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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 2011 »
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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

Mission To Mars
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  «
Ambrose Chapel
Are Snakes Necessary?
BAMcinématek
Bart De Palma
Beaune Thriller Fest
Becoming Visionary
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Bill Pankow
Black Dahlia
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Blue Afternoon
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Bonfire Of The Vanities
Books
Boston Stranglers
Bruce Springsteen
Cannes
Capone Rising
Carlito's Way
Carrie
Casualties Of War
Catch And Kill
Cinema Studies
Clarksville 1861
Columbia University
Columbo - Shooting Script
Congo
Conversation, The
Cop-Out
Cruising
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De Niro
De Palma & Donaggio
De Palma (doc)
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De Palma Discussion
Demolished Man
Dick Vorisek
Dionysus In '69
Domino
Dressed To Kill
Edward R. Pressman
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Fatal Attraction
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Film Series
Fire
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Fury, The
Genius of Love
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Get To Know Your Rabbit
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Greetings
Happy Valley
Havana Film Fest
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Hi, Mom!
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Inspired by De Palma
Iraq, etc.
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Laurent Bouzereau
Lights Out
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Magic Hour
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Mod
Montreal World Film Fest
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Murder a la Mod
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Newton 1861
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Print The Legend
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Raising Cain
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Redacted
Responsive Eye
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Scarface
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Sisters
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Friday, August 26, 2011
'COLOMBIANA' HAS A TOUCH OF 'SCARFACE'
AND 'MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE", AS 'SCARFACE' WEEK CONTINUES
As we are in the midst of what has turned into an impromptu Scarface week, we might as well point out that several critics/viewers are noting Scarface references in the new Luc Besson-produced Colombiana, which is directed by Olivier Megaton, and opens today. (The film is loosely based on Besson's orginal idea for a sequel to Léon.) The main character in Colombiana, according to one blogger, has a poster of Scarface, which was already in the room she inherits when her uncle takes her in (the room belonged to the uncle's late son). A couple of people also mentioned Mission: Impossible as a reference for scenes such as the one pictured here. Below are some links and quotes:

Salon's Andrew O'Hehir
"...a trashy and ridiculous blend of La Femme Nikita, Scarface and Fast Five."

The New York Times' Mike Hale
"Colombiana isn’t content to be a comic-book joyride (though it is that); it has pretensions to a more turgid class of revenge melodrama, along the lines of Tony Scott’s Man on Fire. It also has pretensions, period: Mr. Megaton sprinkles in homages to Francis Ford Coppola (Ms. [Zoe] Saldana’s rising out of the water like Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now) and Brian De Palma (the climactic sequence at a drug lord’s lair is redolent of Scarface). The overall effect is distancing; there are some early comic moments that have you laughing along with the movie, but eventually the clashing tones and preposterousness just have you laughing."

Advance Screening's Matthew Fong
"Were your parents murdered in front of you as a child? Well Cataleya’s were and she instantly plotted revenge. There’s something eerily cute when a little 9 year-old girl replies to the question, 'What do you want to be when you grow up?' with 'a killer' (in a Colombian accent). She reads Xena: Warrior Princess and wants to become a warrior princess herself. Cliff Curtis plays Emilio Restrepo, Cataleya’s uncle, who takes care of her and trains her to become an assassin. He sets her up in his late son’s room which is filled with guns and a poster of Scarface so you can see what her influences were."

Movieline's Jen Yamato
"...watching the film there are a handful of notable nods to Colombiana’s genre predecessors — basically, every Luc Besson movie, The Professional and La Femme Nikita, and even a touch of Scarface."

indieWIRE's Drew Taylor
"Instead of a young American girl tutored by an aging French hitman, though [as in Léon], Colombiana is first set in Colombia, with the aforementioned parent-murdering (the little girl’s father was involved in some shady cartel business). The little girl then goes to Chicago where she’s taken in by her equally shady uncle (Cliff Curtis). The little girl, named Cataleya Restrepo, after a rare Amazonian orchid, wants her uncle to teach her how to murder, which he rejects by randomly firing his gun at a passing car (and presumably killing a perfectly innocent pedestrian). “Is that what you want?” he asks her, passion bubbling in his Al Pacino-in-Scarface-accented voice. She says no, she’ll wait, but it’s a shocking, clumsy moment that the audience barely has any time to recover from.

The movie then snaps forward 15 years, to Los Angeles, where Cataleya is now grown and carrying out a cleverly elaborate hit job in a local prison. Her target is Latin American, and she brands the corpse with her signature (a curlicue scribble of her namesake), so we assume that this victim had something to do with her parents’ murder. It adds a juicy jolt of thrills to the ingeniously plotted maneuver, which has all the hallmarks of a great Mission: Impossible jaunt, with the added bonus of Saldana pouring herself into a slinky black catsuit."

