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

STOP SMILING!

Under The Cherry Moon wasn't bad either, only it wasn't bad for a movie that should have been a one-off by a one-off himself. Had St. Paul of the Family, or Jesse Johnson, or Andre Cymone been the main star of that movie, then I doubt it would be given this many pannings.

GET FAILED

PERSON WHO HAD: It has this scene in it that represents what it's like to have sex with Prince.
PERSON WHO HADN'T: Are there blowing white curtains and feathers?
PERSON WHO HAD: OMG I thought you said you hadn't seen it!

And that is why you should take it very, very, very seriously.

I think my favorite cinematic Prince moment is when he's inexplicably taking a bath with Jerome at the beginning of "Under the Cherry Moon" (which, btw, is NOT saved by the musical sequences)

Graffiti Bridge and Under the Cherry Moon both suck, however, and I have only been forced to watch both at the behest of the wife, who has thankfully toned down (at least in this respect) her Prince obsession in her "old age".

Before the movie started, a friendly guy came over (I was alone) and tried to pick me up - I was too dense to get it (though I got the hint when he gave me his card). Him: "Do you collect bootlegs?" Me: "What?... oh, Prince bootlegs... uh, no..."

Seeing it again, well yeah, sorry, it's not Citizen Kane.. boohoo, dudes. It still is a fun movie, though.. without having to resort to "so bad it's good"-ness like Can't Stop The Music, The Apple, or Xanadu.

You could attribute the "so bad it's good"-ness to Under The Cherry Moon, however.

wait, Great Balls of Fire is fucking awesome!!!! serrrious love it!

slocki has the best take on this movie... "awesomely bad".

that's all i have to say on the subject.

This movie is a classic. End of story. It's a Prince thing--you might not understand.

I rented the video. Oh my god.

I mean, oh my fucking god. I'm not much of a Prince fan, but oh my gucking fod. Why didn't I just buy the thing? It was only $24. I'm ashamed.

His career was spotty, that's how I feel about it. But here he was in his element. He was godlike.

purple rain is a movie

Excellent album. Pointless movie. And the fact that it may be Prince's best movie says more about the rest of them.

The whole "Take Me With U" sequence. Oh my god. I'm an anglophile, but even I have to admit you'd probably have to be American to even do that.

I ordered two CD's by the Time, just so you know.

That fucking Lisa girl is so hot.

Look I can't stand it. I really can't stand it. I can't even find this damn thing for downlaod, soundtrack wise. I'm going to have to buy the DVD I think. Why does God hate me right now that I can't find the fucking soundtrack for download?

It's 8 bucks on iTunes.

Oh god, thank you so much. I can't stand it. Don't you know in the novie when those girls come in you know Wendy & Lisa. I can't stand it. I must have the goddamn soundtrack. I must have it now. I really can't stand it. I'm going to buy the DVD I swear but the store isn't open tomorrow. I used to have it all on vinyl 18 billion years ago.

But they don't have the whole thing on iTunes.

Fuck it, I'm just going to go back to the movie.

It's all about the Wendy & Lisa man. I only wish their "solo" album had been successful.

I waited so long for this song. This title track Purple Rain I waited so very long. God.

I would Die 4 U

Really I bought that damn Wendy & Lisa LP it wasn't very good.

The movie almost ruined the album for me. I love the album, but the movie had my sides splitting at times with how bad it was.

Appolonia's tits almost saved it. Morris Day stole every scene he was in.

I once ate a pot brownie and went to a Purple Rain screening. Then I laughed uncontrollably during the whole sequence where Prince is being beaten by his Dad.

great great movie. Prince shooting his wad at the end = one of the most brilliant moments in all of cinema.

I can't stop playing the title track for this. And the whole thing he goes into with "I Would Die 4 You/Baby I'm A Star" after that is almost as brilliant.

I wanted to see Lisa's tits, though! We never get to see that in the movie. This film was kindof a sexual coming-of-age for me, though.

Like I said, the title track...and that moment where he kisses Wendy in the middle of it. Jesus H. That just kills me.

