First up for this Sunday Slop Night is Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd (1957), starring Andy Griffith as a rabble-rousing country singer who works his fans into a reactionary frenzy with the help of greedy TV executives and advertisers looking to make a quick buck. Think Network, but 20 years earlier. It is currently ranked #243 on Letterboxd's Top 250 films of all time. After that, it's Brian de Palma's cult-classic rock opera, Phantom of the Paradise (1974), a modernized rock-opera version of Phantom of the Opera, featuring songs by Paul Williams. It is something of a companion piece to The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
We'll start at 9PM EST on Hextube, right here:
https://live.hexbear.net/c/movies
Be there, comrades!
Letterboxd:
- A Face in the Crowd: https://letterboxd.com/film/a-face-in-the-crowd/
- Phantom of the Paradise: https://letterboxd.com/film/phantom-of-the-paradise/
Doesthedogdie.com links:
- A Face in the Crowd: https://www.doesthedogdie.com/media/206068
- Phantom of the Paradise: https://www.doesthedogdie.com/media/13554
CWs for A Face in the Crowd:
- Alcohol abuse.
- Protagonist marries a 17-year-old girl.
- Cheating.
- Spitting.
- Suicidal ideation.
- Homophobic slurs.
- N-word.
- Age gap.
- Sad ending.
CWs for Phantom of the Paradise:
- Gaslighting.
- Stalking.
- Drug use.
- Drug addiction.
- Sexual assault: a woman is shown being groped by a man, who then climbs on top of her. The scene then ends without anything more shown.
- Head squashed.
- Eye mutilation.
- Torture.
- Tooth damage.
- Choking.
- Suicide.
- Shower scene.
- Blood.
- Violent mentally-ill person.
- Misophonia.
- Claustrophobia.
- Self-harm.
- Homophobia.
- Flashing lights.
- Shaky cam.
- Death of LGBT person.
- Racial slur against East Asian people.
- Fat jokes.
- A man wears a dress.
- Age gap.
- Sexual content, but no nudity or sex acts shown.
- Sexually-objectified female character.
- Honking car horn.
- Car explodes.
- Sad ending.
- Gun violence.
- Blood and gore.
Links to movies:
- A Face in the Crowd: https://vimeo.com/780136246
- Phantom of the Paradise: https://vimeo.com/802312510
It's amazing that A Face In The Crowd isn't better known in lefty circles. It predicted the shape of right-wing populism that would come to fruition with Rush Limbaugh and Trump. It also predicted Viagra.