WASHINGTON 鈥� He’s聽one of the most controversial filmmakers in American cinema, not only for his brash style but for his divisive standing聽among academics split over his merits.聽Detractors dismiss him as derivative of the Hitchcocks who came before, while supporters think he’s close to brilliant (myself included).
Now,聽moviegoers can rediscover the prolific work and reconsider the legacy of Brian De Palma in the compelling new documentary “De Palma,” which makes its limited release in D.C. theaters this Friday.
“You gotta realize you’re being criticized against the聽fashion of the day,”聽De Palma said in the documentary, zeitgeist be damned.聽“When the fashion changes, everybody forgets about that.”
Directed with admiration聽by Noah Baumbach (“Mistress America”) and Jake Paltrow (“Young Ones”), the film features one-on-one interviews with De Palma as it moves聽chronologically through his work.
We get a glimpse at what inspired him in his youth,聽from聽growing up around聽blood in an operating room, to his schooling聽at Sarah Lawrence College, as well as his聽early film career, discovering聽a聽young Robert De Niro in “The Wedding Party” (1969) — four years before Scorsese’s “Mean Streets” (1973).
“There was Marty [Scorsese] and I, then there was George [Lucas], Francis [Ford Coppola] and Steven [Spielberg],” De Palma said, fashioning聽himself as a crucial member of the聽Fab Five聽visionaries of the 1970s Hollywood Renaissance. “What we did in our generation will never be duplicated.”
This unique moment in American cinema 鈥� the so-called “American New Wave” —聽could also include the likes of Mike Nichols, Arthur Penn, John Schlesinger, Sam Peckinpah and聽Robert Altman 鈥� but De Palma has every bit the right to consider himself in this class.聽Unlike聽Spielberg or Lucas, De Palma always existed in the聽more controversial wing of聽his contemporaries, dividing critics with each flick.
In fact, Baumbach and Paltrow show a graphic of聽side-by-side newspaper articles, one declaring De Palma a cheap knockoff; the other declaring him a highly-stylized genius. There’s no doubt which side the documentary champions;聽“De Palma” takes on the director’s detractors聽head on, embracing derivative elements as loving homages to Hitchcock, Eisenstein and Antonioni, while hailing聽De Palma’s own signature techniques, from Dutch angles to diopter split-screens to Figure 8 long-takes.
His big聽breakthrough, “Sisters” (1973),聽was ripe for聽such a聽debate. Starring Margot Kidder and Jennifer Salt,聽the film follows聽a聽journalist who witnesses a murder in a neighboring聽apartment only to find that the skeptical police department doesn’t believe the crime took place.聽The plot similarities to Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” (1954) are uncanny, but “Sisters” nonetheless put De Palma on the map.
Those who found him too derivative of聽Hitchcock found more fuel for their critical fires with the release of De Palma’s “Obsession” (1976), which bared a huge resemblance to Hitchcock’s greatest masterpiece “Vertigo” (1958). Not only did “Obsession” feature an聽Oscar-nominated score by “Vertigo” composer Bernard Herrmann, the plot similarly features a man obsessed with a mysterious woman聽who looks exactly like his dead lover, only in this case, it’s set in Italy, not San Francisco.
That same year, De Palma really came into his own with聽“Carrie” (1976),聽the very first adaptation of a Stephen King novel and arguably De Palma’s聽greatest overall work. The film was a surprise box office hit and instant horror classic, but the film’s cinesthetic language invites plenty of additional聽analysis.
Never had a girl’s first menstruation been captured in so beautifully horrific a manner than the , as the camera floats through a steamy high school shower聽as聽Sissy Spacek notices the blood, all set to some of the most聽 ever put on film. The climatic Figure 8聽long-take shot聽at prom is legendary, as is the聽graveside finale, which De Palma filmed backwards聽to eerie effect.
The doc聽even features De Palma laughing at subsequent failures to remake “Carrie,” while insisting it was necessary to聽include the flying daggers and for Piper Laurie’s demise.
Four years later, “Dressed to Kill” (1980)聽was just as shocking, recalling Hitchcock’s “Psycho” (1960) by killing off聽a聽blonde bombshell聽in the first third of the movie, leaving stunned聽audiences to wonder who the film is actually about. Rather than the slashing shower of Janet Leigh, this time it’s an elevator slaughter of Angie Dickinson, witnessed in a chilling elevator mirror by Nancy Allen.
