In Alan Parker's FAME, teenagers selected for New York City's High School for the Performing Arts push their talents to the limit to make it big in show business. This episodic tale follows savvy Coco (Irene Cara), timid Doris (Maureen Teefy), gay Montgomery (Paul McCrane), macho Raul (Barry Miller), soulful Bruno (Lee Curreri), and others as they struggle to achieve their dreams of stardom while coping with the universal teenage problems of loneliness, insecurity, and embattled, mercurial identity.
Cara, electric as the budding songstress Coco, shines brightest in the infectiously exuberant young cast. The film, which won Academy Awards for Best Original Score and Best Original Song, overflows at each corner of its loosely unfolding narrative with inspired music and dance numbers that seem to burst forth spontaneously out of sheer irrepressible emotion. With FAME (later developed into a hit television series), Parker finds a happy medium between the wildly diverging tones of his previous two features, the goofy kids-as-gangsters musical BUGSY MALONE and the harrowing prison thriller MIDNIGHT EXPRESS, and in doing so creates an enjoyable, glittering portrait of guileless teenage ambition.
Songs include:
"Fame"
"Red Light"
"I Sing the Body Electric"
"Dogs in the Yard"
"Hot Lunch Jam"
"Out Here on My Own"
"Is It OK If I Call You Mine?"
DVD Features:
Region 1
Snap Case
Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.85
Single Side - Dual Layer
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
Dolby Surround - French
Costume Designer
Ellen Mirojnick: Costume Designer, THE SENTINEL (2006)
Director of Photography
Michael Seresin: American Director Of Photography
Featured
Laura Dean: Actress/"Fame"
Additional Music/Songs
Robert F. Colesberry:
Review 1:
"...It's a rousing, lively production, bursting out of the screen with talent and exuberance..."
Source: Variety
04/30/1980
Review 2:
"...A jubilant, hugely entertaining movie....The cast is full of glowing newcomers, the score is emphatically upbeat..."
Source: New York Times
p.C14 05/16/1980