The best of DePalma`s films, by me, are the films that are most overtly his, the ones that he plugs, name-over-title, as Brian DePalma films, which he doesn't, always; for the first Mission: Impossible film, he subordinated his brand to the franchise and the star, Tom Cruise, and kept some of his signature flourishes in check (split screens, say, or smirkingly deliberate audience-torturing suspense, or guilty spectatorship, or explicit nods to Hitch). It's still a fine thriller and very watchable, mind you - maybe my favourite of them, even still - but it's not really all that "DePalma," if you see what I mean, and not that different from the other films in the franchise (John Woo probably was the filmmaker to most noticeably assert his own brand onto those films, and his is the worst of them, so...).
Anyhow, because I like DePalma, I will be seeing the new documentary about him on the screen, when it opens at the Vancity Theatre (July 1st). I'm also excited about the retrospective of his films that accompanies it, though I'm sad that it is missing some of his very early work - especially Hi, Mom and Greetings, both with a young Robert DeNiro and both packed with anger, wit, and resonances for DePalma`s later cinema, including some very telling meta-cinematic reflections. These films in put everything else he's done in a somewhat different context, provide a decoder ring to help you appreciate just how smart, in fact, the man is, and I suggest that people with an interest in this series who haven`t seen them seek them out. I would have liked a double bill of Casualties of War and Redacted, too, which I gather was considered and deemed impractical for some reason or other; those two films, especially together, will also help one appreciate the political anger that informs De Palma's work, which it's quite possible to miss in some of his more mainstream movies. They`re imperfect films, maybe, but essential; Redacted is certainly the angriest film I`ve encountered about the recent US adventures in Iraq...
I've had friends I've played it for get seriously pissed off at me for showing Blow Out to them, but I don't want to say why; people who have seen it will know. It's actually pretty sad, pretty angry, pretty bleak - but also very, very intelligent, and a supreme exercise in cinematic craft; I would guess that it`s probably the film of DePalma`s that most pleases Lars von Trier. It's the film all DePalma naysayers need to see, to be able to fairly evaluate him; people who go on about what a hack he is lose my ear or any attempt at engagement when I find out they`ve missed this movie, because they just don`t know what they`re talking about. Travolta is great, and there's a panicky revolving-camera scene that is up there on my list of the best-ever bravura camera stunts in mainstream cinema. If you're only going to see one of these movies, see this one, screening July 14; it may make you want to see more.
Then there's Body Double - which plays with Rear Window in the same way that Dressed to Kill plays with Psycho and (we gather) Obsession (which I have not seen) plays with Vertigo. Screening July 15th, this is, by me, the most fun and the most funny of De Palma's engagements with Hitchcock. It's all about voyeurism and spectatorship - in life, in horror movies, in pornography, and in "detective work." There was a time when I rejected the film for its violence against women - and chuckled to see that Patrick Bateman uses it as pornography in Ellis' American Psycho. But if I were teaching a course on self-reflexive cinema, and had to choose between Peeping Tom - complete with the Laura Mulvey commentary track - and this film, I'd choose this film. Plus Melanie Griffith is great, and Craig Wasson is one of my favourite-ever "everyman shmuck" characters. The actual "body double" scene that plays when the credits role are a reference to the making of Dressed to Kill, by the way. (Heads up Keith Gordon fans, this is is biggest and maybe best film as an actor shy of Christine...).
There's lots else worth seeing. I know Phantom of the Paradise is a cult hit, particularly among music geeks (no, I was not at that particular July Fourth Toilet concert, sorry to say); but I've only seen it once, years ago, so I can't really evaluate it. Femme Fatale is giddy fun if you're a DePalma fan ("arguably his most underrated movie," the program says, though I'd give that honour to Snake Eyes, not screening). It's kind of up there with Raising Cain (also not screening) as an audacious, excessive film that people with an investment in and understanding of the filmmaker can just delight in while everyone else looks at us funny (it may not be the best film for noobs). On the other hand, The Untouchables, which I saw not too long ago with my Mom, is far more interesting now (and far more of a De Palma film) than I gave it credit for being at the time; I wrote it off, once, as not really BEING a DePalma film, just a blockbuster-for-hire, but in fact, it's a pretty rich, exquisitely crafted movie... I have a friend who loves it, another who hates it; I can only say that I liked it a lot more, on last viewing, than I expected to, and am full of respect for its craftsmanship.
Of the rest of the films, there are some I have not seen (Obsession, Passion), a couple I don't really care much about (Carlito's Way and Carrie are both good films but I have nothing at all to say about them); and one I did not get, Sisters, which I saw knowing how much Robin Wood loved it, but didn't find very engaging. Wood had a tendency to praise films for the ideas in them, without taking into account how well-or-poorly crafted they were, which comes up in the kerfuffle about David Cronenberg that he presided over, especially when he comes out as thinking Larry Cohen's nearly unwatchable It's Alive is a better film than The Brood. It's a less politically objectionable film, maybe, but surely that's not the only consideration when evaluating a film... Anyhow, Wood makes much of the ideas that he sees at work in Sisters, and makes it out to be some sort of masterwork, which is probably taking it a bit far, and possibly set me up to be disappointed. I liked Margot Kidder, at least...
All told, it`s an exciting retrospective of a filmmaker who is under-rated precisely because he is (at least to some extent) famous and successful. The main page of listings for the DePalma screenings - including both the documentary and the retrospective - is here. Thanks to the Vancity Theatre for programming these films!
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