![]() ![]() This would also be the saviour of another cult film released the year after Phantom, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, though the latter film would gather its cult around it much more rapidly than De Palma's picture, whose reputation would be slowly built on the audience it attracted in a city on the edge of the Canadian prairie famous for brutal winter winds that carry pedestrians down its main street. The basic story is hardly original, but what makes it stand out from other ambitious, low-budget films often undone by the shortcomings of the script, director or cast, is that everybody involved in De Palma's film was hugely talented. Presumed dead after he escapes from prison, a mutilated Winslow comes back to terrorize Swan and his new music venue, The Paradise, until the impresario tempts him with a promise to produce his music, with Phoenix (Jessica Harper), a young singer Winslow is in love with, as the disfigured songwriter's voice. It's the story of Winslow Leach (William Finley), a talented songwriter who's ripped off and framed by Swan, a famous but reclusive music mogul (Paul Williams). #Critical essay of the phantom of the opera 2004 updatePhantom of the Paradise was, roughly, a rock update to Gaston Leroux' classic novel The Phantom of the Opera, interpolated with the story of Faust, Dorian Gray and a touch of Frankenstein. It's a good thing Brian De Palma has had such a long and high-profile career making films such as Scarface, Carrie, The Untouchables and Mission: Impossible, because it would have been galling if his reputation rested on a horror/satire/rock opera he made in 1974, not long after he'd been kicked off his first major studio picture. ![]() The reward, when it finally comes, is the applause at special screenings, the paid-for hotel and air fare, the personal appearance fees and perhaps some small money to be made from autographs or merchandise. Most of the time, nobody means to make a cult film – they want a hit, from the moment it's released, and while there might be some satisfaction in seeing your work get praised and develop an audience years, even decades after it was made, there's a very good chance that you never saw much, if any, money. There's cold comfort in making a cult film. ![]()
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