Hello and welcome to the unofficial Brian De Palma website.
Here is the latest news:

De Palma a la Mod

E-mail
Geoffsongs@aol.com

De Palma Discussion
Forum

-------------

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

-------------

Exclusive Passion
Interviews:

Brian De Palma
Karoline Herfurth
Leila Rozario

------------

AV Club Review
of Dumas book

------------

« December 2012 »
S M T W T F S
1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31

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
Betty Buckley
Bill Pankow
Black Dahlia
Blow Out
Blue Afternoon
Body Double
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
Daft Punk
Dancing In The Dark
David Koepp
De Niro
De Palma & Donaggio
De Palma (doc)
De Palma Blog-A-Thon
De Palma Discussion
Demolished Man
Dick Vorisek
Dionysus In '69
Domino
Dressed To Kill
Edward R. Pressman
Eric Schwab
Fatal Attraction
Femme Fatale
Film Series
Fire
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Fury, The
Genius of Love
George Litto
Get To Know Your Rabbit
Ghost & The Darkness
Greetings
Happy Valley
Havana Film Fest
Heat
Hi, Mom!
Hitchcock
Home Movies
Inspired by De Palma
Iraq, etc.
Jack Fisk
Jared Martin
Jerry Greenberg
Keith Gordon
Key Man, The
Laurent Bouzereau
Lights Out
Lithgow
Magic Hour
Magnificent Seven
Mission To Mars
Mission: Impossible
Mod
Montreal World Film Fest
Morricone
Mr. Hughes
Murder a la Mod
Nancy Allen
Nazi Gold
Newton 1861
Noah Baumbach
NYFF
Obsession
Oliver Stone
Palmetto
Paranormal Activity 2
Parker
Parties & Premieres
Passion
Paul Hirsch
Paul Schrader
Pauline Kael
Peet Gelderblom
Phantom Of The Paradise
Pimento
Pino Donaggio
Predator
Prince Of The City
Print The Legend
Raggedy Ann
Raising Cain
Red Shoes, The
Redacted
Responsive Eye
Retribution
Rie Rasmussen
Robert De Niro
Rotwang muß weg!
Sakamoto
Scarface
Scorsese
Sean Penn
Sensuous Woman, The
Sisters
Snake Eyes
Sound Mixer
Spielberg
Star Wars
Stepford Wives
Stephen H Burum
Sweet Vengeance
Tabloid
Tarantino
Taxi Driver
Terry
The Tale
To Bridge This Gap
Toronto Film Fest
Toyer
Travolta
Treasure Sierra Madre
Tru Blu
Truth And Other Lies
TV Appearances
Untitled Ashton Kutcher
Untitled Hollywood Horror
Untitled Industry-Abuse M
Untouchables
Venice Beach
Vilmos Zsigmond
Wedding Party
William Finley
Wise Guys
Woton's Wake
Blog Tools
Edit your Blog
Build a Blog
RSS Feed
View Profile
You are not logged in. Log in
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
R.I.P. CHARLES DURNING
APPEARED IN DE PALMA'S 'HI, MOM!', 'SISTERS', & 'THE FURY'; VOICE DUB IN 'SCARFACE'
Charles During, who appeared in three Brian De Palma films, passed away on Christmas Eve of natural causes, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He was 89. Durning was a World War II veteran who was part of the D-Day invasion, and received a Silver Star and three Purple Hearts, the Hollywood Reporter article states.

One of his earliest film roles was as the snarly superintendent who shows Robert De Niro's character a New York apartment at the beginning of De Palma's Hi, Mom! in 1970. De Palma cast Durning in 1973's Sisters as the private detective who helps Grace track down the body of the man she sees murdered from her apartment window.

In De Palma's The Fury (1978), Durning took a serious turn as the director of the Paragon Institute, who studies psychic abilities, and who tries in vain to protect Gillian from the sinister grasp of Childress, played by John Cassavetes. Following an intense episode with Gillian on the stairs of the institute, Durning is chilling as, shot from above, he orders his staff to take precautions around the powerful psychic. Durning also provided an uncredited voice overdub as an immigration officer in the opening interrogation scene of De Palma's Scarface (1983).

