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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 2012 »
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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

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The Master Of Suspense

Alfred Hitchcock Films

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a la Mod

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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
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Beaune Thriller Fest
Becoming Visionary
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Carlito's Way
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Columbia University
Columbo - Shooting Script
Congo
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Cop-Out
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De Palma & Donaggio
De Palma (doc)
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De Palma Discussion
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Dionysus In '69
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Dressed To Kill
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Fire
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Fury, The
Genius of Love
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Get To Know Your Rabbit
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Inspired by De Palma
Iraq, etc.
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Laurent Bouzereau
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Mod
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Thursday, August 16, 2012
'PASSION' TO PLAY NEW YORK FILM FEST, TOO
"DE PALMA BRINGS GREAT PANACHE & A DIABOLICAL MASTERY OF SURPRISE"
The Film Society Lincoln Center today revealed its lineup for the 50th New York Film Festival, which runs from September 28 through October 14. Brian De Palma's Passion is one of the selections, making it two films in a row for De Palma, who brought Redacted to NYFF five years ago. Curiously, the article linked to above, written by Eugene Hernandez, states that this is De Palma's "first fiction feature since Femme Fatale." Despite being based on actual murders, the two films De Palma has made since Femme Fatale are both fiction films, as well: The Black Dahlia and Redacted. (Although Redacted begins with the onscreen disclaimer, "This film is entirely fiction, inspired by an incident widely reported to have occurred in Iraq," those words are themselves redacted to make way for a message that begins, "redacted visually documents imagined events...") In any case, the blurb included about Passion sounds tantalizing: "Brian De Palma brings great panache and a diabolical mastery of surprise to a classic tale of female competition and revenge. Noomi Rapace and Rachel McAdams are super-cool and oh so mean."

The Film Society's program director, Richard Peña, headed a selection committee that included Melissa Anderson, Scott Foundas, Todd McCarthy, and Amy Taubin. Peña said, "The films making up the main slate of this year's NYFF have in common a general quality of fearlessness that unites otherwise very disparate works. These are films that go all the way, works willing to take the risk or chance that by doing so they may be bringing audiences to places they might rather not go

NYFF will open with the world premiere of Ang Lee's highly anticipated Life Of Pi, and close with the world premiere of Robert Zemeckis' Flight. Other films include Alain Resnais' You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet, Léos Carax's Holy Motors, Olivier Assayas' Something In The Air, Michael Haneke's Amour, and Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha. Resnais films bookend the NYFF's 50 years, as his film, Muriel, Or The Time Of Return, screened at the very first festival in 1963, according to the article.


Posted by Geoff at 5:06 PM CDT
Updated: Thursday, August 16, 2012 5:15 PM CDT
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CARNAHAN'S DD SIZZLE REEL COPS 'UNTOUCHABLES'
DE NIRO'S CAPONE SOUND BITES USED IN VIDEO OF LOST PROJECT

Joe Carnahan, who at one time was going to direct Mission: Impossible 3, had recently been pitching a version of a Daredevil movie to Fox, who needed to put the franchise back into production by this October or watch the rights to the character revert back to Marvel. Carnahan used the above "sizzle reel" to pitch his idea for the film, which would have taken place in the gritty Hell's Kitchen of the 1970s. According to Carnahan, too much time has passed, and the rights will indeed be reverting back to Marvel, thus ending the chance for his version. In the meantime, Carnahan posted the above video, which features sound bites of Robert De Niro's Al Capone from Brian De Palma's The Untouchables, along with clips from other films and media, to get across his vision for the project.

Posted by Geoff at 1:12 AM CDT
Updated: Thursday, August 16, 2012 1:14 AM CDT
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Tuesday, August 14, 2012
'PASSION' HEADED TO TIFF 2012
NEW PICS ACCOMPANY ANNOUNCEMENT

The Toronto International Film Festival today announced more titles for this year's festival, including Brian De Palma's Passion. Two new stills from the film appeared on the TIFF site: the one above showing Paul Anderson and Noomi Rapace, and the one below of Rapace and Rachel McAdams. Passion is listed on the TIFF site with a running time of 98 minutes. The festival runs September 6-16, so it begin the day before Passion will have its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. Here is the programmer's note written by Piers Handling for the TIFF site:
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Brian De Palma is known for larger-than-life films. In a career that spans over forty years, he has made some of the most impressive works in American cinema, borrowing ideas from a multitude of sources: literature, pop culture and the movies themselves. Like a postmodernist magpie he has drawn inspiration from Hitchcock, Antonioni and Hawks to come up with some awesome imagery along the way.