Bimble = my mom in 1984

I once ate a pot brownie and went to a Purple Rain screening. Then I laughed uncontrollably during the whole sequence where Prince is being beaten by his Dad.

^^^^

LOL

This film is perfect while drinking Stone IPA late into the night, home alone. Very comforting. And yes, the acting is bad and the music is great. It's a fucking classic, get the fuck over it.

"Don't get my seat all wet."

LOL, Amen to that.

Bimble, at least we can agree on this movie. Stone cold classic.

Yes, and I did actually put a tape recorder up to the TV last year so I could record the piano piece his father plays.

I think when this is over it's time for 24 Hour Party People. But I'm not yet certain.

Heheheheh. Oh christ, now don't get me on a roll! I've played New Order videos all day already.

why don't we chat, ilxor? You got AIM or what?

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

Saw Purple Rain for the first time last summer. People were ecstatic, very much an audience participation movie. I remember a big laugh when the blonde girl looks at the slip of paper and said "Apollonia??" Saw it again last night, that didn't get a laugh. Oddly, it was pretty much the same mood, the giddiness of a rock concert. Not somber at all, which was really surprising. Amazing moment when Prince and Apollonia first have sex: woman behind me screaming "HUSBANDS! BOYFRIENDS! LESBIAN PARTNERS! WATCH THIS. WATCH THIS. TAKE NOTES." But it was mostly the same innocent excitement and cheering as the screening I saw last year, both capacity crowds in huge auditoriums. I don't know what I was expecting, though. People were happy. It was fun.

Even worse than I remembered. Siskel and Ebert both including it on their year-end lists in 1984 is a true WTF moment. Like, this is basically Rick Springfield's Hard To Hold with better music.

I like the Day-Benton teamwork, a couple of concert sequences, the rest is garbage.

saw it a few weeks ago at the ICA in london. slightly too snarky crowd maybe, but lots of LOLs all the way through. maybe without that, i might have been more forgiving. but it hasnt aged well. some great scenes with morris and jerome (why didnt they get to do more movies?). interesting for how closely the revolution in the movie seem resemble the real dynamics of the band. but i found the performances to not be as good as remembered - by prince that is. the time and other groups seem to be fine. but prince's performances on the PR tour video are much better. in the film, they look a bit over-acted in a way the songs dont really need (though computer blue is great). also confused at the weird grasp of sense of time/continuity on the montage for the very first song (lets go crazy). best moment though is hearing fathers song (the computer blue bridge) on the piano. amazing.

saw it in a sold out screening in Manchester in one of the biggest screens last week. people went nuts; standing, cheering, singing, crying, the whole bit, a very youthful stylish crowd. the only time i can recall being drunk in a cinema thanks to the 'purple cocktails' on sale. biggest crowd lols were for his Dad's 'don't get married' speech, and at the bizzare leg moves from Apollonia during the start of the sex scene. it seemed creaky but better lit and shot than i remember.

and yeah the piano bits were great.

there were lots of whoops and cheers too. but mainly just lots of 'LOL!'

in the cast/crew interviews on the DVD, the director actually gets teary about the 'dont get married' scene. apparently princes dad gave him the same speech.

Morris Day has charisma as an actor, I'll admit, but his whole "Who's on First" bit with Jerome was agonizing.

Is it worth pointing out that the plot makes no sense? Like, his character is this struggling musician who lives at home but he still exerts this Prince-like control over his band where its a big deal if he does or doesn't consider performing one of Wendy and Lisa's songs?

It's weird you almost have to watch it as several phases of the characters life palimpsested into one

in the cast/crew interviews on the DVD, the director actually gets teary

Like, his character is this struggling musician who lives at home but he still exerts this Prince-like control over his band where its a big deal if he does or doesn't consider performing one of Wendy and Lisa's songs?

Is it hard to believe that Prince was like this even when he lived at home?

it hasnt aged well.

nnnnnnnnnno, no perceptive viewers thought the non-musical shit was good in '84

there are certain movies that i just hold to a lower standard. this, dirty dancing, point break...patrick swayze's whole filmography, basically.

