De Palma (2016)
Directed by Jake Paltrow
An intimate conversation between filmmakers, chronicling De Palma’s 55-year career, his life, and his filmmaking process, with revealing anecdotes and, of course, a wealth of film clips.
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What critics compared De Palma to
This feature-length interview with the controversial filmmaker responsible for “Carrie,” “ Dressed to Kill ,” “ Blow Out ,” “ Scarface ,” “ The Untouchables ” and “ Femme Fatale ” serves not only as a guide to one of the most fascinating filmographies of our time, but a thoughtful and often hilarious look at the ups and downs of the American film industry over the last half-century, as seen through the eyes of one of its most idiosyncratic participants.
In between he would pivot back to the grottier psychosexual stalker films like Dressed to Kill (1980), Body Double (1984) and Raising Cain (1992), with their exploitation shrieks, slash-edits and gender fake-outs that he can’t escape from.
From discovering Robert De Niro in a workshop in Sarah Lawrence and directing Orson Welles at thirty years of age, to the success of Sisters and Carrie in the 1970’s, kicking Oliver Stone off the set of Scarface, to filming Blow Out, The Untouchables and Dressed to Kill the decade after, the list of highlights is staggering.
“Aha,” says the fan of such sanguinary and voyeuristic thrillers as “Dressed To Kill,” “Body Double” and “Blow Out.”
(He admits the experience wormed its way into his screenplay for “Dressed to Kill” before shutting down the topic with a tetchy, “Yeah.”)
This feature-length interview with the controversial filmmaker responsible for “Carrie,” “ Dressed to Kill ,” “ Blow Out ,” “ Scarface ,” “ The Untouchables ” and “ Femme Fatale ” serves not only as a guide to one of the most fascinating filmographies of our time, but a thoughtful and often hilarious look at the ups and downs of the American film industry over the last half-century, as seen through the eyes of one of its most idiosyncratic participants.
Speaking of the various remakes and subsequent adaptations of Carrie, the film that put him on the commercial map, he chuckles over the amusement of watching other people make mistakes that he avoided.
At first he floundered with "Get to Know Your Rabbit," but he persevered independently with "Sisters" and "The Phantom of the Opera" until Hollywood came calling once again with "Carrie."
Although 1976’s Obsession (scripted by his fellow movie brat Paul Schrader) was a straight riff on Hitchcock, De Palma’s profile rose because of work like his Siamese-twin thriller Sisters (1973) and the one-two punch of Carrie (1976) and The Fury (1978), both of which splattered the lens with telekinetically powered blood and gore that feel of a piece with Cronenberg’s contemporaneous work.
From discovering Robert De Niro in a workshop in Sarah Lawrence and directing Orson Welles at thirty years of age, to the success of Sisters and Carrie in the 1970’s, kicking Oliver Stone off the set of Scarface, to filming Blow Out, The Untouchables and Dressed to Kill the decade after, the list of highlights is staggering.
Film director Brian De Palma rose to fame in the 1970s and 1980s with “Carrie,” “Scarface” and “The Untouchables.”