Not A Supermom
"And after a hard day of killing, there’s nothing Catalaya likes to do better than to return home, strip off, do a little sexy-dance around her empty apartment, take a shower and then spend a full minute eating a lollipop. Just like Pacino in Scarface! There are a few call-backs to Scarface in this movie, as well as the Lethal Weapon franchise. When she visits the FBI agent tracking her, you can almost hear him say that he’s 'too old for this'…stuff... Thankfully, Catalaya abstains from post-mortem one-liners. But feel free to add some in your own head throughout the movie. When she is standing on a balcony in the mansion and raining bullets down on the cartel henchmen, I defy you not to think 'Say hello to my little friend'."

Tr3s' Michael Lopez
"The final invasion on El Don is something straight out of Scarface, complete with machine guns, grenades, and choreographed head butts. Unfortunately, every action moment in this movie felt a bit too familiar. Cataleya's jail escapes mirrored Mission Impossible, her fights seemed like Guy Ritchie retreads, and so on. Colombiana definitely brings the action, but somehow lacks the punch."


Posted by Geoff at 7:46 PM CDT
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Thursday, August 25, 2011
MORE 'SCARFACE' PARTY VIDEO & LINKS


My San Antonio interview with card set contest winner

Total Film

HULIQ


Posted by Geoff at 8:00 PM CDT
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Wednesday, August 24, 2011
'SCARFACE' REUNION RECAPS
PACINO SAID DE PALMA'S IDEA WAS TO MAKE IT BIG


Recaps of last night's Scarface cast reunion have flooded the web today, so below is a list of links to a few of them. Also, Livestream has been replaying the hour-long cast discussion from last night, so if you missed it, you can go two posts below this one and click the play icon to watch it. I've noticed in some of these recaps, quotes are sometimes attributed to the wrong person, and some are taken out of context of the longer story, so I will try to get my own transcription of some of these a bit later. For now, suffice it to say that Al Pacino kept talking about the melding of Brian De Palma and Oliver Stone, two forces he had expected to clash, but somehow blended very well (although producer Martin Bregman is said (by Bauer, I believe) to have banned Stone from the set to avoid such arguments). Also, Livestream was showing clips from what appears to be a new documentary for the Blu-Ray that comes out September 6th. The clips showed several people talking about the imact of Scarface, including Scarface Nation author Ken Tucker (the book received a shout-out from Pacino last night), L.A. Banks, author of the prequel novel, Scarface: The Beginning, that came out in 2006, and Jillian Reynolds, among others.

Associated Press

Movieline's 9 Revelations About the Gangster Classic

Collider Attends the SCARFACE Blu-Ray Party

The Daily Mail

The Montreal Gazette

Home Media Magazine

The Wrap - 'Scarface' Gang Thanks Spielberg & Scorsese for Early Support at Reunion Bash

The Examiner - Ludacris joins Al Pacino, Robert Loggia, and Steven Bauer in ‘Scarface’ reunion

MTV - 'Scarface' Hip-Hop Fans 'Really Get It,' Al Pacino Says

ABC Local - KABC

Entertainment Tonight

Also:
Big Hollywood's Jim Nolte:
"Scarface ranks in the Top 10 Most Re-watchable" DVDs


Posted by Geoff at 10:39 PM CDT
Updated: Wednesday, August 24, 2011 10:40 PM CDT
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Tuesday, August 23, 2011
THE GANG'S ALL HERE...
ÁNGEL SALAZAR, TOO!

Posted by Geoff at 10:09 PM CDT
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Monday, August 22, 2011
'SCARFACE' CAST REUNION - LIVESTREAM TUESDAY
PACINO, BAUER, LOGGIA, BREGMAN, & F. MURRAY ABRAHAM, 11:15PM EASTERN
Watch live streaming video from scarface at livestream.com

Watch the Live Scarface cast reunion tomorrow night (Tuesday, August 23rd) at 11:15pm eastern, on livestream. Al Pacino, Steven Bauer, Robert Loggia, F. Murray Abraham, and producer Martin Bregman are all expected to take part in the live reunion. All but Loggia have worked with Brian De Palma on more than one occasion, so it should be a fun discussion.


Posted by Geoff at 6:59 PM CDT
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Sunday, August 21, 2011
'SISTERS' PLAYS HERRMANN SERIES IN CAMBRIDGE
PART OF DOUBLE FEATURE WITH 'TWISTED NERVE' THIS TUESDAY
This Tuesday, August 23, the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, will pair up Brian De Palma's Sisters with Roy Boulting's Twisted Nerve for a double feature as part of its series, "Music for Movies: Bernard Herrmann Centennial," which began in early July and concludes August 30th. Herrmann's eerie whistled theme from Twisted Nerve was used by Quentin Tarantino in a De Palma-esque sequence of Kill Bill Vol. 1.
(Thanks to Jim!)