Prior to Scarface, Durning had worked with Al Pacino on Sidney Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon. He would work with Pacino again in Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy. Durning also worked with De Niro again in 1981, for Ulu Grosbard's True Confessions, which was based on the unsolved murder of Elizabeth Short, later the subject of De Palma's The Black Dahlia.

Rutanya Alda appeared in both Hi, Mom! and The Fury. A year after the latter, Durning and Alda both appeared in the cult movie When A Stranger Calls (and Durning later reprised his role in the 1993 made-for-TV sequel). In 1986, Durning appeared in Cassavetes' Big Trouble (Cassavetes would take acting jobs in films such as De Palma's The Fury in order to help finance his own independent features). That same year, Durning appeared in Tough Guys, which starred Kirk Douglas, the big name star of The Fury.

Just prior to the incident on the stairs in The Fury, Durning's character tells Gillian that at her age, his one great ambition was to be Fred Astaire. In fact, Durning was once a dance instructor at the Fred Astaire Dance Studios, where he met his first wife, Carol, a fellow dance instructor. Their daughter Jeanine Durning is a New York-based choreographer and modern dancer.

Durning is perhaps best known for his roles in George Roy Hill's The Sting and in Sydney Pollack's Tootsie, but he was nominated for supporting actor Oscars two years in a row: in 1983, for his role in The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas (for which Durning sang and danced), and, in 1984, for his role in To Be Or Not To Be. Durning also appeared in two Coen Brothers films, The Hudsucker Proxy and O Brother, Where Art Thou?, as well as a film by Billy Wilder, The Front Page. Durning was also a friend of Burt Reynolds, and collaborated with him on several projects.


Posted by Geoff at 6:18 PM CST
Updated: Wednesday, December 26, 2012 12:53 AM CST
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Sunday, December 23, 2012
'CARRIE' SOUNDTRACK IN LIMITED RE-RELEASE
THIS TIME, JUST ONE-DISC EDITION FROM KRITZERLAND
A couple of years ago, Kritzerland released a two-disc limited edition of Pino Donaggio's soundtrack from Brian De Palma's Carrie, which sold out rather quickly. Now, the company is releasing a one-disc edition, limited to 1000 copies. The second disc on the previous edition consisted of the original LP release from 1976. Since the first disc featured new remixes of the entire score from Carrie, plus instrumental versions of the two songs Donaggio had provided music for, the new release consists of only that disc. And what more is needed, really?
(Thanks to Randy!)

Posted by Geoff at 12:26 PM CST
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Saturday, December 22, 2012
'PHANTOM' TO PLAY AT PAUL WILLIAMS FILM SERIES
WITH WILLIAMS IN ATTENDANCE, AT MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE IN JANUARY

The Museum Of The Moving Image in New York will hold a concentrated retrospective of Paul Williams films the weekend of January 25-27, 2013. Williams will be present for each film screening, which kicks off at 7pm Friday, January 25, with Brian De Palma's Phantom Of The Paradise. The other films are The Muppet Movie, Ishtar, and the recent documentary, Paul Williams: Still Alive.

Posted by Geoff at 3:43 PM CST
Updated: Saturday, December 22, 2012 3:45 PM CST
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
VIDEO - NOOMI BRIEFLY TALKS 'PASSION' & RACHEL
"IT WAS A REALLY INTENSE JOURNEY FOR ME"

In the video above, Noomi Rapace is interviewed at the British Independent Film Awards, and at one point is asked about working with Rachel McAdams on Brian De Palma's Passion. "Oh, we had such a great time," replies Rapace. "We were in Berlin for three months. And I love working with her, we had such a… it was fun, even though we didn’t really like each other on screen, but... [laughs, then looks serious again]. And it was a really intense journey for me."

