The Beautiful One: Prince On-Screen

6 minute read

If you wanted to buy a Sam Cooke album, where would you go?

If you know the answer to that question, you’ve probably seen Prince’s glittering and hugely underappreciated directorial debut, one of only three features he directed in his all-too-short filmmaking career. In the 1986 Under the Cherry Moon, an ode to Hollywood glamour shot in plush, feathery black-and-white, Prince himself appeared as a pianist and hustler who falls for snooty rich girl Kristen Scott Thomas. At first, she’ll have nothing to do with him, and Prince, wounded, decides to get the better of her. At a fancy dinner, he writes the words “wrecka stow” on a napkin and asks her to read them aloud. She does, repeatedly, in her posh, plummy accent. (It doesn’t hurt that she’s wearing an elaborate beaded flapper headdress.) In her white-girl cluelessness, she’s sure it’s a nonsense phrase, and the more she says it, the funnier it gets. Prince and his scamming partner, played by Jerome Benton, destroy themselves laughing. It’s a moment of naughty joy, a triumph of knowledge over education, of taste over breeding, of style over affectation—but, good-natured at its heart, it’s also a moment of unifying anti-snobbery.

In that sense, it’s pure Prince.

Now that he’s gone, at the unthinkable age of 57, most of us who loved him—is it possible that includes just about everybody?—are desperately wishing we could have kept him longer, for more music, more live shows, more Victoriana-meets-male-go-go-dancer costumes. I want all of those things, too. But I also wish he’d left more movies. Under the Cherry Moon bombed upon its release, but it’s a gorgeous, funny, surreptitiously sophisticated picture, made with a pure and discriminating understanding of what ’30s romantic comedies were all about, including the need—it was much more than a desire—for lush, escapist fantasies. (In the Reagan ’80s, we needed those too.) The film was shot—beautifully, and by Martin Scorsese regular Michael Ballhaus—in lavish locales in the south of France and in Miami. Its gags were fleet and fluffy, rolling by like Rolls Royce-shaped clouds in the sky. It closed with a knockout musical number (“Mountains”), in which Prince, backed by The Revolution, appeared to be floating on a magic carpet in some imaginary Heaven. His costume consisted of side-button bell-bottoms, a miniaturized, midriff-bearing jacket and a gaucho hat tilted back, jauntily, on his head. He was a singing cowboy, a Fred Astaire, a dazzling spiritual cousin to sexpot Jean Harlow. This was a person who understood movies.

At the time, almost no one got it (then-Village Voice critic J. Hoberman was one of the few exceptions). Maybe now Under the Cherry Moon will get the life it always deserved. Prince directed only two other features, the stylish but messy Graffiti Bridge (1990), and the mad, visionary 1987 concert documentary Sign ‘o’ the Times. But he may be best remembered on film as the Kid in the 1984 dazzler Purple Rain, a stylized biopic rendering of his own life as a pop-music prodigy from a humble background, complete with squabbling parents. In Purple Rain, the Kid is a singer and musician struggling to make it big, thwarted at every turn by his arch-rival (played by the supremely likable Morris Day). He meets a girl he likes, an aspiring performer named Appolonia (Appolonia Kotero). They hit it off. He whisks her away from the city on his purple motorbike; they skim through an autumn wonderland of red and gold trees. She’s beautiful, but he may be more so, and cuter, too: When he smiles, you notice that his teeth are small and adorable, like a little kid’s teeth.