Posted by Geoff at 1:31 PM CDT
Updated: Sunday, August 21, 2011 1:32 PM CDT
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Thursday, August 18, 2011
DE PALMA TO DIRECT 'THE KEY MAN'
CONSPIRACY THRILLER WRITTEN BY JOBY HAROLD, WHO WILL ALSO PRODUCE
Brian De Palma has just closed a deal to direct a thriller, with financing and distribution already in place, according to Deadline Hollywood's Michael Fleming. But let's go back to the beginning:

Last month, Deadline Hollywood reported that Open Road Films ("the new distribution company created by exhibitors AMC Entertainment and Regal Entertainment") had aquired the U.S. rights to The Key Man, a thriller written by Joby Harold (pictured here, he is the writer and director of 2007's Awake). The Key Man, about a single father targeted by U.S. government agents who are apparently aware that the man's body contains answers to important national secrets, already had financing in place from QED International. QED's founder Bill Block told Deadline that the screenplay "recalls great films like Three Days Of The Condor and Marathon Man and is built on a fantastic story in the vein of The Da Vinci Code and National Treasure, and will appeal to a broad global audience." Open Road promised "a significant P&A [print & advertising] commitment," which is exactly what one might expect from a distribution company backed by the two largest U.S. theatrical exhibitors. Open Road CEO Tom Ortenberg told Deadline that The Key Man is "one of the smartest, most original scripts we've seen," and that he expected it to "attract top notch talent."

Well, they're off to an excellent start with that top notch talent by signing De Palma to direct the picture, which will be produced by Harold, Block, Tory Tunnell (Awake, Trumbo) and Paul Hanson (Oliver Stone's W.).

PRODUCTION TO START BY YEAR'S END; QED STARTING OFFERS TO ACTORS
Deadline's original story stated that principal photography was "due to begin by early 2012," and today's post from Fleming states that production will begin "by year's end." TheWrap's Joshua L. Weinstein, following up on Fleming's Deadline report, states that "with the De Palma deal closed, QED is starting to make offers to actors."

Harold has cited early Roman Polanski as one of his main inspirations for making films. Last year, he was signed to Tunnell's Safehouse Pictures to apply his talents to commercials as well as feature films. Safehouse is mentioned by Fleming as one of the companies involved in The Key Man. Harold has had his hand in many a project of late. At Safehouse, he wrote a treatment for the Meryl Streep/Tina Fey comedy Mommy & Me, which he is co-executive producing with director Stanley Tucci. He has also written Fountain City, currently in development at Safehouse with Andrew Adamson directing. After hiring Harold a few years ago to work on a draft of Zach Snyder's "ultimate zombie movie," Army Of The Dead, Warner Bros. more recently set Harold to rewrite an adaptation of Hiroshi Sakurazaka's time-travel space opera All You Need Is Kill, with Doug Liman attached to direct.


Posted by Geoff at 8:08 PM CDT
Updated: Thursday, August 18, 2011 8:15 PM CDT
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Tuesday, August 16, 2011
KEY GRIP 'DICKY' DEATS HAS PASSED AWAY
WORKED WITH ZSIGMOND & DE PALMA ON 'BLOW OUT' & 'THE BLACK DAHLIA'
Richard "Dicky" Deats, who worked as a key grip on Brian De Palma's Blow Out and The Black Dahlia (both with cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond), passed away July 14 at the age of 66, according to Below The Line. Just prior to working on Blow Out in 1981, Deats and Zsigmond built the first portable crane, which Deats called "the Little Big Crane," because it was lightweight and could be disassembled and carried around anywhere. The pair put it to good use on Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate (1980), and Deats later won an Academy Award for Technical Achievement in 1984 for the Little Big Crane's design and manufacture.

Posted by Geoff at 10:08 PM CDT
Updated: Tuesday, August 16, 2011 10:09 PM CDT
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Sunday, August 14, 2011
THE 'CARRIE' ROOM
DRAG QUEEN JACKIE BEAT TELLS FANGORIA ABOUT HER FAVORITE MOVIE

In a blog post announcing his interview with Sissy Spacek in the new issue of Fangoria hitting stands this month, Lee Gambin also quotes from drag queen Jackie Beat about her obsession with Carrie. The photo above shows Beat's office. "If I had to choose one movie that completely changed my life, it would have to be Carrie,” Beat told Gambin. “It was a low-budget horror movie for teens, so when its two stars, Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie, were each nominated for Oscars, it was almost as shocking as the movie’s often-copied ending!” Beat told Gambin that the film's celebration of the misfit "helped shape me into the person I am today: a writer and performer who, instead of setting people on fire or crushing them with a basketball backboard, kills ’em with my razor-sharp tongue!” The Spacek interview is focused on her role in Carrie.

Posted by Geoff at 9:00 PM CDT
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Tuesday, August 9, 2011


Posted by Geoff at 11:29 PM CDT
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