Am I supposed to take Purple Rain (the movie) seriously?

Bimble, I'm on my BlackBerry right now. I apologize.

This is stephen, by the way. New anonymous ilx name.

yeah I mean it doesn't get much more anon than that!

Why are you apologizing for being on your Blackberry?
I guess you don't have any instant messaging program?

I have BlackBerry messenger. Which I think is useless to non BlackBerry users. I could be wrong though. Oh well, I toast to you Bimble. Someday we will chat.

Yeah, I can't see how that BlackBerry shit would work. I have sent you an email through the ILXor email system, though. Look for it in spam folder if necessary, etc.

Found it and replied. Cheers!

Lovely! And cheers to you!

would this film have been improved by subbing in vanity for apollonia, and 'nasty girl' for 'sex shooter'?

Gosh...that's a fantastic question. I'm tempted to say yes.

Definitely.

http://www.startribune.com/local/261566281.html

The impact was felt from the Iowa border to the Iron Range, said Wendy Turri, municipal wastewater manager for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Most cities that used the bypasses were able to discharge sewage into rivers or other bodies of water not used for recreation, she said. But in Mound, an overwhelmed sanitary sewer system forced the discharge of contaminated wastewater into heavily used Lake Minnetonka.

heh heh heh

"...it’s at least patently funny that the first fiction feature ever produced in the Tuareg language, which is spoken by about 1 million people in parts of Algeria, Libya, Mali, and Niger, is nominally a remake of Purple Rain. Or, sort of: there is no Tuareg word for “purple,” so Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai actually translates to 'rain the color of blue with a little red in it.' Constructed around the personality of naturally charismatic lead Mduo Moctar and set in the world of Tuareg guitar music in Agadez, Niger—most internationally recognized for the work of Bombino (who is, come to think of it, signed to a subsidiary of Prince’s former record label)—Akounak gushes with pure, earnest enthusiasm for its sweded source material."

http://www.screenslate.com/whats-showing-today/friday-may-8-akounak-tedalat-taha-tazoughai-at-anthology-film-archives

http://www.screenslate.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/150508-Purple-Post.jpg

that's not lake minnetonka

“Why can’t they be disco,” Corman asked. Arkush responded, “You can’t blow up a high school to disco music.”

lol

saw this again last night in the theatre. obv still a 'bad' movie from a technical perspective, but a great 'bad' movie and those performances are next level. sensitive Prince and Morris Day oozing w/ swagger, what's not to love.

still love that they reframed Prince's rock 'n roll yells at the end of "Computer Blue" to be rage-yells at Morris Day being with Apollonia in the club. Prince getting slapped still hilarious. sexual writhing during "Darling Nikki" awesome display of risque performance art. "Computer Blue" choreo fantastic. Prince's frenetic dancing in "Baby I'm a Star". so good

really not good to be a woman in this film tho - they're either portrayed as not wearing much clothing, getting slapped with brute force by their lovers, or being thrown in a dumpster.

fortunately Wendy and Lisa got better treatment (<3 them)

yeah it's weirdly regressive gender-wise, which is weird in the context of Prince's music, except for Wendy and Lisa as noted

Wendy mocking Prince by playing the "Let's Go Crazy" chords sarcastically a nice moment of defiance.

I do love the implication in the film that Wendy and Lisa are the ones that actually wrote the song "Purple Rain"

Morris & Jerome's "what's the password"/"who's on first" comedy routine is p good

the shot of Prince playing the guitar break in "Let's Go Crazy" while standing, backlit, on top of his amp is such a perfect moment

"what's with this one song shit?"

poor dez with his tepid modernaire song. I'm like uh I know which of your three acts you should drop.

I saw this wednesday night in a one-off screening on 42nd st. It was nice to be in that crowd.

Is the backwards female moaning track when he brings Apollonia in his basement 'Electric Intercourse'?

"what's with this one song shit?"

haha I love that this line is in there, because at first you think it's just going to be glossed over in a typical "it's only a movie!" fashion that they just came out and did one song but then the mgr actually *is* pissed about it, as one would realistically expect

nah Electric Intercourse is an actual song, a ballad, in the vein of Another Lonely Christmas

xp

movie needed more mirrors IMO

i love Sparks, him Jerome and Morris are so great

Morris kind of doesn't get much more good material in the last ~30% of the film though.

fucking love P's lair full of dolls

people were clapping, singing along, laughing, probably crying too. It was a nice crowd to be in right now

cab driver very easily hoodwinked by Apollonia

i also like the idea of getting revenge on a lover that spurned you via a conveniently timed setlist choice

haha yeah it does build up this mythology of performance, where things that are happening onstage are actual parts of a larger melodrama

other highlights

Apollonia foisting a fancy-assed guitar upon Kid and then saying "I'm joining Morris's band" like she expected any kind of positive reaction to that news.

only thing that woulda improved Prince's "whAAAAaaaaT?" woulda been a record skip sound effect.

this is playing here now. should i see it tonight?

went to a showing last night. yes.

Go see it. It is almost an audience participation movie, like Rocky Horror.

yeah I was kinda sad that my crowd didn't make more noise last night.

FUCK'S WRONG WITH YOU KID

yeah it's weirdly regressive gender-wise, which is weird in the context of Prince's music, except for Wendy and Lisa as noted

― Οὖτις, Friday, April 29, 2016 5:36 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Some but not all of the regression is there to characterize Morris as the heel, but its regression is not in fact particularly "weird in the context of Prince's music," which is not as progressive as has been claimed recently.

I do love the implication in the film that Wendy and Lisa are the ones that actually wrote the song "Purple Rain"

― Οὖτις, Friday, April 29, 2016 5:44 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well they, or, more properly, the band as a whole, did, if not exactly in the way they movie indicates - he, not they, came up with the basic chords, but the band and Wendy especially fleshed the music out before he wrote the lyrics and presumably vocal line.

(some of which incorporated bandmember vocal contributions)

And that's true of a lot of his stuff, something else under-discussed since his death

I think the movie itself is a pretty good guide to just how seriously or not you're supposed to take it

the scene where he tricks apollonia into skinnydipping in lake non-minnetonka and then leaves her in the dust of his motorcycle peel out

He is such a fucking dick in that scene

the way he frames it as "oh I triiiied to tell ya" despite the pregnant pause between his last sentence and her striptease and then him standin there all like "ok yeah i wanted to see some titties. WHAT?!"

I like this movie because it look intersting

I saw this movie when it came out and I was in 10th grade. At the time I thought it was both ridiculous and amazing. The only thing that's changed in the intervening years is that when I saw it I didn't like Morris Day's music at all, and now I do, a lot.

Does Morris Day still perform?

Nah, he doesn't have the time

fp me if you must

Boomboom