DE PALMA SERIES IN PARIS & ARGENTINA
PARIS: NEW PRINTS OF 'DRESSED TO KILL' & 'BLOW OUT', MORE
ARGENTINA TV: FILMOTECA PROGRAMS WEEK OF LESSER-SEEN WORKS
ALSO, LONDON: RARE 'BODY DOUBLE' SCREENING (OVER-AND-DONE)
ALSO, U.S.: AMC CHANNEL FEATURES 'MISSION TO MARS' WITH POP-UP STORY NOTES
This photo was sent in by reader Andreas Kröneck, who found himself standing in the lobby of Paris'
Cinema le Grand Action just after a double feature last night, made up of brand new 2K digital prints of
Brian De Palma's
Dressed To Kill and
Blow Out. According to the theater's website, champagne and snacks were to be served during an intermission between the two films. There will be more chances to see these new prints, as the Le Grand Action is taking the opportunity to run a
De Palma cycle through August, featuring the two aforementioned films, as well as
Body Double (which Andreas was aiming to catch last night),
Casualties Of War,
The Bonfire Of The Vanities,
Carrie,
Snake Eyes,
Mission: Impossible, and
Redacted.
'MURDER A LA MOD', 'GREETINGS', 'SISTERS', & 'REDACTED' PROGRAMMED BY CRITICS IN ARGENTINA
In Argnetina this week (July 23-26), the Channel 7 program
Filmoteca will show four lesser-seen De Palma films selected by film critics
Fernando Martín Peña and
Fabio Manes. Each film will be introduced by the respected critics (an example of Peña's writing can be read
in this translated piece on Fritz Lang's Metropolis). The films scheduled are:
Redacted (Monday, July 23rd),
Greetings (Tuesday, July 24th),
Murder A La Mod (Wednesday, July 25th), and
Sisters (Thursday, July 26th).
'BODY DOUBLE' IN LONDON
Late notice here, but De Palma's Body Double had two late night screenings this past weekend at the Hackney Picture House. "One of the highlights of the year on Friday and Saturday night this week," Capital Celluloid's Tony Paley posted Friday. "Two very rare screenings of Brian De Palma's underrated mid-1980s Hitchcockian thriller." Paley added Dave Kehr's review from the Chicago Reader:
--------------------------------------"It pains me to say it, but I think Brian De Palma has gotten a bad rap on this one: the first hour of this thriller represents the most restrained, accomplished, and effective filmmaking he has ever done, and if the film does become more jokey and incontinent as it follows its derivative path, it never entirely loses the goodwill De Palma engenders with his deft opening sequences.
Craig Wasson is an unemployed actor who is invited to house-sit a Hollywood Hills mansion; he becomes voyeuristically involved with his beautiful neighbor across the way, and witnesses her murder. Those who have seen
Vertigo will have solved the mystery within the first 15 minutes, but De Palma's use of frame lines and focal lengths to define Wasson's point of view is so adept that the suspense takes hold anyway. De Palma's borrowings from Hitchcock can no longer be characterized as hommages or even as outright thievery; his concentration on Hitchcockian motifs is so complete and so fetishized that it now seems purely a matter of repetition compulsion. But
Body Double is the first De Palma film to make me think that all of his practice is leading at least to the beginnings of perfection. With
Gregg Henry and
Melanie Griffith."
By Dave Kehr
-----------------------------------'MISSION TO MARS' WITH POP-UP STORY NOTES ON AMC TUESDAY NIGHTFinally, the AMC network will show De Palma's
Mission To Mars Tuesday (July 24th) at 8pm eastern, with pop-up story notes. The channel is also showing the film today (Sunday) at 5pm eastern, but it is unclear whether that showing will include the story notes. In any case, for those who can't (or don't wish to) catch the program on the newtwork, the story notes can be read on the
AMC Blog.
Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn, New York, begins a new midnight series this weekend called "The Works," which "pays special attention and homage to the people and concepts who inspire a closer look," according to the Nitehawk website. "As Nitehawk’s extended series, The Works highlights a director, actor, composer, genre, or influencer on select midnight screenings over a three-month period."
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