i put on 'under the cherry moon' the other night there...i havent watched it in many years...just felt like revisting it....

my thoughts after watching it... ...its a vanity project by prince...no doubt about that...he made it off the back of a hugely sucessful first movie and album...he was one of the biggest selling artists in the world ...but it was a big mistake by warners to give him almost complete control over it...he just wasnt or isnt accomplished enough to make a cinematic movie....the acting is pretty bad by most of the cast and prince hams it up throughout...i didnt really find it funny throughout but it can be amusing in parts...

the story is very weak and very little of the film compares to purple rain..the good things in the movie...i thought ...are kristen scott thomas...who shows she is a very good actress throughout the movie..and jerome benton..who looks a natural in front of the camera....

the movie has a certain charm but..overall...it wasnt very good and...even the music...which was great...doesnt really shine here in the movie...most of it is used as incidental background music and is wasted...

so..there you have it...under the cherry moon...

i started watching graffiti bridge as well but i couldnt make it past the first ten minutes

please dont ask me to review it...

I was watching Unde The Cherry Moon yesterday.

They just put it in my Netflix.

I couldn't sit through half of it.

That movie is just bad...

Acting is horrendous

Just seemed self indulgent to make that movie.

I agree,the acting is terrible and I think the storyline is absurd and not very realistic.But the film has some very funny scenes throughout.My main gripe is that the film is in black and white.

There's a good movie in there somewhere trying to get out.

I think you really have to 'get' Prince's humour because I've seen it with non-fans/casual fans and they really just did not get any of it at all, like the funny scenes (or alledged funny scenes!) - they just didn't get Prince's facial expressions and little sayings - and I think if you don't get the humour in Prince's music, you're basically f*cked for seeing the humour in the movie.

I actually like it a lot, but I agree it's a totally botched, thoroughbred vanity project.

I get why its in black and white.

Prince was obviously emulating the works of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.

So I understand the campiness of the film

Problem is...

Prince can't act

And he can't direct.

If he would of gave it to a different director, the film would probably been better.

The cinematography was gorgeous, but thats mostly because of Michael Ballhaus, whose amazing.

Works with Scorsese.

But outside of that

the film is terrible.

My main gripe with the film is authenticity.

If you're going to make a B&W film, Parade shouldn't have been used to score certain scenes.

It just didn't jibe with the movie.

I always thought Prince should've of kept the european styled slow ragtime piano music he opened with.

I agree it is totally a vanity project and the narcissim of it is pretty off putting IMO.

Still there are some cool bits, the interplay with Jerome, love the bath scene with the strings and the Love or Money part.

Interestingly although released in Black and White it was actually shot in Colour, Warners insisted on it in case it didn't go down well in B&W on test screenings. So somewhere in a vault somewhere is a full colour version....

[Edited 8/31/11 5:52am]

TheFreakerFantastic said:

I agree it is totally a vanity project and the narcissim of it is pretty off putting IMO.

Still there are some cool bits, the interplay with Jerome, love the bath scene with the strings and the Love or Money part.

Interestingly although released in Black and White it was actually shot in Colour, Warners insisted on it in case it didn't go down well in B&W on test screenings. So somewhere in a vault somewhere is a full colour version....

I wish they would release the color version! Maybe as a bonus disc with the regular version.

SoulAlive said:

I wish they would release the color version! Maybe as a bonus disc with the regular version.

Whilst it would be good to see the colour version if it still exists (I remember rumours years and years ago that it was circulating, but nothing came of it) - I wish they had actually shot it in B&W, as transferring from colour to B&W really gives it a cheap, made for TV look.

^ Yes also its much harder to shoot a B&W on Colour as the lighting has to be totally different, so not sure how they got round that issue, perhaps the Colour version's lighting would look odd.

SoulAlive...love those colour pics!!

The movie starts with a bang with that gorgeous B&W cinematography, the beautiful french coast locations and the CT's Parade theme, but the rest of the movie is a mess, with no real sympathetic characters, goofy acting and a story that could have been better (even intriguing) with a real/professional director/script...

still, it is a weird vanity project so I don't shit on the movie, it's not awful like GB...