Dirty Dancing is a better movie than PR, but, you know, Prince.

i love this movie, of course it isn't good, but it's great

its basically like prince's spin on all those terrible youth/teen pics of the 50s etc

OK, so I re-watched it for the first time in many years and I have to say …
It still sucks. Even worse than I remember. The plot doesn’t make a bit of sense, the story’s self-pitying and pretentious — not to mention misogynistic — and the acting sucks all around. Yeah, I know the musical sequences are good BUT IT’S PRINCE, after all.

Even worse than I remembered. Siskel and Ebert both including it on their year-end lists in 1984 is a true WTF moment. Like, this is basically Rick Springfield's Hard To Hold with better music.

― rhymes with "blondie blast" (cryptosicko), Tuesday, May 17, 2016 9:17 PM (6 days ago)

so wrong. intentionally or not, it's one of the funniest, weirdest, most fucked-up movies ever made. plus prince. can't imagine any sensible person not loving it.

Really, you can't? Had I seen it when I was 15 or 16, I probably would have enjoyed it. But I was 20 or 21. I thought it was pretty embarrassing as a film, although I loved the music. Now that I’m much older it seems lamer than ever. I mean, take the fanboy glasses off and watch it as a film, not as a 90-minute music video. It’s awful. And there’s nothing even remotely weird or “fucked up” about it. It’s just bad.

yeah, it's one of the funniest movies ever made, except for a couple thousand made by good comedians.

I watched it a couple years back fully expecting to hate it. I'd hated it when I last saw it, back in the 80s, as a teen. But no. I loved it. Each image and line is perfect (and, yes, perfectly terrible). People are often at their funniest when they're trying to be something else.

I'm assuming the people itt saying Purple Rain is awful haven't watched Under the Cherry Moon (etc).

Yeah, I'm not getting where this is so bad/funny/fucked up/whatever that its good. It's basically a severely underwritten melodrama that has some fantastic songs in it.

Pretty sure Magnoli thinks its a great work

Well, he would, wouldn't he

I'm assuming the people itt saying Purple Rain is awful haven't watched Under the Cherry Moon (etc)

which both pale in comparison to Graffiti Bridge, it should be noted

(in terms of failing-as-films)

contenderizer's description applies more readily to under the cherry moon. still there's a charming haphazardness to purple rain imo

i saw under the cherry moon on 35 mm a few weeks ago and imo it's baffling and wonderful

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CgvhDBXU4AESgV7.jpg

typically stupid simpsons joke. it's not funny, and what's more, SotT is his /best/ movie.

that seems to be what the joke is saying?

the subtext is that the film is so marginal/obscure that even prince hasn't seen it

which is dumb

i'm being literal-minded, maybe, but that simpsons joke is made up of 100% low-grade recycled humor so we're even.

depends on what the meaning of "it" is

i think you mean "that"

http://rinf.com/alt-news/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/bill-clinton-05.jpg

its a bad film in every way. nothing is explained. conflicts arrive without any context for them. resolutions happen without actually being resolved. its never clear if the kid is failing or if he is packing them in at first avenue. tbh i cant remember all the problems i thought of when i saw it, but there were many. it has next to no redeeming features, except some performances. and even those, arent what he was capable of. they are reduced to having to fit the terrible narrative.

the beautiful ones is among the greatest music performances ever committed to film, worth the price of admission alone, fuiud

^^^^^

was so gratified to see that someone had written a standalone piece about that, i think it was in rolling stone. as a raw expression of sexual longing it really has few peers.

that's not quite right, it's not just raw, it's massively performative, which is maybe part of what makes it so great, that it's this almost ludicrously demonstrative and detailed set of codes/moves telling the story of the most basic pop drama - wanting, not having. and prince just melts your face with it.

40 years!

