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De Palma a la Mod

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Recent Headlines
a la Mod:

Domino is
a "disarmingly
straight-forward"
work that "pushes
us to reexamine our
relationship to images
and their consumption,
not only ethically
but metaphysically"
-Collin Brinkman

De Palma on Domino
"It was not recut.
I was not involved
in the ADR, the
musical recording
sessions, the final
mix or the color
timing of the
final print."

Listen to
Donaggio's full score
for Domino online

De Palma/Lehman
rapport at work
in Snakes

De Palma/Lehman
next novel is Terry

De Palma developing
Catch And Kill,
"a horror movie
based on real things
that have happened
in the news"

Supercut video
of De Palma's films
edited by Carl Rodrigue

Washington Post
review of Keesey book

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Exclusive Passion
Interviews:

Brian De Palma
Karoline Herfurth
Leila Rozario

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AV Club Review
of Dumas book

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« August 2009 »
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Interviews...

De Palma interviewed
in Paris 2002

De Palma discusses
The Black Dahlia 2006


Enthusiasms...

De Palma Community

The Virtuoso
of the 7th Art

The De Palma Touch

The Swan Archives

Carrie...A Fan's Site

Phantompalooza

No Harm In Charm

Paul Schrader

Alfred Hitchcock
The Master Of Suspense

Alfred Hitchcock Films

Snake Eyes
a la Mod

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a la Mod

Sergio Leone
and the Infield
Fly Rule

Movie Mags

Directorama

The Filmmaker Who
Came In From The Cold

Jim Emerson on
Greetings & Hi, Mom!

Scarface: Make Way
For The Bad Guy

The Big Dive
(Blow Out)

Carrie: The Movie

Deborah Shelton
Official Web Site

The Phantom Project

Welcome to the
Offices of Death Records

The Carlito's Way
Fan Page

The House Next Door

Kubrick on the
Guillotine

FilmLand Empire

Astigmia Cinema

LOLA

Cultural Weekly

A Lonely Place

The Film Doctor

italkyoubored

Icebox Movies

Medfly Quarantine

Not Just Movies

Hope Lies at
24 Frames Per Second

Motion Pictures Comics

Diary of a
Country Cinephile

So Why This Movie?

Obsessive Movie Nerd

Nothing Is Written

Ferdy on Films

Cashiers De Cinema

This Recording

Mike's Movie Guide

Every '70s Movie

Dangerous Minds

EatSleepLiveFilm

No Time For
Love, Dr. Jones!

The former
De Palma a la Mod
site

Entries by Topic
A note about topics: Some blog posts have more than one topic, in which case only one main topic can be chosen to represent that post. This means that some topics may have been discussed in posts labeled otherwise. For instance, a post that discusses both The Boston Stranglers and The Demolished Man may only be labeled one or the other. Please keep this in mind as you navigate this list.
All topics ал
Ambrose Chapel
Are Snakes Necessary?
BAMcinématek
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Columbo - Shooting Script
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Cop-Out
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Genius of Love
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Saturday, August 1, 2009
MAINSTREAM MASTERPIECE
JOHN KENNETH MUIR ON THE UNTOUCHABLES
John Kenneth Muir continues his weekly look at select Brian De Palma films with a wonderful analysis of The Untouchables, which he calls "De Palma's mainstream masterpiece," it being "a visual exercise in mythbuilding." Muir characterizes The Untouchables as a war film, stating, "On the surface, the brutal struggle in The Untouchables appears to be one regarding law enforcement, but the movie's tone and visuals make it plain that this is not entirely the case. On the contrary," Muir continues, "this is total war, a fact De Palma makes plain via cross-cutting. Early in the film, he cross-cuts between Capone decrying violence as 'not good business' and then a scene involving a little girl murdered in what, essentially, is a terrorist bombing of a local Chicago saloon."

"ODESSA STEPS" HOMAGE MUCH MORE THAN A "STUNT"
Muir is perhaps most inspired in his analysis of De Palma's improvised train station set piece:

Again, this sequence is likely the demarcation point where some people will "get" and appreciate De Palma, and others will simply insist that he is a particularly gifted "thief." For in concept and execution, the staircase scene of The Untouchables is an intricate homage to Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 propaganda classic, The Battleship Potemkin.

In that film, the famous "Odessa Steps" sequence dramatized a massacre conducted by the Tsarist Regime, set atop a wide staircase. Civilians were brutally murdered in this bloody sequence, as Cossacks killed men, women and children. Famously, a baby carriage was depicted rolling down the staircase.

In original context, the Odessa Steps sequence was meant to demonize the Imperial Regime, to expose the fact that there was no depth to which it would not sink to hold onto to power in Russia. The scene is so famous in cinema history that some people have apparently believed that there was a massacre on the Odessa Steps even though the incident was a fictional one concocted for the film.

Those who accuse De Palma of lifting the Odessa Steps sequence from The Battleship Potemkin should take one extra step -- beyond that of accusation -- and ask themselves why? What purpose does it serve to feature a similar sequence here, in this movie?

