American musical film from 1984 starring Prince. A young man with a great talent for music starts a band together with the singer Apollonia, but he discovers that he needs more than just talent. He loses Apollonia to a competing singer (Morris Day) and threatens to follow his self-destructive father.
Pruple Rain was written and created by director Albert Magnoli and is more like a feature-length music video than a conventional film. The film won an Oscar at the time for the best soundtrack from the album of the same name “Purple Rain” by Prince and the Revolution. The film was originally supposed to star Prince’s then-girlfriend Vanity (Denise Matthews), but that relationship ended. After the role was first offered to Jennifer Beals, it eventually went to Apollonia Kotero.
There was a lot of criticism of the rather poor story, but a lot of praise for the beautiful music, such as the songs ‘Purple Rain’, ‘I Would Die 4 U’ and ‘Baby I’m A Star’.
After the film screening, Tilburg pop journalist Paul Geerts talks to some early Prince experts.