The film career of musician Prince is seldom discussed, so here’s Cameron’s look back at movies such as Purple Rain and Sign O’ The Times…
Friday night on BBC Four in the UK sees the rare broadcast of a documentary on the musician Prince. Though the doc itself barely mentions his film oeuvre (mind you, not many people do), I wanted to take a look at the Purple One's erratic but nevertheless fascinating movie career; a career which has earned him an Oscar, a Golden Globe, numerous Razzies and involved some pretty talented people (and some not so).
Purple Rain (1984)
Although the common perception of Prince's first film was that of a turkey (in the UK at least), Purple Rain was a huge success in the US. Not only that, its success was propelled by the repeat custom where, for want of a better phrase, the youngsters were coming back time and again to watch the film in theatres, enjoying it like a gig.
The film itself is a tight production that was well aware of the acting limitations of the musicians involved. Prince himself is monosyllabic and "mysterious" but pulls it off with his mind-boggingly charisma-fuelled stage renditions of tracks such as Let's Go Crazy and Darling Nikki and every dart of his doe-like eyes.
Of course, the burgeoning appeal of MTV and the music video surely helped with the film's success (When Doves Cry seemed to be on constant repeat in the mid-80s) but the broad appeal of the story - rival groups, a smattering of comedy, disgruntled band members and love (not to mention sex), saw Purple Rain hit the jackpot.
Looking back, it's a product of its time. Though it proudly wore its sexuality and racial blending (with casual abandon, rightly never addressing it, and just rolling with it), Purple Rain reeks of the 80s era much in the same way Weird Science and St Elmo's Fire do. And, to be honest, that's fine with me. A snapshot of the decade through the eyes of the man that was always ahead of the game (in those days, anyway), the film still has a power to admire.
Fact fans, and cynics, may want to note that the film took in almost ten times as much as it cost to produce, won an Oscar, and the accompanying album is still the world's biggest selling soundtrack. Not a bad achievement at all.
Not content with his own films, in 1989 Prince also gave us the soundtrack for Tim Burton's Batman (not the score, it should be added), notching up even more hit singles with tunes like Batdance (featuring heavy use of dialogue and sounds from the film – a most unusual pop single at the time) and Partyman. Ever the giver, he also supplied some new songs (and some oldies) for Spike Lee's mess Girl 6 (notable for cameos from Madonna, Quentin Tarantino and Halle Berry).
The song Movie Star features Prince comically lamenting, "Man, I hate making movies. But I like that money." Well, the money certainly dried up on the celluloid front and, with more than 20 years since his last film, it would appear that the movie bug has truly left him.
In the short space of six years, Prince starred in four films, directed three and produced a string of multi-million selling albums (as well as doing his day job of musical genius and performing world tours). A noteworthy film career at least, no?
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