10 Movie Villains Obsessed With Immortality
4. Swan - Phantom Of The Paradise (1974)
This film is a loose, musical adaptation of Goethe's Faust, directed by Brian De Palma. For its camp parody of glam and excess, it almost seems like a copy of Rocky Horror Picture Show but was actually released the year prior.
It tells the story of an aspiring songwriter named Winslow Leach, whose compositions are stolen by Swan, a record magnate who sold his soul for everlasting rock and roll.
Besides tormenting Leach in archaic ways, like imprisonment in a tower of sorts, he also gets him hooked on pills. In some ways, the music industry here is depicted as the ultimate evil, and Swan as a tragic victim, as staying young used to be crucial for staying relevant. Meanwhile, your stereotypical clashing of artists' egos is merely peppered with a little gore.
Phantom failed commercially but was nominated for an Academy Award and Golden Globe for its score, though it's hard to say if it's actually worth an immortal soul.