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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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« July 2013 »
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Interviews...

De Palma interviewed
in Paris 2002

De Palma discusses
The Black Dahlia 2006


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De Palma Community

The Virtuoso
of the 7th Art

The De Palma Touch

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Carrie...A Fan's Site

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No Harm In Charm

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Alfred Hitchcock Films

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and the Infield
Fly Rule

Movie Mags

Directorama

The Filmmaker Who
Came In From The Cold

Jim Emerson on
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Scarface: Make Way
For The Bad Guy

The Big Dive
(Blow Out)

Carrie: The Movie

Deborah Shelton
Official Web Site

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Offices of Death Records

The Carlito's Way
Fan Page

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Guillotine

FilmLand Empire

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italkyoubored

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EatSleepLiveFilm

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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.
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Ambrose Chapel
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Cop-Out
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Genius of Love
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Sunday, July 14, 2013
BRIEF DE PALMA INTERVIEW FROM PROVINCETOWN
AUDIO MONTAGE INCLUDES JOHN WATERS, MARY HARRON, MORE


HuffPost's Charlotte Robinson posted an audio montage of interviews she did with several of the guests at last month's Provincetown International Film Festival. You can listen to the audio at the HuffPost link above, but here is a transcript of the Brian De Palma portion:
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We’re talking to Brian De Palma, who is here to show his film, Passion. Tell us about the film.

De Palma: The film is based on a French film made by Alain Corneau. It’s about the rivalry of two executives in an advertising firm in Germany.

So what was your inspiration for taking this film on?

De Palma: I liked the characters. In the original film, Kristin Scott Thomas played one of the women, and I liked their interaction. I thought the mystery was extremely clever, but there are some things about it that bothered me a little bit. I thought that Corneau revealed the murderer much too early, so there was no reason to keep on going through the film to figure out who killed who and why. So I tried to keep that hidden as long as possible.

Is this your first trip to Provincetown?

De Palma: Yes.

What do you think about it so far?

De Palma: It’s beautiful. I’m mainly here because my daughter is going to camp in the area, and I can send her off.

What other projects are you working on?

De Palma: Well, right now I’m developing a script based on the Joe Paterno/Sandusky case. It’s a very complicated, difficult, and tragic story.

What do you think about all this hoopla people are making over gay marriage in this country?

De Palma: Ridiculous. They should have the rights as any American citizen.

Why do you think it’s taking so long?

De Palma: Any unusual lifestyle sometimes takes a little while to be understood by the mass populace, I imagine.


Posted by Geoff at 12:00 AM CDT
Updated: Sunday, July 14, 2013 12:01 AM CDT
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Friday, July 12, 2013


Posted by Geoff at 5:40 PM CDT
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DE PALMA SETS RECORD STRAIGHT ON DAFT PUNK
WAS NEVER APPROACHED ABOUT DIRECTING A DAFT PUNK VIDEO;
"DAFT PUNK EXPRESSED AN INTEREST IN DOING SOMETHING WITH 'PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE'"

In a Twitter conversation last month, Empire magazine reviews editor Nick de Semlyen, who had just interviewed Brian De Palma, mentioned that De Palma was going to direct a music video for "the Paul Williams track" on Daft Punk's latest album, but that "it didn't work out."

Yesterday, The Playlist's Drew Taylor interviewed De Palma, and asked him about it. "I don't know where this rumor got started," De Palma said to Taylor. "Let's try to put an end to it here and now. Daft Punk expressed an interest in doing something with Phantom of the Paradise and when I was in Paris I met with them and we discussed it. They were in the process of finishing up their record." De Palma added, "It was never discussed, me doing a video for them. They expressed their excitement for Phantom of the Paradise and somehow, if we have a stage version, they might consider doing music for it. But that was as far as it went. It was very tentative, very initial discussions."

Taylor pressed on for more details about a stage version of Phantom. "They've tried to do a stage production for 30 years," De Palma told him. "Every once in a while there's a lot of excitement about it and then it fades away. It always seems like a good idea to me."

From 2009 until at least 2010, Paul Williams had been working with De Palma and Edward R. Pressman on a stage version of Phantom, something they have taken stabs at off and on for years. De Palma and Williams had tried to get a stage version going in 1987, and in 2003, Antonio Banderas discussed the possibility of taking on the title character for a stage version. For now, however, we have the incredible film from 1974. And, of course, the Baltimore Rock Opera Society.


Posted by Geoff at 5:22 PM CDT
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Thursday, July 11, 2013


Posted by Geoff at 9:38 PM CDT
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'BLOW OUT' COMES UP IN SEVERAL '80s BALLOTS
'THE UNTOUCHABLES' & 'BODY DOUBLE' ALSO MENTIONED ONE TIME EACH


Movie Mezzanine collected ballots from staff and friends listing their top ten movies of the 1980s. Brian De Palma's Blow Out was the number one pick of the site's editor-in-chief, Sam Fragoso, and so has the good fortune of being the very first film mentioned on the page, right at the very top. Four other lists included Blow Out: Kevin Ketchum (#7-- top film is Blade Runner); Kenji Fujishima (#5-- top film is Videodrome); Matt Prigge (#10-- top film is Modern Romance); and Jack Giroux (#6-- top film is Raiders of the Lost Ark). The day after the lists were posted, the site's James Blake Ewing posted an article about Blow Out as part of a series called "The Second Criterion."

Back to the lists, Scott Renshaw placed De Palma's The Untouchables at number nine on his list (top film: Airplane!), and senior editor Jake Cole placed De Palma's Body Double at number ten (top film: King Lear). The site is collecting readers' top tens in the comments section, and will post the results and analysis in about a month.

