Three words that do not mix: film director, screenplay writer, and Prince. Why after making the dire and kitschy Under The Cherry Moon didn't Prince learn his lesson and steer clear of film making. Obviously he was still under the delusion that he had some talent in the area.
Interestingly, Madonna had enough smarts to beg off playing the enigmatic ‘Aura’. (Apparently she stated that the writing was awful. Got that one right.) Poor Ingrid Chavez must have been desperate to sign up for a film with Prince as director.
The plot I could not even follow. I’m surmising that Prince plays some kind of underdog character (the film is actually a sequel to Purple Rain, so he reprises his ‘Kid’ character.) Morris Day plays a rich club owner that has ‘The Kid’ under his thumb. (Morris Day is the only lively thing about the film.)
To be fair to Prince, it seems obvious that he wanted to create some kind of musical fantasia, a kind of Wizard of Oz. Most of the film was shot indoors, on sound stages. You can see the artificial, technicolour style that Prince wanted, but couldn’t pull off.
He needed a really strong story, not some personal whim that he thought would translate into a engaging film for audiences.
Perhaps if he had employed a writer who understood his vision and came up with a good, strong simple fairy-tale style plot.
Maybe even this wouldn’t have worked, because I don’t think Prince likes strong women in his films. The women in Graffiti Bridge are either dumb whores or angelic divines.
Ingrid Chavez is nothing more than a cipher in this film.
To my utter amazement, Wikipedia tells me that Prince wrote and directed another movie in 1994, 3 Chains o’Gold. (Straight to video.) Well, I never.
There perhaps is something to be gotten from this cinematic disaster: the soundtrack is fantastic! I’ve been listening to it for years, and it shows Prince at his most eclectic best.
When it comes to music, his instincts are always spot on. (Mr Pinky however here states that he thinks Prince’s musical career has been dead and buried since 2004’s Musicology.)
:)P
No comments:
Post a Comment