De Palma a la Mod

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

'GET TO KNOW YOUR RABBIT' SATURDAY @ NEW BEV
RARE CHANCE TO SEE EARLY DE PALMA FILM IN 35MM PRINT, PROGRAMMED BY TARANTINO

Beginning tonight, and through this upcoming weekend, Quentin Tarantino's New Beverly Cinema will celebrate the Orson Welles centennial with several Welles-related films. Welles was born 100 years ago today. Included in the series will be a midnight showing this Saturday (May 9) of Brian De Palma's first studio feature, Get To Know Your Rabbit, in which Welles appears as a tap-dancing magician instructor. Warner Bros. eventually fired De Palma from the film and locked him out of the editing room, but thankfully, De Palma had already begun his no-coverage shooting method, creating passages of film that stand today as unmistakably De Palma-esque, both in style and tone. Also, the casting of Allen Garfield marks a nice throughline continuation of comic absurdity from De Palma's Greetings, to Hi, Mom!, and then to Rabbit.

It is not certain whether the 35mm print of Get To Know Your Rabbit will be from Tarantino's own private collection, or is being provided by the Warner Bros. archives. Thompson on Hollywood's Anne Thompson reports that since Tarantino took over programming the New Beverly, it has been a success, and that Tarantino, with help from three managers, is still very much in charge of programming, even while he continues to shoot his new movie, The Hateful Eight. Thompson writes, "One of [Tarantino's] producers, Coco Francini, reached out to tell me that he's been able to move beyond his own collection--which accounts for about 50 % of the programming-- to pull amazing prints of films people had not seen in a long time from the Paramount and Warner Bros. archives, among others. He programs 90% of the films shown at the New Beverly, enjoying taking breaks from filming to figure out which films go together, she said. Getting art to go with the prints can be a challenge, however."

(Thanks to Matthew!)

Posted by Geoff at 4:16 AM CDT
Updated: Wednesday, May 6, 2015 4:23 AM CDT
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Monday, May 4, 2015

ELLROY: 'DAHLIA' SCRIPT WAS NOT GOOD
NOT WITH FINCHER, AND THEN NOT WITH DE PALMA

James Ellroy, promoting his latest novel, Perfidia, tells Telerama's Laurent Rigoulet that the screenplay for the film adaptation of his book The Black Dahlia was not good. The screenplay was written by Josh Friedman, working under the direction of David Fincher. When Fincher dropped out, De Palma took over direction of the project, retaining Friedman as screenwriter. After talking about watching TV series such as The Killing, Homeland (Season One), and Mad Men, Rigoulet asks Ellroy if he is ever asked to work on such series, which leads him to mention that he is currently working on a series with Fincher, which leads him to talk about the Dahlia film:

"Sure, they want Ellroy," Ellroy tells Rigoulet. "One only has to look at all the ideas that True Detective pinched from me! I hate that series, it's a handjob. They order a lot of things from me, but it rarely leads to anything. It takes so much money and compromise ... I'm currently working with David Fincher on a series that would take place in Hollywood in the 50's. The hero is the private detective Fred Otash, who investigated the stars and was in league with tabloids, like in Confidential. I always admired Fincher. He had long tried to adapt The Black Dahlia, but his script was not good, and it was then taken and killed for the version that was released in 2006, directed by Brian De Palma. When the project collapsed, Fincher shot Zodiac, a beautiful thriller about obsession, and one of my favorite movies, much better than LA Confidential."

(Thanks to Luu!)

Posted by Geoff at 11:58 PM CDT
Updated: Tuesday, May 5, 2015 12:05 AM CDT
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Friday, May 1, 2015

'PASSION' REVIEW - ALFRED EAKER'S FRINGE CINEMA
"WARHOLIAN POP VIBE VIA MOD THRILLER"

An excerpt from Alfred Eaker's review of Brian De Palma's Passion, posted at 366 Weird Movies:

"Whittling down De Palma’s diving board to Hitchcock is also woefully inadequate. When an art critic listed 90 of Picasso’s influences, the artist wrote back: 'You forgot Gauguin.' Sergei Eisenstein, Jean-Luc Godard, Andy Warhol, Orson Welles, Michelangleo Antonioni, Sam Peckinpah, Francis Ford Coppola, Irvin Kirshner, Martin Scorsese and Robert Flaherty have all informed De Palma’s work and are filtered through his pre-existing sensibilities, which include a background in mathematics and avant-garde narrative. This diversity renders De Palma far more eclectic than any of his predecessors or peers.