Meanwhile, Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeffrey Wells posted his choices, but displayed his own amazingly short-sighted "aesthetic perception problem" with the following notice at the top:

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Warning: It is the respectful opinion of this columnist that anyone who picks Brian DePalma‘s Blow Out as one of the great ’80s films either (a) has a serious aesthetic perception problem or (b) is being intentionally perverse. I tried watching the Criterion Bluray and I couldn’t get past the first 45 minutes or so.
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Posted by Geoff at 12:49 AM CDT
Updated: Thursday, July 11, 2013 7:13 AM CDT
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Wednesday, July 10, 2013
OLIVER STONE PRESENTS 'SCARFACE' SCREENING
AT KARLOVY VARY INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL LAST WEEK
Oliver Stone was at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival last week, where he received a Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Stone presented several of his films, including an "Ultimate Cut" of Alexander, and Scarface, for which he wrote the screenplay.

Stone posted the following about the fest on his Facebook page:
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Wonderful week long film festival. Was honored with the lifetime achievement award and was able to show "Alexander: The Ultimate Cut" in a large hall with wonderful projection. The film played out well for the first time. The Shanghai Film Festival projection was too dark almost by two full stops of exposure. Also able to show Chapter. 3 & 10 of "Untold History of the United States" to a very responsive young crowd.

They also screened "Scarface" (1983) at a packed screening of 1,500 people. The film doesn't feel dated. In fact, it seems slower, and was more able to concentrate on the acting of Al Pacino and wonderful supporting cast. Kudos to Miriam Colon and Robert Loggia. Also showing "Wall Street."

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In other Scarface happenings, a 36-minute video has been popping around the internet during the past few days. It seems to be the same video from the Scarface DVD special features. The video, broken down into three parts and posted to YouTube, was embedded in a post at The Playlist the other day, along with a terrific 1983 De Palma interview segment from The Movie Channel that was embedded here a couple of years ago.

Posted by Geoff at 12:26 AM CDT
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Sunday, July 7, 2013
MUST-SEE VIDEO: DE PALMA DIRECTING 'FEMME FATALE'
B-ROLL FOOTAGE: STUNTMEN, BRIDGE, BALCONY, POOL TABLE FIGHT, CANNES 2001

Posted by Geoff at 5:23 PM CDT
Updated: Sunday, July 7, 2013 5:23 PM CDT
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'PASSION' AT PORTUGAL'S VILA DO CONDE FEST
NATIONAL PREMIERE WAS LAST NIGHT; WILL ALSO SCREEN JULY 14
Brian De Palma's Passion screened last night to cap off the opening day of the Vila do Conde International Film Festival in Portugal. The "special session" was billed as the national premiere of the film. Passion will also screen on the closing night of the festival next Sunday, July 14.

Posted by Geoff at 4:10 PM CDT
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OFFICIAL SITE FOR 'PASSION' IS LIVE


The official web site for Brian De Palma's Passion is up and running. It features the new trailer, pictures (same ones we've seen before), bios and other production notes, many of which are borrowed from the Wild Bunch press kit published last year. But there are also fresh descriptions, such as this one from the "Synopsis" page: "With his trademark mix of wit, melodrama and lush cinematic style, De Palma peels back the layers of a spiraling murder mystery that is as full of jet-black humor and villainous fun as it [is] with doubts and suspense. For deep beneath the icy, cool veneer of modern life and work, De Palma playfully exposes a realm where the wildest passions rage."

And there is also this lead in from the "Talk" page:

"Throughout a career that has spanned four decades and some of the most suspenseful and provocative films of contemporary cinema, Brian De Palma’s storytelling has been fueled, informed and inspired by the shifting fascinations of popular culture. In Carrie, based on the blockbuster Stephen King novel, he exposed the shocking horror beneath the allure of teen-aged angst and high-school drama. In Dressed To Kill he stripped the popular crime thriller down to its erotic core of sexual obsessions. With Scarface he flipped the American gangster movie into a moral fable of brutal excess in the name of ambition. In Mission: Impossible, he re-tooled the Cold War spy movie into a breathless exploration of paranoia via high-tech style.

"Now, with his new film, Passion, De Palma puts his own twist on the latest incarnation of the thriller: the corporate thriller set against our 21st Century enthrallment with money, power, image and control. But this deadly corporate battle unfolds between two beautiful, complicated, ambitious women who have taken the gloves off and become as aggressive and merciless as any of their male higher-ups in the boy’s club. Using the divergent personalities of Rachel McAdams as the icy blonde executive Christine and Noomi Rapace as her secretive brunette protégé Isabelle, De Palma tells a story of go-getting that has gone too far — to a deliciously dark place, where these two characters have come to believe that any desire, no matter how kinky or vengefully wicked, can be attained if you’re willing to work hard, do your research and abandon all morals."


Posted by Geoff at 2:41 AM CDT
Updated: Sunday, July 7, 2013 2:51 PM CDT
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Friday, July 5, 2013
'PASSION' MAKES DAYOUB'S 2013 MIDYEAR BEST LIST
Many saw Brian De Palma's Passion at film festivals last fall. Some of those viewers already placed Passion on their top 10 best lists for 2012. Now, knowing that De Palma's latest will be released in U.S. theaters next month, Cinema Viewfinder's Tony Dayoub has placed Passion on his midyear list of the best films (so far) of 2013. Here's what Dayoub posted about the film today:

"That this illogical but virtuosic movie still ranks so high despite the fact that I saw it at a press screening last September should tell you how strongly I believe in it. Detractors will scream at the movie's nonsensical plot holes. What, they never saw Dressed to Kill? If you allow De Palma to put you under the picture's dreamy thrall I guarantee you will be swept up by one hell of an erotic suspense thriller."

Posted by Geoff at 7:26 PM CDT
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