This is a great piece from 10 years ago about it.

https://www.theverge.com/2014/12/9/7353913/prince-purple-rain-30-years-exclusive

I love Purple Rain but I don't think it's a Great Work like the album - it's a silly, melodramatic film with a few genuinely touching moments and some of the best music ever made

I want to take my kids to see it - there’s a revival screening in July - but I have icky memories of some really jarring misogyny which is kind of putting me off. Those live performances tho..

Your memories are correct.

i watched it a couple years ago and it was pretty gross

I definitely wouldn't let my kid see it, he straight up punches his girlfriend after she gives him a guitar

Edgy

within 24 hours of Prince dying, our local indie theater screened Purple Rain for free, and it was a strange collective mourning and joy watching it, but yeah. There was a couple in our row who brought their grade-schooler, and they clearly had forgotten the gross stuff, as had I. They didn't cover their kids' eyes exactly, but they clearly felt confused and uprepared.

I didn't watch it until 2006 and it grossed me out.

brilliant musicians who made godawful movies, prince, bob dylan... who else in the club?

Sinatra, Bowie.

All Dylan’s movies are good

Outkast, Neil Young, Elvis…

Perry Farrell

Mariah Carey

There was a couple in our row who brought their grade-schooler, and they clearly had forgotten the gross stuff, as had I. They didn't cover their kids' eyes exactly, but they clearly felt confused and uprepared.

― Bertold Brak (bendy), Wednesday, May 8, 2024 9:34 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

a big part of gen x parenting is putting on a beloved movie from childhood that you haven't seen in 25 years with your kid and promptly being like wtf i forgot about that shit and pulling the plug

The boobies

the boobies are no problem, there's just so many anti-trans jokes everyone took for granted, racist stereotypes, homophobic slurs, it's weird to see stuff with today's eyes

16 Candles for one...jfc that plays different now

who doesn't think a little drugged date raping and blatant racism isn't hilarious?

yeah it's just a reminder of how prevalent and shitty it all was, and you know being like 10 or whatever it's just kind of the air around you

good curative to all the "well that movie couldn't be made today!!" shit like so much of it was just ugly and dumb and hateful

the big thing about 80s and to a degree 90s media that really offputs me now is how stalkery behavior got presented as romantic time and again.

like mom started watching LA Law, which I of course hadn't seen as a 6 year old, so it was my first time seeing it, and so they're showing Michael Kuzak basically uncomfortably stalking and manipulating Grace, and I'm watching through 2024's lens going "oh man he's going to be a villainous character and Grace is going to spend season after season trying to get the firm to see his snakiness and then, oh wait, nope, he shows up at her wedding and easily talks her out of it and they're a power couple on the show after that. she even shows up to his house once to apologize for her 'rudeness' in telling him to fuck off due to his stalky behavior!

oh god yeah

i watched st. elmos fire in my peak watching all kinds of old garbage on streaming during covid that movie absolutely toxic

was actually a little surprising to see Miami Vice of all shows have an episode where it handled the rape and prolonged abuse of a victim quite sensitively and actually criticized law enforcement's own enabling of the rapist through inaction.

i mean it's dated in the sense that it's a complete fever dream of the 1980s, i don't think anything could be *more* 80s than Miami Vice but i was watching it recently and i agree it holds up a lot better than most

Glitter > any Bob Dylan movie

xpost yeah there's no actual realism or grounded elements, the style was the hook. i do find it funny that they almost never arrest anybody, pretty much every perp winds up in a body bag

like imagining how much time they would have had to spend doing desk work while each shooting was investigated in real life

...then Crockett would light his twelfth Marlboro Red around her and she dies of lung cancer in 1997.

i always loved that sonny crockett's super secret undercover name is sonny burnett

'hey boss the guy I'm working with is named Sonny, didn't this cop named Sonny actually like give a deposition in open court against one of your guys last week, is that something you want me to look into'

'nah there's lots of Sonnys here, let's close the deal"

the pilot ep where 3 of the 4 participants in a drug deal are undercover cops made me laugh, always wondered if there was ever a deal that was all cops because everyone got so undercover nobody knew who was who anymore

haha i'm sure it's happened

that’s basically the plot of The Man Who Was Thursday except with anarchists instead of drug dealers