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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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« December 2015 »
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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
Bart De Palma
Beaune Thriller Fest
Becoming Visionary
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Bill Pankow
Black Dahlia
Blow Out
Blue Afternoon
Body Double
Bonfire Of The Vanities
Books
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Bruce Springsteen
Cannes
Capone Rising
Carlito's Way
Carrie
Casualties Of War
Catch And Kill
Cinema Studies
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Columbo - Shooting Script
Congo
Conversation, The
Cop-Out
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De Palma & Donaggio
De Palma (doc)
De Palma Blog-A-Thon
De Palma Discussion
Demolished Man
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Dionysus In '69
Domino
Dressed To Kill
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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
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Hi, Mom!
Hitchcock
Home Movies
Inspired by De Palma
Iraq, etc.
Jack Fisk
Jared Martin
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Keith Gordon
Key Man, The
Laurent Bouzereau
Lights Out
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Magic Hour
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Mod
Montreal World Film Fest
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Murder a la Mod
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Phantom Of The Paradise
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Print The Legend
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Raising Cain
Red Shoes, The
Redacted
Responsive Eye
Retribution
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Rotwang muß weg!
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Sisters
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Tuesday, December 1, 2015
CARLOTTA'S 'BODY DOUBLE' BLU IS REGION-FREE
SOURCED FROM SONY 4K REMASTER; BLU-RAY.COM REVIEW - "VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED"
Blu-ray.com's Dr. Svet Atanasov has an early review of Carlotta's Body Double Ultra Collector's Box. Atanasov states that the Blu-ray of the film, which was sourced from Sony's 4K remaster, is region-free. "Therefore," writes Atanasov, "you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location. For the record, there is no problematic PAL or 1080/50i content preceding the disc's main menu."

A highlight of this package is a new 39-minute Fiction Factory doc in which, according to Atanasov, "first assistant director Joe Napolitano recalls his first encounter with Brian De Palma (which was prior to the shooting of Blow Out) and discusses the director's working methods, the shooting of various sequences from Body Double (with some very interesting comments about Melanie Griffith's performance), the desire to make the sleezy side of the adult world depicted in the film look classy, production designer Ida Random's invaluable contribution to the film, the various locations that were used in the films, some of the unique framing choices that were made, the brilliant use of music, etc."

Atanasov writes, "This is a film with endless twists, but the majority of them are actually irrelevant. The bulk of the lines that are exchanged in it are also irrelevant. That's right. What matters here is the style that blends everything together and the mood that emerges from it.

"The events that ensue after Jake moves into the luxurious house send the film into two drastically different realities. In the first hordes of mainstream actors try hard to become stars while the wealthy enjoy the very best Los Angeles has to offer. This is the clean and healthy reality most people want to spend their time in. In the second a different group of actors are making the type of films the other reality does not recognize. It is here that Jake meets Holly Body (Melanie Griffith), a bubbly beauty and prolific adult actress, who agrees to help him get the mysterious man.

"The film's charm comes from De Palma's ability to effectively target various cliches that characterize the two realities. (See the incredibly funny sequence where Holly Body humiliates the mainstream actress). And while he does it, he also plays with the many genre rules Hitchcock's films established. The end result is truly remarkable. Despite the intended overstylization, or perhaps because of it, the film offers a strikingly accurate summation of Los Angeles from the 1980s and its people. This is a place of remarkable contrasts, wealth and power, beauty and cruelty, and people with admirable ambitions and dangerous desires.

"Pino Donaggio collaborated with De Palma on a number of different projects during the years, but his contribution to this film remains his best work. There are various sequences where the light electronic music -- not the visuals, the camera movement, or the actors -- actually changes the rhythm of the film. Also, there is a fantastic sequence that uses Frankie Goes To Hollywood's monster hit Relax."

And in his conclusion, Atanasov states, "I think that Brian De Palma's Body Double is similar to David Lynch's Mulholland Drive -- it offers a very unusual but strikingly accurate summation of Los Angeles, its culture, and its people during a particular moment in time. Like most of De Palma's best films, Body Double is full of fascinating contrasts and over-the-top visuals which together with Pino Donaggio's stunning soundtrack create a truly unforgettable experience. French label Carlotta Films' technical presentation of the film is excellent. I must also say that this new deluxe set is the most elegant Blu-ray release to reach my desk this year. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. (In addition to the deluxe set, Carlotta Films will have available for sale a standard Blu-ray edition of Body Double. However, we have not tested it yet and at the moment cannot confirm its region code status)."


Posted by Geoff at 12:49 AM CST
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Monday, November 30, 2015
'BLOW OUT' 35MM IN CHICAGO NEXT WEEK
PART OF "TARANTINO & FRIENDS" WEEK AT THE MUSIC BOX THEATRE
A 35mm print of Brian De Palma's Blow Out will screen at 9:45pm on Saturday December 5th and Monday December 7th at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago. The screenings are part of the weeklong series "Tarantino & Friends," featuring "a selection of [Quentin Tarantino's] best films and the movies that inspired him during his formative years when he worked at a video rental store," according to the theatre's program notes. Along with the films mentioned in the program page pictured here, Stanley Kubrick's The Killing also screens as part of the series.

Meanwhile, beginning December 1st, Blow Out will begin streaming on Hulu. In a streaming guide this week, Rolling Stone's David Ehrlich writes, "The consensus choice for Brian De Palma's greatest movie, this deeply neurotic 1981 conspiracy thriller churns the director's most profound obsessions through the analog mechanics of cinema. Set in Philadelphia (but more accurately located somewhere between Blow-Up and The Conversation), the story concerns sound technician Jack Terry (John Travolta), whose equipment inadvertently records proof that a fatal car accident was the result of an assassination attempt. Sending Jack on a dangerous path that puts him in the crosshairs of a merciless killer (John Lithgow, natch), Blow Out builds to a haunting final scene that illustrates just how literally filmmakers transmute their anguish into the films their audiences come to love."

