Under the Cherry Moon

Infobox_Film
name = Under the Cherry Moon


caption = Theatrical release poster
imdb_id = 0092133
writer = Becky Johnston
starring = Prince
Jerome Benton
Kristin Scott Thomas
Steven Berkoff
music = Prince and The Revolution
director = Prince
producer = Cavallo, Ruffalo and Fargnoli
distributor = Warner Bros.
released = July 2, 1986
runtime = 98 min.
awards = N/A
language = English
country = United States
budget = ~$12M

"Under the Cherry Moon" is a 1986 movie directed by and starring Prince as a gigolo named Christopher Tracy and Time member Jerome Benton as his partner, Tricky . Together the pair swindle beautiful French women. The situation gets complicated when Christopher falls in love with heiress Mary Sharon (Kristin Scott Thomas) after planning to swindle her when he finds out that she receives a $50 million trust fund on her 21st birthday. Mary's father Isaac (Steven Berkoff) disapproves of the romance and provides an excellent adversary for Tracy.

Release

The movie was released in processed black-and-white but was filmed in color. It was filmed on location in and around Nice, France, partly to ensure that there was good weather for filming and also to ensure that Prince was free of American film unions. The movie attempts to combine different styles and themes, including a musical, romantic comedy and drama. The film's soundtrack album, "Parade", was generally received much better (particularly in Europe) than the film itself, and featured the hit single "Kiss".

Critiques

At the time of its release in 1986, many critics were expecting, in one form or another, a direct sequel to "Purple Rain". However, barring a performance of "Girls & Boys" by Prince in a French restaurant, most of the soundtrack remains as background music, thus shaving much commercial potential off the film. The majority of critics were unimpressed, citing Prince as a self-indulgent egomaniac, although there was praise for the film's cinematography by Michael Ballhaus, a favorite of Martin Scorsese ("Age of Innocence", "Gangs of New York").

Directing

The film was originally slated to be directed by Mary Lambert, the director behind some of Madonna's most famous music videos, but after disagreements about the film's direction, Prince took over directing. Lambert was said to have a "Hollywood" attitude, shooting scenes while sitting by the pool on the phone, giving no attention to the actors trying to act out a scene. She was credited only as a creative consultant in the movie's credits. Much of her input was disregarded and numerous drafts of the screenplay exist to show the revisions the story went through. It's a good assumption that had Lambert stayed on and focused on the film, the commercial appeal and story line might not have suffered under Prince's often one-take approach to filming a scene. This lack of direction shows in scenes like the conga scene at Mary's birthday party, as an example.

Cast

The cast was also changed during pre-production. Isaac Sharon was originally slated to be played by Terrance Stamp, although he didn't like the direction the film was going and eventually quit, replaced by Steven Berkoff. Emmanuelle Sallet who played Katie in the final version was originally included in a much smaller role, but had her part expanded after she met with Prince over dinner. Allegedly, the part of Mary's mother was also much larger, but was cut down in the final draft of the screenplay.

Filming

Filmed with a budget of about $12 million, "Under the Cherry Moon" failed to gain any breakout audience, despite much pre-publicity (including a special MTV premiere in Sheridan, Wyoming). It only just managed to make back $10,090,429 as the total US gross, and current figures (if VHS/DVD rentals and sales are included) stand at about $12.5 million. It was this commercial failure that only exasperated the already existing tensions and feud with Prince and Warner Brothers’ which began in 1981 when Warner Brothers refused to release a one-off single called "Let's Dance". Prince later reworked it as "Let's Work" on the "Controversy" album.

In retrospect it is easy to see the influences that Prince used to construct his failed comedy pastiche. From Fellini's "8 1/2" (Prince has made reference to viewing Fellini films in lyrics such as "The Good Life") to the slapstick humor of Abbott and Costello (the sequence involving the ladder, the telephone call from Mary to Christopher), Prince's intentions went over the heads of teenage audiences and the film was a disaster, although like most quirky bad films, it does have a cult following. The film is very camp. Roger Ebert has stated "I understand what he was trying to do." - "At The Movies" television show. On the same show, his then partner Gene Siskel said, "It looks as though Prince is trying to combine a Fred Astaire movie with a perfume commercial." The problem it would seem is that his idea was not a commercial one.

ee also

*"Parade", soundtrack to "Under the Cherry Moon"

External links

* [http://jabootu.net/?p=701 Review] at Jabootu's Bad Movie Dimension