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The Rocky Horror Picture Show - Édition Collector 2 DVD

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Voila sans doute un film qui peinera a trouver son public. Soit on est fan, soit on deteste! L'echec du film a sa sortie en est la preuve, ce film est très particulier. Entre comédie musicale, film fantastique (ou de science fiction) et histoire d'amour, un film aux costumes très glam (comme le fut Bowie, The Sweet, T-Rex, etc), y compris sur l'ambiguité sexuelle, musicalement branché rock'n roll, et un moment de cinéma unique.
Entre le dejanté Tim Curry, la jeunesse et l'innoncence de Susan Sarandon, et les autres acteurs tous aussi excellents, la musicalité parfaite, le coté kitch, tout est techniquement parfait.
Reste juste, pour nous, jeune public actuel, de se laisser emporter par l'esprit delirant du film.
Note utile, coté bonus, on est servi (2DVD), mais le film est en VOST uniquement.

c'est un de mes films favoris
je l'avais en k7 mais il a finis par ne plus etre lisible car trop de fois regarder
j'aime le faire passer .
j'avais par plaisir de le voir a paris dans une petite salle ou l'ont se retrouvais
entre inconditionnels
merci

Délirant, fou, déjanté... Les mots manquent pour qualifier cet ovni du 7e art, qui se situe au carrefour de la comédie musicale, de la parodie et de la série Z. Il faut le voir pour le croire : sexy, érotique (osé pour l'époque !), sanglant (un peu) et truffé d'idées loufoques (aahh, le petit Rocky et son slip doré !) et de chansons inoubliables. La B.O. est exquise, tout comme la composition de Tim Curry, follement sensuel en transexuel transylvanien, quant à Barry Bostwick et Susan Sarandon, ils s'en donnent à coeur joie dans le rôle du couple candide et naïf, limite idiot ! Après avoir vu ce film, sûr que vous aurez envie vous aussi de faire le "Time Warp" ! Le DVD est un plaisir pour les fans : nombreux bonus géniaux (la version enregistrement public est impressionnante) dont deux karaokés qui vous feront passer des soirées très... folles !

I happen to have seen the original theatrical show in London in the 1970s before ever discovering the film, on VHS first and then on DVD. This is indispensible to understand the new dimension given to the show on this medium, a filmed show on DVD.

The show itself is a myth and the plot is known by heart. Some Extra-Terrestrials came on Earth with their spacecraft in the shape of an old medieval castle that is in fact a laboratory. The master of the place is Dr Frank-N-Furter and he is a re-composition of the never decomposed or decomposing Dr Frankenstein. He studies one emotion known as lust and being an extra-terrestrial he knows no limits.

A young couple going on a trip to visit a professor of theirs, Dr Everett V. Scott as a sort of celebration of their engagement have a car breakdown in the night in a fierce storm. They decide to knock at the door of the castle they see and they get into the ET lab. After many incidents, detours and other adventures in this labyrinthine castle, they will both be initiated to sex by and with Dr Frank-N-Furter. But Dr Everett V. Scott arrives in a wheelchair and kind of saves the situation by explaining us and them what it is all about. At this time the main servants of the castle/spacecraft decide to go back to their planet Transylvania leaving behind Dr Frank-N-Furter dead but his creation Rocky Horror runs after his body and takes it away: he is in love with his maker and he is immune against the laser weapons of the ETs.

The three humans, Dr Everett V. Scott, Brad Majors and Janet Weiss manage to get out of the castle before take off and end up the show in the mud. Brad concludes that "inside he is still bleeding", Janet that "the beast is still feeding", and the storyteller that "on earth some insects call the human race lost in time, lost in space and the meaning."

The show was not erotic but sexy. The film is the same sexy but not erotic. Yet it is a comedy that plays on sexually ambiguous situations, on words tremendously and on all kinds of strange costumes, effects, lightings, music. The proportion of music, singing and dancing is enormous. It is an entertaining story with a slightly titillating content.

Now the DVD, which is the film, made and still makes this play a success beyond the theatres where it was performed.

Apart from the opening wedding scene the whole film systematically keeps a distance from real cinema. It is not a play per se, far from it, but it is not a film either. It is somewhere in-between the two and that's the interest of the film itself over the play.

The first element that is obvious is the filming on location for outside scenes and when it is filmed in a studio the set is that of an extremely vast castle, at least that's what they want us to believe and that vastness is emphasized by the long "travelling" of Dr Everett V. Scott in his wheelchair to come to, or be brought to the laboratory. But there are some other scenes that amplify this vast dimension; The action itself takes place in various rooms and these rooms are big and large enough to entertain a dancing body of twenty people or so. You cannot get that effect on a stage. Including several motorcycles and cars, one motorcycle in the main room of the castle too, running and smoking.

