I was just looking at Prince information on imdb.com and it says that Albert Magnoli replaced Prince as the director of Sign of the Times! I had never heard this before...is this common knowledge?

It makes sense, because I was watching Purple Rain and was marveling at how good the concert footage was. Sign of the Times was shot wonderfully as well, and it always seemed strange that Prince could do such a great job with it. But mabye he didn't and we can partly thank Albert Magnoli for that film and showing Prince at his best.

I would think that Per Nilsen would have covered this in one of his books. Can anyone elaborate on how Prince was "replaced" if you have any further details?

Here's the imdb link:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0536299/

Nope, he replaced Prince as the main actor.

albert magnoli came in uncredited to help with the studio shoots for the "concert" film. Prince should work with him again! Magnoli seems to know how to work with prince.

Pellwormer said:

I thought that was Ray or Ralph fiennes.No,that was in P Rain.Kato Kailin replaced Prince in UTCM and that was David Blaine and Craig David in GB.Prince only showed up for 1 day of shooting and was acting all seditty so,they canned his preening ass.

No wonder the 'SOTT' concert film is so brilliant
[This message was edited Mon Dec 22 2:42:34 PST 2003 by DavidEye]

rockwilder said:

Wasn't it Chaplin in 'Cherry moon'?

DavidEye said:

... I don't think it's brilliant. It could have been brilliant if ...

it was really live, without the playback parts
it was one complete concert
there were no idiot studio-shoots
if he didn't bring the annoying crystal ball
if the crowd was real
if it wasn't (partly) sped up

Yes .. I know that a lot of fans don't care about this ...
but it is really fucked up!!

the fottage from 'Hot thing' and '4ever in my life' will always be amongst my fave filmed moments. Love the danceing in Hot thing.

ThataintFunky said:

wow,is there anything about the film that you DO like?

DavidEye said:

The parts which are real live recordings (at least, where I get the feeling it’s live)
they are great ...
But anyone has to admit it’s a lousy concert-registration, with a flat soundquality.

Yesterday I watched the Birthday Parade CD-Rom once more ...
That’s a great concert-registration ...
Indeed, it’s incomplete too, but great!

which part did you find "partly sped up"?

ThataintFunky said:

ufoclub said:

It's gonna be a Beautiful Night ...

Most european official released video versions are totally sped up. I even saw a movie-theatre version sped up.
Moonrakers "Wonderboy" is taken from a video-version and is sped-up.

But I have the feeling that "It's gonna be a Beautiful Night" is even sped up in the right version. This song is sped up on purpose.
Yes ... in the versions which are totally sped up this song sounds like the Chipmunks ...

I have the store bought ntsc VHS and japanese laserdisc, and I don't remember it being sped up... let me check it out..

ThataintFunky said:

How could any Prince fans not like the SOTT movie? That's almost as inconceivable as not liking the SOTT album, for god's sake. That movie kicked ass...just I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man was worth the price of admission alone. When Prince gets on top of that speaker, it just kills me. Hot Thing was pretty memorable as well. I think I saw this 3 or 4 times when it was in the theater...a totally kickass experience.

ufoclub said:

The Brazilian DVD isn't sped-up and my taped television-copy isn't sped-up ... but still, it's fake.
Especially "Hot Thing" is lip-Synched.

I've spend a lot of money on the official WB-video (english version) ... and the soundquality is lousy, and indeed ... sped-up.

Why don't orgers love the real live video's:
Prince & the Revolution Live
Parade birthday gig
LoveSexy Live ...

they exceed SOTT easily ... which is fake

it is not necessarily lip synched. it is a combination of different concerts edited together with live recordings. the thing that makes it look weird is that sometimes the video and audio are out of synch with each other. this is a result of the post production.

TonyC said:

Yes, true, but I can only take about so much of Cat.

thataintfunky said:

comeon said:

yes ... I had a feeling that this could be the problem ...
but what you're saying is that a bunch of amateurs did the post production ... Prince himself?

But I'm still surprised that most orgers don't mind ...
They did a lousy job on this "movie".
It would be great if it would be released on DVD without the post-production ...
Sign of the Times ... the director's cut
with the complete Rotterdam show without all the nonsense ...

come on ... someone has to agree with me ... or are all you guys blind followers of the new god??

ThataintFunky said:

Dang, do u ever like anything? I know there are some things that are a little tacky about it, but overall it is great. I guess u can't please everybody!?!?!?

ThataintFunky said:

Prince and the Revolution Live and the others are wonderful Live videos, but looking at them in retrospect, they get boring in parts. To me, Prince and the Revolution Live kind of sags in the middle. I have watched this video over and over again and I still manage to fall asleep during the "God" part and wake up during Baby I'm A Star.

daPrettyman said:

Yes ... I love almost everything our man did 'till 1989 ...
but indeed ... not everything.

The SOTT tour was brilliant, and it deserve a better registration than this movie

daPrettyman said:

Indeed ... the part after "possesed" untill "Computer Blue" ... boring on your television screen / cd-player.
Yankee Doodle isn't great neither.

But it isn't added in the post-production, this is how it really was.

ThataintFunky said:

What happened after 89? Most left after 96 and Emancipation when the FREEDOM started.

I feel where u r coming from on SOTT. I do like the movie, but I have seen boots of the show and it was one of his best. Man, I wish he could manage 2 do a show like that again. He could if he would leave Larry alone.

ThataintFunky said:

I partially agree with this, but I also think that prince is somewhat like that at times live, so with that in mind I don't think it's too fucked up. Plus it is fun to watch and think that a performance can be cool like that. It was pretty influential of a film to me when I saw it as far as live performance goes...

ThataintFunky said:

Yes, Yankee Doodle should have never been apart of his show. It seems 2 me that this was his 1st BIG show where he was selling out arenas. I think he didn't know what 2 do, so he came up with a Purple Rain Theatrical and it didn't completely work. By the time he did SOTT, he had figured it out.