^ To give GB credit though it had a good moral message while UTCM didn't have much of a message to me...

GB was let down by dodgy script, corny acting at times and poor set, it would have been better shot in the real streets of Minny.

[Edited 8/31/11 8:19am]

I watched it for the first time a couple of months ago.

The first 20 or 30 minutes I found quite painful and if it wasn't a Prince film and I hadn't just bought the DVD, I would have switched it off, but then, I started to think maybe it's meant to be a spoof and after that I kinda enjoyed it, laughing "at it" rather more than "with it".

If it wasn't meant to be a spoof.... oh dear...

I also watched Graffiti Bridge recently.. nothing much positive to say about that....

TheFreakerFantastic said:

^ To give GB credit though it had a good moral message while UTCM didn't have much of a message to me...

GB was let down by dodgy script, corny acting at times and poor set, it would have been better shot in the real streets of Minny.

[Edited 8/31/11 8:19am]

Purple Rain was deeper than both movies put together.

And Prince in his post PR attitude thought the next movie was going to be meaningful

Purple Rain was full of real life issues that a lot of people were able to quickly and easily identify with

from Mixed race people, to people in abusive relationships, friend struggling to make relationship & business work, romantic relationship issues, people struggling with selfishness and being better people etc

Seemed like alot of fun.

OldFriends4Sale said:

TheFreakerFantastic said:

^ To give GB credit though it had a good moral message while UTCM didn't have much of a message to me...

GB was let down by dodgy script, corny acting at times and poor set, it would have been better shot in the real streets of Minny.

[Edited 8/31/11 8:19am]

Purple Rain was deeper than both movies put together.

And Prince in his post PR attitude thought the next movie was going to be meaningful

Purple Rain was full of real life issues that a lot of people were able to quickly and easily identify with

from Mixed race people, to people in abusive relationships, friend struggling to make relationship & business work, romantic relationship issues, people struggling with selfishness and being better people etc

I agree. PR is very good but I find it quite painful to watch, its quite harrowing in a lot of bits. When i first saw it I felt quite 'heavy' afterwards

Okay. I'll say it...

I LOVE UTCM!! I always have. And, back in the day, every Prince fan I met liked it better than Purple Rain...

The movie is hilarious! I guess I get Prince's humor because it makes me laugh my ass off. Jerome is perfect in it. I always took the movie as a comedy, even though, I've often felt that it wasn't meant to be. So, in that respect it may be a failure, but, if so, it's a wonderful and fun failure.

GB's only saving grace is the humor and the music. Yes. I said it. The music. I like the music of Grafitti Bridge. And, Morris & Jerome are pretty funny.

Purple Rain is great, and obviously the only "classic" in the bunch, but, I have more fun watching UTCM. It's more of a "cult classic" in my view.

Under the Cherry Moon ain't his best movie (Purple Rain is, of course), but it's my favourite. I like being taken away to that beautiful/goofy fantasy world (as opposed to, say, the tacky dinner-theatre-musical world of Graffiti Bridge).

This movie is terrible. Not as bad as GB, but an awful, awful follow up to Purple Rain. I was as big a nutswinger as, lets say, Tyler back then - honestly thought he could do no wrong - and within 20 minutes I knew this would tank. Cause it sucked. Too many yes men in his life.

Great music though.

djThunderfunk said:

Okay. I'll say it...

I LOVE UTCM!! I always have. And, back in the day, every Prince fan I met liked it better than Purple Rain...

The movie is hilarious! I guess I get Prince's humor because it makes me laugh my ass off. Jerome is perfect in it. I always took the movie as a comedy, even though, I've often felt that it wasn't meant to be. So, in that respect it may be a failure, but, if so, it's a wonderful and fun failure.

GB's only saving grace is the humor and the music. Yes. I said it. The music. I like the music of Grafitti Bridge. And, Morris & Jerome are pretty funny.

Purple Rain is great, and obviously the only "classic" in the bunch, but, I have more fun watching UTCM. It's more of a "cult classic" in my view.

And I do agree! I feel the humor and purpose of it! Haha...I mean Look At this:

CLASSIC!