Passion is a remake of Alain Corneau’s elegant thriller Crime d’amour, which we presented at our Festival in 2010. De Palma follows the structure of the original while making it entirely his own. The film centres around two women: Christine (Rachel McAdams), an elegant, ice-cool blonde career woman who holds a senior position with a high-powered advertising agency; and her assistant Isabel (Noomi Rapace), a shy and reticent brunette. Christine has a silky smooth charm, but underneath her veneer of control hides a tangle of kinky sexual needs. Isabel, smart and creative despite her hesitance, harbours a growing ambition.

When Christine claims credit for a daring marketing campaign that was entirely Isabel’s idea, the gloves start to come off in subtle ways. Isabel is initially disarmed by her boss’ candour: as Christine explains it, stealing her idea was simply business. But things change when Christine humiliates Isabel in public. With the plot set in motion, De Palma uncorks all the stops and, with wild abandon, launches into a labyrinthine revenge story.

As Isabel schemes, Christine parries her thrusts with calculated bravura. De Palma relishes these kinds of baroque plots; here he lets rip with a series of set pieces in the style for which he is famous. McAdams and Rapace revel in the expanse De Palma always allows his actors, while the story twists and turns in unexpectedly. Scratch below the surface: passions rage.



 


Posted by Geoff at 1:06 PM CDT
Updated: Tuesday, August 14, 2012 6:57 PM CDT
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DE PALMA NO LONGER ATTACHED TO 'KEY MAN'
According to a Variety article posted yesterday, Brian De Palma is no longer attached to The Key Man. The project, with a screenplay written by Joby Harold, had originally been announced almost a year ago, and projected to start shooting by the end of 2011. When that didn't happen, De Palma quickly got things rolling on Passion, which is now headed to the festival season. According to the Variety article, Open Road Films is currently in talks with Oskar Thor Axelsson to direct The Key Man. The article provides a new bit of detail about the main character, a single father who is also a puzzle editor (that latter bit is the new detail), targeted by government agents because his body holds clues to national secrets.

Posted by Geoff at 12:51 PM CDT
Updated: Tuesday, August 14, 2012 6:49 PM CDT
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Monday, August 13, 2012
'CARRIE' CAST RECORDING DUE SEPT 25

Posted by Geoff at 10:22 PM CDT
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Sunday, August 12, 2012
NEW 'OBSESSION' DVD
REGION 2 DVD & BLU-RAY RELEASED IN FRANCE LAST MONTH
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.

Longtime reader screenfreekz has sent in a tentatively translated (from French, after it had already been translated from English) quote from the De Palma interview: ""People don't understand Hitchcock. I'd love to be in a room with my detractors so I could prove them wrong whenever they compare me to him."
(Thanks to screenfreekz!)

Posted by Geoff at 12:59 PM CDT
Updated: Tuesday, August 21, 2012 5:10 PM CDT
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Thursday, August 9, 2012
DE PALMA TALKS TURKEYS
FORMER STUDENT SAYS DE PALMA "CONSTANTLY REFERRED TO ALL HIS FILMS AS TURKEYS"
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."

Posted by Geoff at 10:54 PM CDT
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Wednesday, August 8, 2012
'PASSION' TO PREMIERE AT VENICE SEPT 7TH
RUNNING TIME NOW LISTED AT 100 MINUTES
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.

Posted by Geoff at 8:41 PM CDT
Updated: Thursday, August 9, 2012 12:28 AM CDT
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Monday, August 6, 2012
'FEMME FATALE' CLIMAX MAY HAVE BEEN INSPIRED BY SAUTET
ARMOND WHITE SAYS NO DOUBT ABOUT INFLUENCE OF STUNNING MONTAGE IN 'THE THINGS OF LIFE'
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."

The Saute retrospective, running through August 16, is named after The Things Of Life, and includes that film along with 12 other Sautet features.

Posted by Geoff at 1:11 AM CDT
Updated: Monday, August 6, 2012 1:12 AM CDT
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Sunday, August 5, 2012
'PASSION' ON COVER OF FILM TV MAGAZINE
AS ITALIAN PUBLICATION PREVIEWS UPCOMING VENICE FILM FESTIVAL
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.

Posted by Geoff at 12:49 PM CDT
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