The following year, “Blow Out” (1981)聽proved a fascinating聽variation on聽Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Blow-Up” (1966), in which a photographer believes he’s captured a murder in a聽park (Zapruder analogies abound). In “Blow Out,” De Palma tackles聽a similar concept, casting John Travolta as a movie sound recordist who coincidentally catches a piece of audio that may help solve a murder.
The documentary holds up “Blow Out” as a work of art worth reconsidering, not only for the emotional resonance of Travolta’s final line (“Good scream, good scream”), but also for the technical and compositional brilliance of De Palma’s聽Juxtaposing images with a聽half-convex glass attached to the聽camera lens,聽the camera can聽focus on the background while the diopter simultaneously focuses on the foreground, creating the illusion of deep focus (a la Orson Welles).
His next film would prove his most controversial. “Scarface” (1983)聽took Howard Hawks’ 1932 gangster classic and moved it from 1920s Prohibition New York to 1980s cocaine Miami. The documentary exposes聽behind the scenes squabbling聽between De Palma and聽screenwriter Oliver Stone, while insisting the chain saw slaughter of Al Pacino’s cohort is all “theater of the mind.”
It’s true, we never see the chain saw enter the head, but the more impressive feat is聽the textbook suspense building up to that grisly moment. Watch the way聽De Palma’s camera cranes up from聽Steven Bauer’s car outside on the street, then moves “through” the bathroom window. There hasn’t been a more fluid juxtaposition of quiet exterior and violent interior since Hitchcock’s “Frenzy” (1972).
Of course, the X-rated film had its critics who echoed聽Michelle Pfeiffer’s warning: “Nothing exceeds like excess.”聽Even so, “Scarface” developed a聽cult following. In “De Palma,” the director marvels at the surprise pop-culture impact on the hip-hop generation, as well as the more negative impact on video game culture. You can draw a聽direct comparison from “Scarface” to “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.”
De Palma returned with a different sort of gangster picture in “The Untouchables” (1987).聽Here, the聽Hitchcock comparisons gave way to analogies with Sergei Eisenstein, as the film聽mimics the sequence of “Battleship Potemkin” as a baby carriage tumbles down a staircase.
The documentary explains how De Palma patterned the famous sequence after the silent Soviet masterpiece,聽while manipulating the聽sound design to create virtual silence except for key sound effects.聽It also takes us behind Ennio Morricone’s , Robert聽De Niro’s brutal and Sean Connery’s 聽scene,聽as聽De Palma expresses shock that聽Connery had never worn聽explosive squibs before, saying, “You’re James Bond and you’ve never been shot?”
As De Palma’s career entered the ’90s,聽“Carlito’s Way” (1993)聽proved he was still in top form. Reuniting with Al Pacino to follow an ex-con聽trying to聽live the clean life, the film earned Golden Globe nods for Penelope Ann Miller and Sean Penn, who had starred in De Palma’s “Casualties of War.”
“De Palma”聽explores the film’s impressive camerawork, namely the聽, and fans will be thrilled to hear De Palma聽admit:聽“I don’t think I can make a better movie than this.”
Even if he viewed “Carlito’s Way” as a sort of career crescendo, the rest of us were thrilled to embrace his follow-up effort.聽“Mission: Impossible” (1996)聽turned a 1960s television series into a blockbuster action franchise that’s still cranking out installments today, though yours truly believes De Palma’s entry will never be topped. How can you beat聽the breach of C.I.A. headquarters?
The documentary explores the iconic heist sequence, as well as differing opinions on the final train chase (masks vs. helicopters), all while De Palma fulfills his duty of creating a vehicle for Tom Cruise.
If you’re not yet convinced of De Palma’s range, consider the other films explored in the doc: early efforts like聽“Phantom of the Paradise” (1974) and “The Fury” (1978),聽controversial works聽like “Body Double” (1984) and “Casualties of War” (1989), flawed-but-fascinating efforts like “Snake Eyes” (1998) and box office flops like “Bonfire of the Vampires” (1990) and “Mission to Mars” (2000).
But beyond all the movies, the most fascinating part of “De Palma” is its personal touch, exposing the man with honest reflection. It’s no accident that the documentary ends with聽De Palma discussing聽his failed marriages, revealing that he ultimately chose cinema as the true love of his life. It’s a tragic reminder of the聽artist’s obsession, the blowouts behind the scenes and the emotional scars he faces.