See Prince’s Life in Photos

Prince performs at the Bottom Line on Feb. 15, 1980 in New York City.
Prince performs at the Bottom Line on Feb. 15, 1980 in New York City. Waring Abbott—Getty Images
Prince performs on Saturday Night Live on Feb. 21, 1981.
Prince performs on Saturday Night Live on Feb. 21, 1981.Alan Singer—Getty Images
Prince performs onstage at the Palladium on Dec. 2, 1981 in New York City.
Prince performs onstage at the Palladium on Dec. 2, 1981 in New York City.Waring Abbott—Getty Images
Prince in 1982.
Prince in 1982.ullstein bild/Getty Images
Prince attends the premiere of Purple Rain on July 26, 1984 in Hollywood, Calif.
Prince attends the premiere of Purple Rain on July 26, 1984 in Hollywood, Calif.Ron Galella—Getty Images
Promotional still for Purple Rain.
Promotional still for Purple Rain, 1984.Warner Bros. Pictures
Prince in Under the Cherry Moon, 1986.
Prince in Under the Cherry Moon, 1986.Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection
Prince and the Revolution perform on Aug. 17, 1986 in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Prince and the Revolution perform on Aug. 17, 1986 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Rob Verhorst—Getty Images
Prince performs at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards on Sept. 5, 1991 in Los Angeles.
Prince performs at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards on Sept. 5, 1991 in Los Angeles. Frank Micelotta Archive—Getty Images
Prince Charles, right, talks with Prince, left, at the "Diamonds are Forever" celebration on June 9, 1999 in London.
Prince Charles, right, talks with Prince, left, at the "Diamonds are Forever" celebration on June 9, 1999 in London. Dave Hogan—AP
Beyoncé, right, and Prince perform at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 8, 2004 in Los Angeles.
Beyoncé, right, and Prince perform at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 8, 2004 in Los Angeles.Frank Micelotta—Getty Images
From left: Tom Petty, Dhani Harrison and Prince perform during The 19th Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in New York City on March 15, 2004. Prince was inducted into the Hall of Fame that evening.
From left: Tom Petty, Dhani Harrison and Prince perform during The 19th Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in New York City on March 15, 2004. Prince was inducted into the Hall of Fame that evening.Dimitrios Kambouris—Getty Images
PRINCE DIPrince arrives with his former wife Manuela Testolini for the 77th Academy Awards on Feb. 27, 2005 in Los Angeles.
Prince arrives with his former wife Manuela Testolini for the 77th Academy Awards on Feb. 27, 2005 in Los Angeles. Kevork Djansezian—AP
Prince performs during the American Idol Season 5 Finale on May 24, 2006 in Hollywood, Calif.
Prince performs during the American Idol Season 5 Finale on May 24, 2006 in Hollywood, Calif.Vince Bucci—Getty Images
Prince performs during half-time at Super Bowl XLI on February 4, 2007 in Miami, Fla.
Prince performs during half-time at Super Bowl XLI on February 4, 2007 in Miami, Fla.Roberto Schmidt—AFP/Getty Images
Prince performs during half-time at Super Bowl XLI on February 4, 2007 in Miami, Fla.
Prince performs during half-time at Super Bowl XLI on February 4, 2007 in Miami, Fla.Jonathan Daniel—Getty Images
Sheila E and Prince perform on June 1, 2007 in Pasadena, Calif.
Sheila E and Prince perform on June 1, 2007 in Pasadena, Calif.Kevin Winter—Getty Images
Prince with comedian Dave Chappelle at the 2007 NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 18, 2007 in Las Vegas.
Prince with comedian Dave Chappelle at the 2007 NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 18, 2007 in Las Vegas.Andrew D. Bernstein—Getty Images
Prince during the 2015 American Music Awards on Nov. 22, 2015 in Los Angeles.
Prince during the 2015 American Music Awards on Nov. 22, 2015 in Los Angeles.Jeff Kravitz—Getty Images

They make love; he gives her his earring. But her ambition gets in the way, and it hurts him. They fight, violently, and split up. Finally, and thankfully, they come together forever. In between there are songs, lots of them, including the luxuriant ballad “The Beautiful Ones,” which Prince begins (again, with The Revolution flanking him) at the piano, shrouded in purple mist. He’s wooing a girl he’s not yet sure of. He may be confident, but he’s not cocky, at least not now. When he gets to the line “You make me so confused/the beautiful ones, they always seem to lose,” his uncertainty takes the shape of a rippling falsetto run, a flutter of butterflies. He ends the song lying on his back, spent, because this is what love does to you.

One of the certainties of rock’n’roll is that when your beloved idols die, there’s always going to be someone older than you are, telling you how great so-and-so was back in the day, back when people found out about new music by listening to the radio, back when LPs weren’t a novelty item, as they are today, but something you saved for and cherished. Right now—and I apologize in advance—I’m going to be that person. In 1980, when he released his third LP, Dirty Mind, Prince was unlike anything or anyone we had seen or heard before—an heir to Al Green, to Hendrix, to Sly Stone, and yet so far beyond. I stared and stared at that cover: Just look at this fabulous guy, wearing an admiral’s jacket, a neckerchief, and black underpants, challenging the world with his eyes. But there was love in those eyes, too. They were—he was—a seduction from the beginning. I fell, as many, many others have fallen in the years since. The credits of Under the Cherry Moon end with a benediction: “love God may u live life 2 see the dawn.” A dirty mind can also be such a beautiful 1.

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