Prince movies are rarely screened in England, and the straight-to- video excursion of Graffiti Bridge has yet to be televised. Of course, Prince's best movie was the concert picture, "Sign O' The Times". Purple Rain, from what I can remember - it too only gets screened on rare occasions - was a decent film, making $7.8 million its first week in America and going on to earn $70 million over there. Under The Cherry Moon, by contrast, made just $3.2 million in its first week and went downhill from thereon.
Never as bad as the reviews would have you believe, Prince is actually quite personable in his role as Christopher Tracy and pulls off, to my mind, a competent performance. Although the black and white cinematography wasn't intentional, it does come to good effect as he uses his expressive face to homage one or two licks from the silent comedy era. He's especially good when playing opposite Jerome Benton, one of his Time proteges, and, for the purposes of this film at least, a member of The Revolution. Benton again puts in a good performance as his half-brother, Tricky.
Christopher and Tricky are jive talking gigolos, scamming money out of rich women with the promise of marriage. If the idea of Prince becoming a highly-desired gigolo is stretching the imagination, then we excepted it for the even more, er... unconventional looking... Woody Allen. And this was a role Prince was to hold in real life; becoming engaged to Kim Basinger just four years after this film was made. What fails to make the set up convincing is that Christopher's latest target – Mary – has no real on screen rapport with the star. Kristin Scott Thomas is now an enviably famous actress, The English Patient, The Horse Whisperer and Mission: Impossible just three of the films to her name. Rather a surprise then, that for this, her first film, she looks beautiful but undeniably uncomfortable. This is possibly the major factor as to why something in the picture doesn't quite gel.
But if Prince's acting wasn't to blame, then what was? Certainly, the storyline, for the genre, takes precedence, Prince only singing on screen three times. (And of those occasions, one is merely humming along to his song on the radio, the other an end titles sequence of the superb "Mountains") Mary Lambert, a pop video director, was originally slated to direct, but the 27-year-old's ambition urged him to take up the reins. Again, direction is adequate, utilising many of the respected Hollywood techniques of the previous five decades. Yet there's the nagging feeling that he's not quite put himself in there, he's merely copying the riffs of those who went before him, with none of his own style. As a result it can look a little flat, although the Paris filming is pleasant on the eye.
Ultimately, though, the film holds no real compulsion for the audience, and there's never truly a moment when you believe the events of the film are real. As for the soundtrack, "Parade" was, fortunately, one of the half dozen or so greatest albums the artist produced, taking its lead from the film with a chic monochrome cover. I'm a huge of Prince's work and hold out for the day when he may make a serious comeback after a series of lacklustre late-90s albums. As a result, I'm glad I saw the movie, though I probably wouldn't watch it a second time. Instead I'd put on the CD and relax to the irresistibly funky electropop and searing falsettos it has to offer.
POSTSCRIPT, APRIL 2016: Watching this film again after the sad news of Prince's death, I largely agree with the above review. In fact, I may have even been a little too hard on it, and I've given it an extra point. I didn't even mention "Wrecka Stow". The critics hated it, but watched with the right frame of mind it can be quite fun, even if some of the electronic score jars with the mood. In hindsight, I realise I was completely wrong about suggesting that Prince couldn't be a gigolo in reality, in real life being attractive to a great number of women. One of the last shots in this movie is a note written by Christopher Tracy (Prince) which reads "without love, there is no death". Of all of his movies, this one now becomes the most poignant and oddly prophetic. Sometimes It Snows In April. Yes, it does indeed.
Never as bad as the reviews would have you believe, Prince is actually quite personable in his role as Christopher Tracy and pulls off, to my mind, a competent performance. Although the black and white cinematography wasn't intentional, it does come to good effect as he uses his expressive face to homage one or two licks from the silent comedy era. He's especially good when playing opposite Jerome Benton, one of his Time proteges, and, for the purposes of this film at least, a member of The Revolution. Benton again puts in a good performance as his half-brother, Tricky.
Christopher and Tricky are jive talking gigolos, scamming money out of rich women with the promise of marriage. If the idea of Prince becoming a highly-desired gigolo is stretching the imagination, then we excepted it for the even more, er... unconventional looking... Woody Allen. And this was a role Prince was to hold in real life; becoming engaged to Kim Basinger just four years after this film was made. What fails to make the set up convincing is that Christopher's latest target – Mary – has no real on screen rapport with the star. Kristin Scott Thomas is now an enviably famous actress, The English Patient, The Horse Whisperer and Mission: Impossible just three of the films to her name. Rather a surprise then, that for this, her first film, she looks beautiful but undeniably uncomfortable. This is possibly the major factor as to why something in the picture doesn't quite gel.
But if Prince's acting wasn't to blame, then what was? Certainly, the storyline, for the genre, takes precedence, Prince only singing on screen three times. (And of those occasions, one is merely humming along to his song on the radio, the other an end titles sequence of the superb "Mountains") Mary Lambert, a pop video director, was originally slated to direct, but the 27-year-old's ambition urged him to take up the reins. Again, direction is adequate, utilising many of the respected Hollywood techniques of the previous five decades. Yet there's the nagging feeling that he's not quite put himself in there, he's merely copying the riffs of those who went before him, with none of his own style. As a result it can look a little flat, although the Paris filming is pleasant on the eye.
Ultimately, though, the film holds no real compulsion for the audience, and there's never truly a moment when you believe the events of the film are real. As for the soundtrack, "Parade" was, fortunately, one of the half dozen or so greatest albums the artist produced, taking its lead from the film with a chic monochrome cover. I'm a huge of Prince's work and hold out for the day when he may make a serious comeback after a series of lacklustre late-90s albums. As a result, I'm glad I saw the movie, though I probably wouldn't watch it a second time. Instead I'd put on the CD and relax to the irresistibly funky electropop and searing falsettos it has to offer.
POSTSCRIPT, APRIL 2016: Watching this film again after the sad news of Prince's death, I largely agree with the above review. In fact, I may have even been a little too hard on it, and I've given it an extra point. I didn't even mention "Wrecka Stow". The critics hated it, but watched with the right frame of mind it can be quite fun, even if some of the electronic score jars with the mood. In hindsight, I realise I was completely wrong about suggesting that Prince couldn't be a gigolo in reality, in real life being attractive to a great number of women. One of the last shots in this movie is a note written by Christopher Tracy (Prince) which reads "without love, there is no death". Of all of his movies, this one now becomes the most poignant and oddly prophetic. Sometimes It Snows In April. Yes, it does indeed.