"Contrary to the claims of populist criticism, an aesthetic path is rarely linear. De Palma’s malleability is evident in his returns to low budget satire (1980’s Home Movies), observational cinema (2007’s Redacted), and the Warholian pop vibe via mod thriller of 2002’s Femme Fatale and 2012’s Passion.

"De Palma once again makes use of a grandly dated split-screen, juxtaposed to Pino Donaggio’s hyper-lush score, dressing and undressing the oozing, ribald, kinky milieu. More than once, De Palma quotes Dressed To Kill, throwing in Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace as the AC/DC couple who go the distance to liven up a potentially dull advertising firm with dark red lipstick, Skype, high-heeled Euro fashion, chic Debussy, explosive sex tapes, provocative primary colors, slow-mo pursuits, and a gleaming stiletto.

"True to form, De Palma milks manipulative bad acting from his two leads, which punctuates the obligatory opulent set piece (an impressionistic ballet) and unfolding illicit crime caper.

"Passion giddily enjoys being a movie for the sake of movies. A few bourgeoisie critics have complained that De Palma is simply stuck on repeat mode, but if you are willing to entertain his inviting disregard for neorealist trends, you may discover a deepening of his art and be transported into a celluloid Canaan."

Posted by Geoff at 12:21 AM CDT
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Wednesday, April 29, 2015

'BODY DOUBLE' IN TORONTO MAY 7
2ND FILM IN THE NEON DREAMS CINEMA CLUB, FIRST THURSDAY EVERY MONTH

The Neon Dreams Cinema Club meets for a screening every first Thursday of the month, at The Royal Cinema in Toronto. The club kicked off last month with a screening of William Friedkin's To Live And Die In L.A., and continues May 7th with a 9pm screening of Brian De Palma's Body Double.

"Imagine a world where people’s worst impulses and darkest desires are stimulated by a landscape of synth-pop and bright neon lights," reads the website/Facebook description of the Neon Dreams Cinema Club. "Nothing is quite as it seems as you surrender yourself to the dazzling sights and soothing sounds of the Neon Dreams Cinema Club, a monthly film series exclusive to The Royal Cinema bringing you the best in delightfully surreal neo-noir cinema from the 70's, 80's, and beyond. So come on down, grab a beverage, get comfortable, and let us usher you into a state of adrenaline-fuelled excess."

Posted by Geoff at 9:53 PM CDT
Updated: Wednesday, April 29, 2015 9:00 PM CDT
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Monday, April 27, 2015

TWEETS & TUMBLRS
'UNTOUCHABLES' & EDWARD HOPPER / 'CARRIE' & 'DRESSED TO KILL' / WOMAN IN WHITE

Posted by Geoff at 11:01 PM CDT
Updated: Monday, April 27, 2015 11:03 PM CDT
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Sunday, April 26, 2015

MORRICONE: DE PALMA NEVER SMILES
"BUT HE IS A GREAT DIRECTOR: VERY GOOD AT CHOOSING STORIES... VERY ACCURATE"

This morning, Esquire U.K. posted Ennio Morricone's "What I've Learned -- The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly composer in his own words." Here are two or three (click the link above to read the whole thing)...

"I wake early. I do some physical exercise in the house. Then, around 7am, I go out to buy the newspapers. I read the newspapers. I wait for my wife to wake up and then we have breakfast. I start work around 8.30am. And that’s my day, that’s my routine."

"In Django Unchained [2012], there’s that sequence where a dog attacks and eats a man. That was too much. I sent a message to Quentin Tarantino and told him that was too strong."

"Brian De Palma never smiles. But he is a great director: very good at choosing stories, he pays a lot of attention to the screenplay and he’s very accurate."