Posted by Geoff at 6:41 PM CST
Updated: Tuesday, December 11, 2012 6:44 PM CST
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Sunday, December 9, 2012
SAGNIER EAGER TO SEE 'PASSION'
SAYS HER MEMORY OF 'LOVE CRIME' IS TAINTED BY THE PAIN OF CORNEAU'S DEATH
The Guardian's Xan Brooks interviewed Ludivine Sagnier about her career and her work on Alain Corneau's Love Crime. Here is the passage in which they discuss that film, and Brian De Palma's remake of it:
---------------------------------

In her latest film, Love Crime, Sagnier plays a corporate worm that turns. For the first half she's the supplicant, sweating through an agonising, quasi-sexual relationship with her implacable boss (Kristin Scott Thomas). For the second she's the agent of change, apparently martyring herself in the service of committing the perfect crime. "Human beings are so complicated," grumbles the detective called in to clean up the mess.

Sagnier explains that she actually shot Love Crime three years ago and that her memory of it is coloured by the subsequent death of its director, Alain Corneau. "I mean, I do like the movie," she stresses. "But for me it's tainted by frustration and so much pain, because he died on the very week it got released in France." Corneau, she now realises, was suffering from lung cancer while the picture was being shot. In hindsight this explains a lot.

"In France we have a saying: 'He never put his arms down.' Forward, forward, never stop, which was very difficult for me and Kristin. He was like a little boy playing with iron soldiers and we were the soldiers. He wouldn't talk, wouldn't listen, and we had to do exactly what he wanted. It was like he only had so much energy to spare. He must have known he did not have much time left."

The film, she adds, has just been remade by Brian De Palma, as Passion. She's eager to see it; she wants to know if the sexual undercurrent has been brought to the fore.

What if the new version is better than hers? Wouldn't that make her mad? She gives an airy shrug. "I would not be surprised."


Posted by Geoff at 12:00 PM CST
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Saturday, December 8, 2012
PAUL WILLIAMS TEAMING UP WITH DEL TORO
FOR STAGE MUSICAL VERSION OF 'PAN'S LABYRINTH', & ANIMATED 'DAY OF THE DEAD'
Deadline's Mike Fleming Jr. posted the other day that Paul Williams has just signed on to write lyrics for a stage musical version of Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, which del Toro has been quietly working on for four years. The music is being written by Gustavo Santaolalla. "I admire and love Gustavo and Paul wrote the perfect album in Phantom Of The Paradise, which I have loved for decades," del Toro told Fleming. In 2010, Harry Knowles wrote about how one night, del Toro had spent "hours" telling Knowles why he wanted to remake Phantom Of The Paradise, which is one of his very favorite films.

Del Toro also revealed to Fleming that Santaolalla and Williams are writing songs for the animated film Day Of The Dead, which del Toro is producing for Reel FX. That project is being directed and co-written by Jorge R. Gutierrez, and will be released in the fall of 2014.

Since 2009, Williams has been working with Brian De Palma and Edward R. Pressman on a stage version of Phantom Of The Paradise, 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 7:51 PM CST
Updated: Monday, January 27, 2014 7:54 PM CST
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Friday, December 7, 2012
'FEMME FATALE' AT NY MUSEUM OF MOVING IMAGE
SCREENED FRIDAY AS PART OF SERIES "THE CINEMA AND ITS DOUBLES"
Sorry about catching word of this too late (the screening is happening as I write this), but I had to note that Brian De Palma's Femme Fatale is screening tonight at New York's Museum Of The Moving Image, as part of the series "The Cinema and its Doubles." I especially like the quote at the Moving Image site from Jonathan Rosenbaum, which I don't recall ever reading before. According to the site, Rosenbaum called Femme Fatale "a synthesis of every previous Brian De Palma film... I enjoyed every minute of it, maybe because De Palma took such obvious pleasure in putting it together."