On one hand, we can certainly point to the deliberate homage and intertextuality we see throughout De Palma's canon. But furthermore, there's a reflexive quality to this reference in The Untouchables. To wit: the battle for capitalist control of Chicago is occurring, roughly, in the same time period that The Battleship Potemkin was made and distributed (circa 1925 - 1930). In other words, by cutting and shooting a sequence just like the Odessa Steps, De Palma is actually reflecting something that the characters of the time might have themselves conceivably understood or known about.

Much more importantly, however, De Palma has created a thematic relative of Potemkin; a kind of "pop" form of propaganda; a heroic myth elevating the G-Men in stature and deriding a corrupt system and the criminals -- like Capone -- who exploited it (the capitalist equivalent of the Tsarists).

De Palma's point -- captured beautifully in the slow-motion shoot-out -- is that Capone's Regime (like that of the Cossacks...) boasts no moral compunction about the murder of the innocent. It will hold onto control any way it can, as we have seen in the corner saloon bombing and now with the imperiled baby carriage. Ness's task is much more difficult: he must eliminate the entrenched, powerful bad guys (the hench-men of Capone) and defend the innocent simultaneously. Remember how that grieving mother told Ness to get Capone? Well, here Ness lands in an even more urgent variation of that scene: finally in the position to prevent the death of an innocent at the same time that he takes down the guilty.

So, yes, De Palma pays tribute to Eisenstein's shock cutting in the famous staircase battle, but he has done two other important things as well. First, he has raised audience "ire" over Capone's actions in the self-same manner as Eisenstein did in regards to the Tsarists;" exposing" a corrupt regime in the process. And secondly, he has re-purposed the "lifted" sequence so as to make a point about the nature of the all-out battle Ness is fighting.

Amazingly, De Palma crafts an action sequence in the very film language appropriate to the era of his film, the 1920s-1930s. In his review, critic Hal Hinson called the staircase shoot-out scene De Palma's "greatest stunt," only-half impressed, but I suggest that given the context, given the reflexivity, given the re-purposing of a classic sequence for a like thematic purpose, it is much more than a stunt. This is De Palma conceiving and deploying brilliant visuals to chart for audiences the epic nature of the Capone/Ness conflict.


Posted by Geoff at 11:51 PM CDT
Updated: Saturday, August 1, 2009 11:52 PM CDT
Post Comment | View Comments (2) | Permalink | Share This Post

Sunday, August 2, 2009 - 1:31 PM CDT

Name: "Randy Aitken"

In April or so of 2008, I responded to an online blog piece about Carbon Copy Cinema-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2008/apr/15/crappycarboncopiesoncellul?showallcomments=true

that referenced Brian De Palma in an unflattering light, so I decided to add my 2 cents.

Below is an excerpt from my short take on moving beyond the generalized, crowd mentality of "De Palma is a rip-off."  De Palma's masterful artistry and ability to entertain is clearly in evidence in the Odessa Steps setpiece in Untouchables. This is a showcase for his ability to  tell the story, to brilliantly build upon a cinematic reference and to solve a production problem all at the same time

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Yes the Odessa Steps sequence from Battleship Potempkin is invoked in The Untouchables. Film directors always deal with production crises, so how would you deal with the bad hand he was dealt? Suddenly you are informed that the money, location, logistics, whatever, is not there?

He made inspired choices with his back against the wall. Drawing upon the Odessa steps concept, his skillful collaborators, and his own cinematic gifts, De Palma was able to show the audience many story threads simultaneously. It is a fine visual exploration of a building space on a movie screen in a manner that is really effective in conveying story ideas to an audience.

We view the thrills of a gun battle played left-to-right, the attempt to save a mother's baby in peril played high-to-low descending a staircase, and we observe the Capone accountant (much like the audience bound in fear and excitement) terrified, immobile, and breakable just above midway on the steps. The baby to be saved is also linked to Ness saving himself. The division of his attentions between the gunplay and the baby carriage is also unifying Ness as he is being transformed from a high minded, good-natured innocent policeman with high ideals, into a seasoned lawman down in the trenches. Then, we finally see one of the all-time great cinema moments.

When Ness flips the gun in slow-motion to Stone at the bottom of the stairs to conclude our wild ride, De Palma brings the whole package together and I can still smile as I recall the wonder of that train station sequence.

If you were trying to do a thriller, how would you do it? You obviously would have to draw upon the masters of cinema for suspense and we all know who the leader of that pantheon is. Look at any of the articles and interviews that deal with De Palma and he is the first to say "if you want to know anything about visual storytelling, you have to go back to Alfred Hitchcock."

I like to think that a throwaway moment such as a gun being tossed between detectives in Rear Window near the end of that film, can become a wonderfully meaningful payoff to the train station sequence in The Untouchables. Hitchcock fans seek out and can find genius in the smallest details of "Hitch" movies. Brian De Palma is clearly a great fan of Alfred Hitchcock and has been inspired by that body of work to be a filmmaker who can create his own art, a cinematic magic in a style that also reflects the lessons learned and loved by watching the great films of the Master of Suspense.

Monday, August 3, 2009 - 1:00 AM CDT

Name: de/palma
Home Page: https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma

Yeah, I think people misunderstand that De Palma expects people to notice the other films he is referencing (it's more like "riffing on" rather than "ripping off"), but then he takes them to unexpected places. Thanks for posting that, Randy!

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