Word: palmas
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Directed and Written by BRIAN DE PALMA...
...title implies, Phantom of the Paradise is a contemporary version of The Phantom of the Opera. This time the maimed and maddened musician, haunting the theater whose owner has stolen his composition, has been transformed into a pop composer. His plagiarist in Brian De Palma's film has become an evil, omnipotent promoter of rock music named Swan. The theater the Phantom haunts is no longer an opera house but a rock palace on the order of the old Fillmore. Phoenix (Jessica Harper), the woman he hopelessly loves, is now an aspiring pop singer. The organ the Phantom used...
...Phantom of the Paradise is much more than a bundle of neat, often amusing analogies. De Palma has something richer-and more relevant-in mind than parodying a theatrical property he knows is too old and, in its way, too good for mere camp treatment. He has borrowed the plot as a vehicle to satirize the whole corrupt, pretentious and self-important world of pop culture...
...only does De Palma send up every known form of rock, from hard to glitter, but just about every other pop style this side of Glenn Miller. He pays homage to such movie masters as Alfred Hitchcock and Raoul Walsh by echoing a couple of their most famous scenes. Like Truffaut, he borrows hoary cinematic devices-the wipe, the iris and the optical montage-only to mix them with currently fashionable gimmicks like the split screen. De Palma's axiom is that in popular culture, today's wow is tomorrow's cliche and the next...
...Lisbon since the April coup and came as something of a rebuff to General António de Spinola, 64, the soldier-hero who has served since then as provisional President and has allowed an unprecedented measure of political freedom. Spinola's choice for Prime Minister after Palma Carlos' ouster had been conservative Defense Minister Lieut. Colonel Mario Firmino Miguel. Instead, the A.F.M. chose one of its own: an obscure army colonel, Vasco dos Santos Gonçalves, 53, a left-leaning officer-engineer and chief ideologist for the A.F.M. Later in the week, Spinola announced...