The special effects are numerous and all add something to what a stage play would be. Sound and visual effects create the storm and the suspense necessary for the evocation of fear and danger. But there are other special effects that are more subtle and less visible. Yet without them many scenes would be flat. The main visible element in that line is the constantly changing camera shooting angle and probably camera too, and the editing that emphasizes this whirling effect by cutting and pasting small sequences one after the other of the same scene all from different angles. Then you have a lot of smoke, artefacts of all sports, the apparition of a swimming pool where you had not seen it, the falling down of the radio tower of the RKO Radio Picture logo when Rocky Horror and Dr Frank-N-Furter try to climb on it to escape Riff Raff and his sister Magenta, the ET masters of the spacecraft.

Of course we must also think of the special effects needed to turn someone who is dressed into an entirely nude stone statue. That is both special effect and editing. And there are many instances present giving to the film a speed that it could not have on a stage and at the same time an intensity of action and peripeteia that would also be difficult on the stage.

Finally along that line the use of TV screens to put people under surveillance is possible and frequent in the film because of the close-up shots on them that enable us to see what is on the screen, like for example Brad being sexually served by Dr Frank-N-Furter, which Janet will eventually see on the screen, though after the act itself. The film enables us to see these moments which would have been awkward on the stage, or plainly invisible.

The last remarkable element that the DVD and film provides is the storyteller, called in the credits the criminologist, in a private library in a completely different place and atmosphere. That trick is rarely used in films, certainly not that often, at least eight times in the present case. He explains and creates a perspective, which forces us to listen and think a little bit to understand the craziness of the situation.

That provides us with an important question about this film-DVD. The spectator is no longer confronted to a frontal and unmoving picture, but to a fast changing whirling visual spectacle. The music and the singing make it auditory too and the songs have to be understood, which means sung in a certain way which is easier on the screen than on stage since there is no distance between the actor and the mike in the post-production studio. The words are extremely important in the rhyming patterns, the rhythmic patterns and all types of other linguistic means used to give allure, speed, whirling force to the language and that has to charm our ears as well as the visual show charms our eyes.

But at once these words imply a strong effort on our side to enjoy the meaning and there it also implies and requires a certain mental reflective distance on our side. Actually the fun of the situations and language demands that mental reflective distance. This is a common point between a stage production and a film. The original point here is that it is carried by the language as much as by the medium. Constantly the scenes keep such a distance from realistic action, even that of a cinematographic comedy. The acting, the speaking and the singing keep the film close to a stage production.

At the same time the film-DVD contains an appeal on the audience's side to project themselves into the film, into the action, and in a way to identify with some of the characters, though the identification cannot be with one character only because of the numerous ambiguous situations. But we can identify with Rocky Horror when he mourns his "father". We can identify with Janet and Brad when they accept sex from Dr Frank-N-Furter provided he does not tell the other: let's keep our lusty episodes for our own selves. We all have done that in life for numerous things and on numerous occasions. Secrets are the keys to peace at times between partners of any type.

Of course the main value of this DVD is the technical side of it. It can reach the whole world since it provides a great number of subtitles, ten languages plus English for the hearing impaired on the Zone 2 edition I have. And that is just the point. A musical in a theatre is always for a geographical and social elite, whereas a DVD for 3 or 4 euros or pounds is an affordable treat for everyone who understands English in the world and for everyone who speaks one of the languages provided by the subtitles. The DVD more than the VHS tape is a real revolution in the circulation, distribution and even exploitation of theatrical plays, musicals and operas, stage productions in one word including concerts.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

On ne se lasse pas de le revoir depuis 30 ans! Et mes enfants l'ont découvert avec ravissement!

Un film qu'il faut absolument voir au moins une fois dans sa vie au cinéma du vieux Châtelet à Paris où il est strictement interdit de reproduire le film dans la salle, "quelle belle rigolade", venez-y à la dernière séance de minuit.
Les grains de riz jonchent le sol ainsi que les gants de chirurgien, les cotillons et tout ce qui s'en suit.
La VHS c'était déjà génial, le DVD, que du bonheur.
Tous les artistes connus ou inconnus et qui le sont encore nous ont faits vibrer et délirer à nos 19 ans (j'en ai 48 aujourd'hui).
Bonus, si vous ne connaissez pas Meat Loaf chanteur, achetez n'importe lequel de ses albums sans hésiter (un fondu !).
Brad and Janet : heureusement que le portable n'existait pas à cette époque.
Rocky : ton short doré "moulebite" c'est celui que Kelly Minogue a utilisé plus tard.
Merci Mappa pour tes gants.
Les yeux fermés allez-y, courez, volez, et surtout si vous êtes perdus par temps de pluie, sonnez à la première maison...on ne sait jamais !

Dans les innombrables bonus que contient cette édition du ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, plusieurs protagonistes reviennent sur la genèse du projet. Quelques chansons écrites par Richard O'Brien, une vague intrigue, une pièce montée et jouée devant douze spectateurs, et puis un bouche à oreilles favorable, des salles plus grandes, une tournée internationale, et enfin, l'adaptation cinématographique. Adaptation qui a fait un flop, car l'objet filmé était plus qu'étrange, et surtout passé de mode (1974). Le film n'ayant rien coûté, les distributeurs ne dépensèrent pas un dollar pour sa promotion. Les exploitants de salles le gardaient de côté, pour palier à une déprogrammation, puis commencèrent à le passer le soir, la nuit, pour se faire quelques clients noctambules.

