Paul" from the majority of his adolescent following.' He even had a phony ceremony during the concert in which he was presented a gold record for the Phantom soundtrack. (A skeptical Winnipeg Tribune writer checked with the record company and discovered the award had already been presented in Toronto.) In Winnipeg, the isolation of this phenomenon meant that the locals had no idea Williams wasn’t equally beloved elsewhere in the world, or that Phantom had only played modestly in every other city. 'None of us really knew that it bombed everywhere else,' says Carlson. In Winnipeg, where the film regularly played in local repertory cinemas over the next few decades, Phantom Of The Paradise was a classic like any other.

"Located in the middle of the Canadian prairies, Winnipeg is an island of civilization unto itself. Far away from both coasts and the Great Lakes, the nearest major city is Minneapolis, 734 kilometers (sorry, 456 miles) to the south. If you ask Google Maps the fastest route from Winnipeg to Toronto, it’ll take you through North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan before getting you back into Canada. This isolation meant a lot more in 1975, before the Internet and cable television closed the cultural distances between cities. For [Guy] Maddin, the revelation that the rest of the world didn’t share Winnipeg’s enthusiasm for the film was a shock: '[I] thought it was one of the iconic great films for so many years, because as a Winnipegger, it was so huge in the local zeitgeist, the civic-geist. I couldn’t believe when I later found that among De Palma buffs, it’s ranked like the 40th-best of his films.'”

"WHY NOT WINNIPEG?"
Meanwhile, Phantompalooza's Rod Warkentin posted the following message to Phantompalooza's Facebook page the other day:

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Why not Winnipeg?
Is the question I ask of you? We are constantly asked, “Why Winnipeg?” my standard answer is, “We got it, no one else did”. Phantom of the Paradise is engrained in every Winnipeg adult 45 or older. When Wayne in ‘Wayne’s World’ held up the ‘Frampton Comes Alive’ album and spouted how every kid was issued it in his neighbourhood, it’s exactly that for us!
I grew up a film ‘buff...’ and still see more films than I care to admit, but the one thing I have always said, is that if a film touches you in a way that makes you think about it a few days later, then something profound was done to create thought and discussion, even if it’s just with yourself. Well, here we are...not just a few days, but 40 years later and we are still talking about Phantom of the Paradise. Not bad for a film that tanked at the box office and disappeared as quickly as it appeared. Winnipegger’s have always claimed this film as their own, I being one of them. But all that changed for me in late July of this year when I along with Creature Features hosted the 40th anniversary at the Arclight theatre in Los Angeles. Yes, I realize that Phantom was big in Paris, but for us, it was ‘our film’, plain and simple and growing up Phantom in Winnipeg was a passage that many of us took. Teenagers and children as young as ten or eleven years old watched the film, multiple times at the local theatre. Stories have been told, some made up, some wrongly translated that the youth of Winnipeg had nothing better to do because of the long cold winters and the attitude of Winnipeg that could relate to the ‘downer’ ending of the film. Now, I will be the first to admit that there is truth that Winnipeg has a reputation for cold long winters, but also Winnipeggers have a reputation of talking against the city that they call home. We do, and that should stop, but we have engrained generations with the fact that cold winters equals unattractive living and many have taken this as truth. But really that is not the Winnipeg I remember and lived and still live to this day. So ‘Why Winnipeg?’ why not? And rather than turn this into a lecture about Winnipeg’s rich history and how at one point Winnipeg was pivotal in its role in helping shape Canada, I will simply say that, “We got it, no one else did”. Winnipeg is rich in its appreciation of the arts and always has been. We are a musical city; I’ve seen more local bands go the big show than a lot of other warmer destinations. Don’t believe me, just Google it. Most of us at one point or another probably entertained the idea of being in a band, or somehow in the arts, I know I did. Theatres were abundant back in the 70’s and 80’s and seeing films was a joy that allowed us to escape the limited three channel television that we had at the time. It allowed us to see the world from a different perspective and allow our imagination to soar. Many of us went on the create our own art, write books, play music or write screenplays, some moved away and many came back after a time. It is Winnipeg, it is what we are. But Phantom was different, very different. We had always assumed that this film was a major success everywhere that it played! To find out years later that the exact opposite was true, came as a bit of a shock. The album went Gold in Canada, due to sales from Winnipeg. Hell, I remember saving up my money to buy the soundtrack only to be told that it was ‘sold-out’ and I would have to wait two weeks for it to come in again? No wonder we thought the film was a global phenomenon, it was, for us, a time before the Internet shortened the distance between all of us. I always described it to people as “our Star Wars”, it was that big. So why did this film do so well in Winnipeg? No one will ever be able to come up with the exact combination of events that brought us to the theatres, but I do know that ‘word of mouth’ advertising became one of the reasons that the film did so well. Local news had interviewed multiple viewers during their entertainment segment, newspapers had done the same, local record stores had difficulty maintaining stock of the soundtrack, even after they had done multiple advertisements in the local papers and weekly’s, older siblings told their younger counterparts who in turn told their friends and so on.
Los Angeles taught me something, but also made me lose something, something I gladly give. Phantom is no longer a ‘Winnipeg’ thing. 40 years later it has become what it always should have been, a film truly appreciated by all, even if you’re not from here. A thousand people entered the Arclight in Los Angeles! A sold-out crowd that was met with as much appreciation and enthusiasm as anything we had done in Winnipeg. When the film began, I remember the cheers and I wondered if we had finally made it up to those that originally put on the show for us. I was never sure how the film would be received in LA, but seeing every seat filled and the rush from the crowd put my mind at ease. I spoke to the crowd during the evening, but I think I was talking mostly to the cast. I wanted to say ‘See? Now everyone gets it! We aren’t the only ones. Not anymore. This film is appreciated and all the work you did.” In a way it was my thank you to all of them for what they gave us so many years ago.
So Why Winnipeg? Why not Winnipeg...it just took the majority of you 40 years to catch up to us. But don’t worry, next time, we’ll let you know a bit sooner.
Trust me...
Rod
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Posted by Geoff at 3:07 AM CDT
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