Posted by Geoff at 8:40 PM CST
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
RUMOR: NEW 'SCARFACE' TO BE MEXICAN
FACT: 'DONNIE BRASCO' WRITER PAUL ATTANASIO HIRED TO REWRITE SCREENPLAY


This past October, Deadline's Mike Fleming Jr. posted the news that Universal had hired Paul Attanasio to rewrite David Ayer's original draft of the new Scarface film being produced by Marc Shmuger and Martin Bregman. Fleming wrote that "the film is not intended to be a remake or a sequel. It will take the common elements of the first two films: An outsider, an immigrant, barges his way into the criminal establishment in pursuit of a twisted version of the American dream, becoming a kingpin through a campaign of ruthlessness and violent ambition. The studio is keeping the specifics of where the new Tony character comes from under wraps at the moment, but ethnicity and geography were important in the first two versions."

Latino Review's El Mayimbe took the "keeping under wraps" part of that paragraph as a challenge, and claims to have discovered, via unnamed sources, that the new Tony "is actually Mexican and the remake takes place in the world of drug cartels." We shall see.


Posted by Geoff at 11:52 PM CST
Post Comment | View Comments (3) | Permalink | Share This Post
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
CRUISE TRIBUTE TO INCLUDE 'MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE'
DEC 17-20 INCLUDES CAREER DISCUSSION AT LINCOLN CENTER IN NEW YORK
Tom Cruise will discuss his film career with the New York Film Festival's director of programming, Kent Jones, at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's An Evening with Tom Cruise on Monday, December 17. The conversation will be followed by a preview screening of Jack Reacher, the potential Cruise franchise vehicle-starter directed by Christopher McQuarrie that opens in theaters that following Friday. In between those days, the Tom Cruise tribute continues with seven films programmed by Scott Foundas, including Brian De Palma's Mission: Impossible, which will screen at 6:30pm on Thursday, December 20. The other films are Tony Scott's Top Gun, Paul Brickman's Risky Business, Barry Levinson's Rain Man, Oliver Stone's Born On The Fourth Of July, Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire, and Ed Zwick's The Last Samurai.

Last month, Deadline's Mike Fleming Jr. posted that McQuarrie will direct the fifth Mission: Impossible film, which will be produced by Cruise and JJ Abrams. Writers were still to be hired for the project, according to Fleming, but it would seem likely that McQuarrie himself would be involved in the writing, as he has written every film he has directed so far, including the screenplay adaptation of Jack Reacher, from the Lee Child novel One Shot. McQuarrie also co-wrote the screenplay for Valkyrie, which starred Cruise and was directed by Bryan Singer.

Posted by Geoff at 7:18 PM CST
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Saturday, December 1, 2012
FRIGHT RAGS REVEALS NEW 'PHANTOM' SHIRT
AND DE PALMA'S FILM TO HAVE FEBRUARY MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS IN CHICAGO


Fright Rags last week revealed a new T-shirt design (above) inspired by Brian De Palma's Phantom Of The Paradise. The shirt sells for $21.95, and is advertised as "A super smooth screenprint on the softest 100% pre-shrunk ringspun cotton." Fright Rags also has a Carrie design available.

This next bit of news comes to us courtesy the great and highly informative Swan Archives. Chicago's Music Box Theatre will screen Phantom Of The Paradise on two nights this upcoming February, as part of its ongoing Midnight Movies series. Phantom will screen on Friday and Saturday nights, February 15 and 16. Here is the Music Box website's description of the film:

"Praise be to whatever dark lord made this unholy masterpiece! Brian De Palma’s glam-rock musical, featuring songs by Paul Williams, is a coked-out mashup of T. Rex, Hitchcock, Universal Monsters, and Rocky Horror. Winslow Leach is a promising musician whose work is stolen by the evil producer Swan (played to pig-faced perfection by Paul Williams). tortured and beaten for attempting to reclaim his music, Winslow transforms into the steel-toothed, cape-wearing, leather-clad Phantom, out to wreak havoc upon Swan’s new nightclub, The Paradise!"


Posted by Geoff at 10:22 AM CST
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post

Newer | Latest | Older