NYFF: De Palma
Tuesday, September 29, 2015 at 10:15AM 
Brian de Palma. The man behind: Passion, Mission to Mars, Body Double, Scarface, Carrie, Sisters, Blow Out, Dressed to Kill, and many more.Jason reporting from the New York Film Festival.
Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow's documentary De Palma is, at a basic level, just a sit-down walk-through with the director Brian De Palma across the length of his entire movie career. The co-directors had previously gotten this tour on a personal level, having weekly dinners with the man, and decided, for awesomeness' sake, to capture for future generations of movie-geeks' sake. I saw De Palma only a week and a half ago, and I feel like it needs to be known that not only have I been forced, literally forced, in the wake of it to go and watch three of De Palma's movies in the time between watching the doc and writing this review, but it's also colored every single thing I've written in the time since, and if you follow my hyperactive blog then you know I write a whole lot in a week and a half. A ton. And Brian De Palma, he done swallowed me whole. I can only see things through his eyes now.
I mean, I'm an easy mark, the easiest of easies: I've vigorously defended the likes of Snake Eyes or Femme Fatale at dinner parties; I've drunkenly slurred out verbal love-letters to Fiona Shaw's three miles passed the mark performance in The Black Dahlia; I've had more nightmares scarred by Angie Dickinson's elevator experience than most people have had nightmares, period.
Paltrow, de Palma, and Baumbach
I love sleaze and I love Hitchcock and in Brian De Palma the twain they meet and they meet like fireworks bursting over a triumphantly dead Nancy Allen, and it's like roadhouse whiskey to me -- I like it, I like it!!!
He is New York's Verhoeven -- fun and dirty and adult, dumb and genius in equal gasping measure. I'll go down with his ship, lapping up every red drop. And De Palma, The Film, captures the the man's madness in glorious measure. It is indeed like sitting down to dinner with the man who could dream up both Holly Body's cum speech and "Say hello to my little friend" and poking him in the belly for more. He is ready able and willing to spill more or more still for us, and it's this geek's idea of paradise. I could've watched fifteen full hours of De Palma.
De Palma is screening at the NYFF on Wednesday, September 30th and will eventually be distributed by A24. Previous NYFF reviews here. For more Jason De Palma love, you need to visit My New Plaid Pants.
Reader Comments (14)
He's never really been my cup of tea, but he does manage to get interesting performances from his actors more often than not.
I never got into him. Too violent and I'm extremely selective about the kink I will indulge in in the movies. Look forward to seeing the doc. For documentaries where the artist speaks on their art, life, and influence are of great interest to me.
DePalma is the best. Five or six masterpieces under his belt, and not a single movie that isn't fascinating, even in failure. I'm missing the doc at NYFF but can't wait to see it.
While I might rate Carrie and Scarface as his 'best' movies, the one that I return to time and time again (and thus my favourite?) is Sisters.
Margot Kidder had this and Black Christmas back-to-back!? If only the academy recognised genre performances...
I appreciate that illness robbed her of the chance to develop a better career. So natural and charismatic...
Hollywood should let him work more. He does not know how to direct boringly. Like Scorcese, his camera is alive and willing to go to dark, sexual places, and then wallows in it.
I've had mixed reactions to DePalma over the years, and have mostly ignored his recent big studio stuff, but I love the idea of a DePalma binge. It sounds positively hallucinatory.
I haven't seen any of his recent films. But I consider Carrie a masterpiece, and Obsession, Blow Out and Dressed to Kill are all extraordinary.
Obsession...
I can't wait!! Im seeing it tomorrow. I love his work too!! Im actually leaving work early just to see it. Its a can't miss for me.
Paul, I saw it when it was first out when I was a kid and fell instantly in love with Genevieve Bujold. Sigh.
Adore the man! I mean Blow out and Dressed to kill are pure C I N E M A!
Same here, brookesboy, it only cemented my already deep crushes on Bujold and Cliff Robertson. (And I hadn't seen Vertigo yet...)
I really want to see this as I do like Brian de Palma despite how uneven his filmography is. Plus, I'm a Baumbach fan so that adds more reasons for me to see it.
omg, I hadn't realized I'd seen Obsession until your comments made me read the recap of the film. Oh yeah, that was heartbreaking when Bujold sees the money.
And I liked Femme Fatale. Rebecca Romijn is undervalued. She always gives a performance full of energy and smarts, and she knows how to move.