Posted by Geoff at 10:14 AM CDT
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Thursday, April 23, 2015

ALLISON CRUTCHFIELD COVERS 'PHANTOM' SONG
'FAUX REAL II' - REAL BANDS COVERING FICTIONAL BANDS, OUT NEXT WEEK ON VINYL

Allison Crutchfield, singer/guitarist of the band Swearin' (and twin sister of Waxahatchee's Katie Crutchfield), has recorded a cover of the Paul Williams-written "Special To Me," the Phoenix audition song from Brian De Palma's Phantom Of The Paradise. The song appears on the compilation Faux Real II, which will be released on vinyl April 28, 2015, on Father/Daughter Records. The album, a sequel to last year's Record Store Day release Faux Real, features real-life bands covering songs by fictional ones-- songs written to be performed by characters from films, TV shows, cartoons, and so on. The cover of the album includes the credit, "Allison Crutchfield as Jessica Harper." You can listen to Crutchfield's version of the Phantom song on SoundCloud.

Crutchfield tells NME, "I first saw Phantom Of The Paradise at my dear friend Perry Shall's birthday. He'd organized a screening at his house because it's one of his favorites, and though I was wary to watch a movie I'd never heard of, I was immediately in love with everything about it. Every element is so nuanced and bizarre and oddly specific to this weird little scene that is ruled (and scored) flawlessly by Paul Williams. The song Phoenix sings in the audition scene is my favourite because it's literally her make-or-break moment and she handles it like a true badass singing a weird perfect pop song."

Posted by Geoff at 9:07 PM CDT
Updated: Thursday, April 23, 2015 9:11 PM CDT
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Sunday, April 19, 2015

'OBSESSION' SATURDAY AT BAM in NEW YORK
DCP, PAIRED WITH '4 VERTIGO', ALL PART OF SERIES "THE VERTIGO EFFECT"

Brian De Palma's Obsession will screen from DCP this Saturday, April 25th, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, as part of the BAMcinématek series, "The Vertigo Effect". The series, which began April 16th, and runs through April 30th, is co-curated by C. Mason Wells. "Christian Petzold’s remarkable new film, Phoenix, is the latest in a long line of movies influenced by Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo," reads the BAMcinématek description of the series. "Nearly six decades after its release, this towering 1958 masterpiece continues to tantalize filmmakers with its many potent themes: erotic obsession, identity, doubles, and the link between sex and death. BAMcinématek presents a series of rich, fascinating works in which Vertigo’s shadow looms large."

De Palma's film will screen two times April 25th, at 7pm, and 9:30pm, along with Les LeVeque's 9-minute long 4 Vertigo, in which "Hitchcock’s film is sped up, compressed, and jumbled into a nine-minute, kaleidoscopic hallucination," according to the BAMcinématek description. Of Obsession, the website states, "Nearly twenty years after his wife’s tragic death, a guilt-ridden man (Robertson) meets her exact lookalike (Bujold)—cue obsessive makeover and intricate series of double crosses. With a script by Paul Schrader, endlessly swirling camerawork, and a deliriously romantic score by Vertigo composer Bernard Herrmann, De Palma’s florid tribute to Hitchcock creates a spellbinding mood all its own."

Other films in the series include Larry Cohen's Special Effects, Lucio Fulci's Perversion Story, Terry Gilliam's Twelve Monkeys, Mel Brooks' High Anxiety, and Chris Marker's La Jetée, among several others.

Posted by Geoff at 11:57 PM CDT
Updated: Monday, April 20, 2015 12:22 AM CDT
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Saturday, April 18, 2015

CRITERION SUITING UP 'DRESSED TO KILL'?
NANCY ALLEN'S THROWBACK TO LAST THURSDAY LETS THE CAT OUT OF THE BAG

Posted by Geoff at 1:45 AM CDT
Updated: Saturday, April 18, 2015 2:42 AM CDT
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Monday, April 13, 2015

'UNTOUCHABLES' TUESDAY IN CHICAGO
CHICAGO FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION EVENT HOSTED BY PETER SOBCZYNSKI

Brian De Palma's The Untouchables will screen twice on Tuesday, April 14-- at 1pm and 7pm at the Elk Grove Theatre (sometimes referred to as the Elk Grove Cinema). This is a Chicago Film Critics Association special event, and will be hosted by Peter Sobczynski, who will also lead a post-film discussion. De Palma is Sobczynski's favorite director, so it should be lively.

Posted by Geoff at 11:32 PM CDT
Updated: Monday, April 13, 2015 11:36 PM CDT
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