Best Movie I Discovered This Year
Brian DePalma's glam-rock musical comedy Phantom of the Paradise (1974) is the film that has really floored me this year. Last year it was Sergio Martino's The Strange Vice of Ms Wardh (1971), with its hyper-cinema fluidity and infectious score. But I think its safe to assume I won't discover anything in the next two weeks before 2006 is up that will hit me as hard as Phantom of the Paradise has.
I first saw a trailer for it on an exploitation film DVD last September, and was riveted by it. I knew it was something that I'd eat up as a feature film, if only I could find a copy. The trouble was, no one around has it. I thought about adding it to my online rental queue, but considering I usually have around 200 films lined up on that, I knew it could take months to arrive. Well fortunately the OSU film club decided to screen it this past September, and I made sure to head out and see it.
I loved what I was seeing and hearing, but was a tad disappointed in the story structure and didn't feel the music was at the highest notch it could be. I think I probably enjoyed it more than anyone there in the audience, and couldn't believe that the sponsoring film instructor didn't understand the use of irony in one key scene. So I went home that night, feeling good about a film I'd looked forward to for a full year, marking it in my head as a must-buy as soon as I could. Though all the bells and whistles didn't ring 100% for me, it was still admittedly in the top three films I'd seen in 2006 (out of roughly a hundred new films).
But, just as always happens with the things you turn out to love the most, I couldn't get the images out of my head. Not just from one sequence, or a few, but all of them! This prompted me to get the soundtrack. The second I heard those glorious songs again I was in love. I played the tar out of that disc; Every song is a different genre, but each totally satifying in their own way. However, I began to grow fearful that if I played them too much it might ruin any future viewings of the film, whenever I could manage to get my hands on a copy.
Amazon.com has it used for $5.99. I was SO close to hitting "Order" when I stopped myself, the smart film shopper I am, to ask myself: "What about the foreign editions of the film?". The U.S. release has NOTHING extra, save maybe a trailer. No, this film is too good not to have extra content. I then quickly checked the Amazon UK site, then the Amazon German site, then the Amazon Japanese site, Amazon Canada (where I've previously spent four times the U.S. price amount for the glorious 3-disc Brotherhood of the Wolf set), and finally Amazon France. Eureka! The French edition is the only version in the world to have two-discs, and loads of extras! With the help of Babelfish, I slowly waded through the process, and got confirmation it was on its way.
When I've ordered rare (in the U.S.) music from Amazon Germany, its taken up to two months to receive. I've had very good luck ordering from Amazon.uk and getting items within five shipping days (impressive!). But I just didn't know if I could stomach going another two months without seeing this film, let alone hear the music again. After the order was placed, I checked the estimated delivery time: As late as Feb. 22nd 2007! I couldn't stand that, I had to have it. I e-mailed an OSU film club member, trying to determine who had brought their personal copy to the meeting a few months back, but still haven't heard anything.
Skip to yesterday, when I was at Hideaway Pizza with falfax, who suddenly felt ill enough not to want to go out after dinner. The plan was to see Apocalypto at seven o'clock. But considering she had a field trip scheduled for 5 AM, she asked if we could simply watch something at home. That's been a nightmare lately; You see, out of my collection of 700 or so films, roughly 200 of them are ones I've never got to see yet. So every time I name them all off, and she's never in the mood to see them, because they're ones she just doesn't have an interest in, irregardless of their high-standing. This list-naming usually goes on for half an hour, and it degenerates into frustration and not watching anything at all (and hence, wasting several hours doing nothing important). So I was dreading going through that again, since we'd opted that going to the rental stores would be a nightmare that night, being in a college town during Dead Week.
But the moment we walked in the door there was a package. Could it be? No way! I suspiciously tore it open, telling myself not to jump to conclusions. Voila! There it was in all its special-packaging glory! Oh man! This was going to be a GREAT night! I said, "We're watching this!" She said, "Oh no! I just don't think that looks good." Me: "We're watching this". Her: "I think I'll just go to bed early". Me: I'll go set it up; Be there in five minutes". On a side note I had another package there that came in: It was a DVD of The Devil's Plaything (also 1974)! This was too much goodness at once!
So at any rate, I force-started the film, jazzed by the song snippets on the menus, and sat back, hoping she'd appreciate it as much as me. After the first 20 min. and a few comments that I probably liked it only because (she assumed) it has a bunch of sexual situations in it (based on what she'd seen up to that point), I could begin to tell she was enjoying it. And on this second-time through, knowing what to expect, I myself was LOVING it. Ninety minutes later she said, "That was good. I really like it. The songs are really good too; Where's that soundtrack?" Zing! Me: "I thought you always hated it when I played that CD in the car?" Her: "Well this time I payed attention to the words, and thought they're wonderful."
As for myself, I'm watching the special features and giving the feature film itself a few more spins. And that soundtrack? Now I know its safe to return to my car stereo!
After the film I went to meet anarkistsdream, cadence1, looking_askance, techix, and Skylar at the latter three's house, and we had fun. Skylar made me a new creme-de-menthe vanilla ice-cream meets Bailey's meets half-and-half meets vodka concoction, and we all drew names for Christmas gifts this year. After a time, me, techix, and Skylar went to the Kunek show at Eskimo Joe's, and since there was time until they actually played, techix and I went down the road to the Stonewall pub and sat outside in the freezing cold to be able to have decent conversation. Random pizza peddlers and a pitcher full of lemons added flavour. By the time we returned to Joe's the Kunek show had just finished. But we still talked to some people in the cold, and once we got back to the house and regained feeling in our extremities, we talked about pro-audio recording, and I vented my frustrations at the High-Definition revolution, and how I feel sidelined as an artist, being a lover of degraded and vintage-style production techniques, both in audio and video. All in all it was an amazing night, fueled by the power of one of Brian DePalma's (The Untouchables, Scarface, Carrie) most underappreciated gems.