UTCM is my favorite Prince movie...but I totally understand why it was panned.

And I agree with what someone said earlier...when it first dropped, EVERY Prince fan I knew liked it better than Purple Rain.

after seeing this film and 'GB',I think it's clear that Prince is not a director I wonder how both of these movies would have turned out if Prince had used a skilled director?

that was a badass petticoat he wore at the party doe

planet rock, ya just dont stop

djThunderfunk said:

Okay. I'll say it...

I LOVE UTCM!! I always have. And, back in the day, every Prince fan I met liked it better than Purple Rain...

The movie is hilarious! I guess I get Prince's humor because it makes me laugh my ass off. Jerome is perfect in it. I always took the movie as a comedy, even though, I've often felt that it wasn't meant to be. So, in that respect it may be a failure, but, if so, it's a wonderful and fun failure.

GB's only saving grace is the humor and the music. Yes. I said it. The music. I like the music of Grafitti Bridge. And, Morris & Jerome are pretty funny.

Purple Rain is great, and obviously the only "classic" in the bunch, but, I have more fun watching UTCM. It's more of a "cult classic" in my view.

Agree and I also love it...now. I remember at the time when a non-Prince fan watched the movie with me, it was sometimes embarrising how Prince over-acted in some scenes.

But a fun movie really!

Love UTCM. Its so funny, looks fantastic, and, of course, the music's great. I remember alot of critics saying that it was very narcissistic, but thats the whole point; he plays a very vain person who then finds true love. He basically plays a gigolo for gods sake!

Under The Cherry Moon is so FUN! I love this movie. I remember attending the 1st screening back in '86...couldn't wait for it! I watched my recorded TV trailer commercials over and over in anticipation of the movie release! When the film started then ended I remember being blown away becuase I didn't know what to think. It was NOT Purple rain but it was whimsical, quirky, fun, beautiful, funky and strange. I stayed in the theater and watched it 2 more times and just loved it. Once I bought my $99.00 copy on VHS (yes owning new movies, without copying, were that expensive in the early to mid 80's) I watched it over and over! The music was simply magical for me and the movie was the icing on the cake for the Parade album. I film is what it is and I love it for that.

"Wrecka Stow!"

TheFreakerFantastic said:

I agree it is totally a vanity project and the narcissim of it is pretty off putting IMO.

Still there are some cool bits, the interplay with Jerome, love the bath scene with the strings and the Love or Money part.

Interestingly although released in Black and White it was actually shot in Colour, Warners insisted on it in case it didn't go down well in B&W on test screenings. So somewhere in a vault somewhere is a full colour version....

[Edited 8/31/11 5:52am]

I would give my right arm to get that color version. I bet its beautiful - especially the panoramic scenes of France. That probably wont see the light of day until Prince is dead. And it still might not then.

Under the Cherry Moon isn't great filmmaking, by any stretch of the imagination. But that man was some amazing eye candy back in the day.

I like UTCM too. Love Prince's sense of humor, even the hilarious kissing scenes (those were supposed to be funny, right? ). I have to be in the mood when I pop this one in, but i do enjoy it. And yes Genesia, he was sweet, mouth watering eye candy way back then.

runawayslave said:

TheFreakerFantastic said:

I agree it is totally a vanity project and the narcissim of it is pretty off putting IMO.

Still there are some cool bits, the interplay with Jerome, love the bath scene with the strings and the Love or Money part.

Interestingly although released in Black and White it was actually shot in Colour, Warners insisted on it in case it didn't go down well in B&W on test screenings. So somewhere in a vault somewhere is a full colour version....

[Edited 8/31/11 5:52am]

I would give my right arm to get that color version. I bet its beautiful - especially the panoramic scenes of France. That probably wont see the light of day until Prince is dead. And it still might not then.

Well those colour pictures above are beautiful...its cool to see that Paisley suit Prince wears is actually Purple, in B&W you can't tell.

Still, I think it would be VERY unlikely it would ever be released in colour as B and W was the whole intention behind the film, unless a bootlegger manages to get hold of it!

Another way is if someone has that expensive equipment that can convert B and W to Colour...using computers.