 Hello and welcome to the unofficial Brian De Palma website. Here is the latest news: |
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Hello and welcome to the unofficial Brian De Palma website. Here is the latest news: |
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Spielberg Predicts
'Implosion' of
Film Industry
Scorsese tests
new Zaillian
script for
The Irishman
with De Niro,
Pacino, Pesci
James Franco
plans to direct
& star in
adaptation of Ellroy's
American Tabloid
Sean Penn to
direct De Niro
as raging comic
in The Comedian
Scarlett to make
directorial feature
debut with
Capote story
Keith Gordon
teaming up
with C. Nolan for
supernatural
thriller that
he will write
and direct
Recent Headlines
a la Mod:
-Picture emerging
for Happy Valley
-De Palma's new
project with
Said Ben Said
-De Palma to team
with Pacino & Pressman
for Paterno film
Happy Valley
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De Palma interviewed
in Paris 2002
De Palma discusses
The Black Dahlia 2006
Enthusiasms...
Alfred Hitchcock
The Master Of Suspense
Sergio Leone
and the Infield
Fly Rule
The Filmmaker Who
Came In From The Cold
Jim Emerson on
Greetings & Hi, Mom!
Scarface: Make Way
For The Bad Guy
Deborah Shelton
Official Web Site
Welcome to the
Offices of Death Records
Wild Side Video released new region 2 DVD and Blu-Ray editions of Brian De Palma's Obsession last month in France. Both editions feature a remastered version of Obsession, with new special features, including a brief interview with De Palma, presented as part of a 26-minute video essay by Samuel Blumenfeld, coauthor of Brian De Palma: Conversations with Samuel Blumenfeld and Laurent Vachaud. (According to the Principal Archivist at the Swan Archives, the De Palma interview appears to be from 2004, perhaps from the same interview De Palma did for the French Sisters DVD that was released around that time-- see comments section below.) The DVD edition of Obsession is a two-disc set that includes a PDF of Paul Schrader's original screenplay (not included in the Blu-Ray package, according to Amazon). Both editions include two bonus De Palma shorts: Woton's Wake and The Responsive Eye. They also include Laurent Bouzereau's "Obsession Revisited," as well as a trailer for the film.
The Oregonian News Network posted an interview with Anne Richardson, who runs the blog Oregon Movies, A to Z. Richardson indicates in the interview that she is a former student of Brian De Palma. It seems most likely that she would have been involved in the class De Palma taught at Sarah Lawrence College in 1979, where he taught students how to make a film by making Home Movies with them. In the Oregonian interview, Richardson is asked to tell her favorite story about the movies. "At film school," Richardson replies, "Prof. Brian De Palma constantly referred to all his films as 'turkeys'. When I was making my thesis film, I called him up to ask for advice on one particular shot. I was hugely honored when, as he was answering my question, he began referring to my film as a turkey."
Thanks to Rachel McAdams Online for discovering that the screenings schedule has now been posted at the website of the 69th Venice International Film Festival, which runs from August 29th through September 8th. While Terrence Malick's To The Wonder will premiere on Sunday, September 2nd, Brian De Palma's Passion will premiere on Friday, September 7th, one day before the end of the festival. This makes De Palma's film one of the final big premieres of the festival, and also separates the two Rachel McAdams films by five days. While there is no official word yet on which actors will appear at the festival, it would be fun to see McAdams attend both premieres. When the festival films were first announced, the running time for Passion was listed at 94 minutes. The new listing shows the film running 100 minutes.
Armond White, writing about the current Claude Sautet retrospective at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, says that "a stunning montage" in Sautet's Les Choses de la Vie (The Things Of Life) "no doubt inspired Brian De Palma’s Femme Fatale climax." Sautet's film, released in 1970, established his international reputation. White states that it is "a more operatic version of the usual Sautet melodrama." According to White, "The montage details life in shocking, lyrical increments. Jean Boffety’s cinematography captures natural light and existential tragedy in captivating, musical counterpoint. Sautet may be practiced in face-to-face contretemps but the car crash sequence–a Nouvelle Vague salute to the crisis/memories/fate flashbacks of Hollywood’s classic Slattery’s Hurricane–is one of cinema’s most exquisite examples of melding kinetics to philosophy."
Reader Maurizio Rossi sends word of the new issue of the Italian magazine Film Tv, which features an image from Brian De Palma's Passion on the cover. Rossi explains that the cover's accompanying headline is a play on the Italian title of Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now. The Italian title for Roeg's film is A Venezia un Dicembre rosso shocking, which translates to "A Shocking Red December In Venice," according to Rossi. So the magazine's headline, "A Venezia una Mostra Rosso Passion," translates to "A Red Passion Film Festival in Venice." The issue previews the upcoming Venice Film Festival.
And from Donald Devienne...
Karoline Herfurth posted the following message on her Facebook page this morning:
Brian De Palma's Passion has been selected as one of 18 films to compete at this year's Venice Film Festival, which runs August 29 to September 8. De Palma's film, officially a French-German production, is listed as running a lean and mean 94 minutes. Also among the selections is Terrence Malick's To The Wonder. Both films feature Rachel McAdams, who, according to the Hollywood Reporter, is expected to appear at the festival. The line-up was announced this morning, with an additional secret competition title to be announced at a later date. Many are speculating that the additional film will be Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master."In preparing Venice," said Venice Fest director Alberto Barbera at a press conference in Rome today (via Variety), "I have very much admired and envied my friend and colleague who heads the Toronto Film Festival. He has an easy job: He can take 350 movies, and therefore accept almost anything. We have chosen a much tougher path, in which, after lots of discussions, we had to say 'no' a lot. And it was very tough." The Globe And Mail further quotes Barbera: "The main recurring theme is the crisis. The economic crisis, which is having devastating social effects, but also the crisis of values, the political crisis." Passion appears to fit this theme, with its focus on the politics of the corporate business world.
Despite the crisis, Barbera wanted to showcase "a great productive ferment" in the industry, according to the Globe And Mail. "We have taken risks," Barbera is quoted telling reporters. "There are many established directors but also less famous directors and many unknown young directors from countries without cinematic traditions and without real access to the market. Festivals should revert to their original roles of exploration, of scoping out innovation, instead of relying only on the established producers.”
The jury at this year's Venice fest will be headed by Michael Mann, who will also screen his out-of-competition documentary Witness: Libya. The closing film will be the out-of-competition L'homme qui rit, Jean-Pierre Ameris' remake of Paul Leni's The Man Who Laughs, a film which factored into the plot of De Palma's The Black Dahlia. Opening the fest, also out-of-competition, will be Mira Nair's The Reluctant Fundamentalist.
Among the competition films announced are Olivier Assayas' Something In The Air, Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers, and Marco Bellocchio's Dormant Beauty. Out of competition titles include Robert Redford's The Company You Keep, Spike Lee's Bad 25 (a documentary of Michael Jackson's Bad), Ariel Vromen's The Iceman, and Henry-Alex Rubin's Disconnect.
As this year marks the Venice Festival's 80th anniversary (although it is only the 69th festival), it will feature a new regular section, Venice Classics, which will screen restored versions of films that premiered at Venice. Michael Cimino is expected to attend this year's screening of the Criterion restored version of Heaven's Gate, which had its premiere at the Venice Festival in 1982. Other titles in the Classics section this year include Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard and Orson Welles' Chimes At Midnight.