Ce sont ces clients-là qui ont fait la réputation du film, en venant maquillés, déguisés, récitant chaque rôle, chantant, dansant, et finalement, reproduisant le film devant l'écran, simultanément à la projection. Et ce dans toutes les villes qui programmaient le film. A Paris, le Studio Galande programme le RHPS une fois par semaine. Ce n'est donc pas seulement le film qui est "culte" mais le phénomène qui l'entoure...

Le film est une série Z assumée comme telle, reprenant le thème éculé des deux jeunes et ingénus promeneurs perdus un soir d'orage, et trouvant refuge dans un manoir grouillant de créatures excentriques et bizarres.

Les auteurs se sont amusés a replacé mille références dans leur film (le décor est un capharnaüm insensé !). Le réalisateur Jim Sharman en vient même a parler de BANDE A PART de JL Godard, pour une scène de danse. On peut y retrouver aussi VAMPYR de Carl Dreyer, ou LA FIANCEE DE FRANKESTEIN de James Whale (la coiffure de Magenta), les ballets aquatiques d'Esther Williams, le FOLAMOUR de Kubrick (le docteur Scott en fauteuil, qui retrouve la vigueur de ses gambettes !), BOULEVARD DU CREPUSCULE de Billy Wilder, et tout un tas de films d'horreur aux effets spéciaux fauchés qu'un Roger Corman n'aurait pas reniés !

On retiendra de cet hymne décadent à l'amour libre et à la tolérance, quelques grands moments musicaux, les lèvres rouges de "Science Fiction", ou la grandiose et classieuse entrée en scène de Franck N-Furter chantant "Sweet Transvestite", l'apparition de MeatLoaf en motard saxophoniste, ou le ballet final dans la piscine, devant le logo noir&blanc de la RKO...

Jouant sur le registre de la parodie, du détournement de cliché, ce film déjanté, soutenu pour une bande originale glam-rock de première qualité, supporte les années qui passent. Tim Curry y est fabuleux, et Susan Sarandon, en blonde ingénue se trimbalant en culotte blanche, est craquante. Et précisons que cette édition propose un film parfaitement remasterisé, des bonus et une interaction au top.

It was a cold and rainy night Brad and Janet, had a flat and needed to find shelter and a phone. There was a light. Unknown to them was the particular caste was a meeting place of a unique other worldly crowd. Soon they will have realized their mistake; but will it bee too late?

And where have all the actors gone?

Susan Sarandon from Janet Weiss to Jackie Harrison in "Stepmom" (1998).
She took her screen daughter to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Tim Curry (who likes to play doctor) from Doctor Frank-N-Furter to Dr. Thornton Poole in "Oscar" (1991).

Oscar is still available from amazon.co.uk

Barry Bostwick from Brad Majors to Det. Tucker Pendleton to himself in "Hollywood Squares" (1998) [TV-Series]

Meatloaf from Eddie to himself in "Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell" (1999)

Richard Milhouse Nixon from Himself (archive audio: resignation speech) to "Speeches of Richard Nixon, The (1995) (V)" (archive footage) he will always be with us.

And where is Denton now?
Do your homework and be sure to get these movies first:

Day the Earth Stood Still, The (1951)
Flash Gordon (1936)
Invisible Man, The (1933)
King Kong (1933)
It Came From Outer Space (1953)
Doctor X (1932)
Forbidden Planet (1956)
Tarantula (1955)
Day of the Triffids, The (1962)
Night of the Demon (1957)
When Worlds Collide (1951)
House in Nightmare Park, The (1973)
Reptile, The (1966)
Brides of Dracula, The (1960)
Man in Black, The (1949)
Night of the Demon (1957)
Forbidden Planet (1956)

First time or 100th time, have fun.

Pour les connaisseurs, c'est un incontournable; pour ceux qui découvrent, c'est l'étonnement assuré; grand moment du cinéma musical (excellente bande sonore); acteurs délirants (Tim Curry frôle la perfection, Susan Sarandon démontre sa veine comique sans paire...); mise en scène super soignée (à chaque fois je découvre de nouveaux détails qui étaient passés inaperçus...)
Bref, un bonheur pour amateurs de films musicaux et de shows délires !!

Film génial, le Rocky Horror Picture Show méritait un DVD à sa hauteur. C'est chose faite avec celui-ci.
L'histoire a beau être classique (le docteur Frankenstein pervertit un jeune couple), le fait de la traiter sur le ton d'une comédie musicale intemporelle et rock'n'roll est purement génial. A partir de ça et de beaucoup d'autres choses, le film devient inoubliable et donne envie de danser et de le revoir, encore et encore.
Sur le DVD, de nombreux bonus sont disponibles. S'ils ne sont pas indispensables pour savourer le film (sauf ceux concernant la "cérémonie" de visionnage de l'oeuvre, ainsi que les commentaires de Richard O'Brien), ils sont tout de même très réussis et nous mettent tout de suite dans l'ambiance.
Bref, un grand film et un grand DVD.