Posted by Geoff at 11:58 PM CST
Updated: Tuesday, December 1, 2015 12:12 AM CST
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Tuesday, November 24, 2015
LEGUIZAMO: 'I WOULD WORK w/DE PALMA ANY TIME'
"HE IS ONE OF THE GREAT, AMERICAN, ORIGINAL DIRECTORS"
John Leguizamo, who has appeared in two Brian De Palma films (Casualties Of War and Carlito's Way), has adapted his one-man-show Ghetto Klown into a graphic novel, illustrated by Christa Cassano and Shamus Beyale, and published by Abrams ComicArts. A couple of weeks ago, Alex Dueben posted an interview with Leguizamo at Comic Book Resources, which included the following exchange:
Dueben: In the book you talk about some of the people you worked with, and I have to say that both Brian De Palma and Steven Seagal seem nuts -- De Palma in a different, more interesting way than Seagal. What was it like working with them?

Leguizamo: I disagree -- Brian does not come across as nuts, he comes across as a filmmaker who knows how to work actors and manipulate them to get the best performance out of them. If you have ever worked with actors, it's a lot of psychology, babysitting and handholding. I know; I've directed. I love actors and they bring so much to their work but you still have to do lots of diplomatic tiptoeing. I would work with De Palma any time. He is one of the great, American, original directors.

Now Seagal is not interesting crazy, just dickish! He has no respect for others and that is so damaging to the whole creative process that real actors subscribe to. I'm not the only person he's hit without warning. He's done it many times and it's inexcusable. We are there to make a great story and help everyone achieve this task, be they the director or the writer or the other actors. He only cares about himself to the point of inflicting harm to others.


Previously:
LEGUIZAMO TALKS 'CASUALTIES OF WAR'

Posted by Geoff at 12:18 AM CST
Updated: Tuesday, November 24, 2015 12:21 AM CST
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Friday, November 20, 2015
GASPAR NOE ON HIS FIVE FAVORITE FILMS
IMPRESSED BY CAMERA WORK IN DE PALMA FILMS, '2001', 'GRAVITY', 'ANGST'
Gaspar Noe, whose new film Love is playing in theaters this month in both 3D and 2D, talked to Rotten Tomatoes' Kerr Lordygan about his five favorite films. Here's what Noe said about one of the five, Gerald Kargl's Angst, from 1983:

"Maybe ten years later [after seeing Salò], I had written some shorts and I was talking with a friend who said, 'Oh, have you seen this Austrian movie that has been banned in France for extreme violence?' That came out in VHS. And the German title was Angst. And the VHS was called Schizophrenia — the French VHS with French subtitles. And I tell you it was weird, it was like the beginning of some kind of new thing — that some movies could be banned for theatrical release but they could still come out on VHS. So I got the VHS. Nowadays there are maybe things that are banned out there, but you can find it with one click on the net. But this time, something that was banned could be found on VHS. I bought that VHS; that was quite hard to find. And I believe that I watched that movie 50 times because each time a friend said, 'Let’s go see a movie,' I said, 'Come to my house. I’ll show you Schizophrenia.' So one by one I was showing that movie to all my friends.

"And it’s got the most amazing camera work in the history of cinema. Not so many movies that really impress when it comes to the camera work. Maybe Brian De Palma’s movies… or 2001. Or, for example, lately, the images of Gravity. But the camera work of this movie is so real. It added to a very violent story of the guy coming out of jail and killing a whole family in order to go back to jail where he felt better, and it’s based on a true story. And it’s got a [unique] voiceover. But the mix of that cruelty, the voiceover and the camera put in positions that you’ve never seen before made me be obsessed with the movie. Now, since three or four months ago, it’s for sale [on DVD here in America]. So if anybody is interested you can go on Amazon.com and buy that movie called Angst."


Posted by Geoff at 11:58 PM CST
Updated: Saturday, November 21, 2015 12:05 AM CST
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Thursday, November 19, 2015
GRAHAM TO ATTEND 'PHANTOM' IN NY DEC 4
POST-SCREENING Q&A W/FANGO'S MICHAEL GINGOLD AT ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE IN YONKERS, 35MM PRINT
Gerrit Graham will be on hand for a Q&A following a screening of Brian De Palma's Phantom Of The Paradise at 8pm December 4th, at the Alamo Drafthouse in Yonkers, New York. The film will be projected from a 35mm print, and the Q&A will be moderated by Fangoria's editor-in-chief, Michael Gingold.

"The ultimate synthesis of horror and rock 'n' roll," begins the Alamo description, "Brian De Palma's Phantom Of The Paradise is an explosion of music, madness and the director's trademark camera style, complete with prowling cameras and split screens." Fangoria's staff description of the event concludes, "If you’re in or around NYC, come see Phantom in all its colorful big-screen glory with its most outrageous character in attendance!"

Posted by Geoff at 11:55 PM CST
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Wednesday, November 18, 2015
'CARLITO'S WAY' & 'GOODFELLAS' DOUBLE FEATURE
DE PALMA/SCORSESE THIS SUNDAY AT THE CASTRO IN SAN FRANCISCO
Brian De Palma's Carlito's Way will screen from a 35mm print at 4:45pm this Sunday, November 22nd, at The Castro Theatre in San Francisco. The screening is part of a double feature with Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas, which screens from DCP in a new 4K restoration before and after Carlito, at 2pm and 7:30pm.

Posted by Geoff at 2:03 AM CST
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'THE FURY' @ THE NEW BEV - MIDNIGHT SATURDAY
IN 35MM
Brian De Palma's The Fury is the midnight film this Saturday, November 21st at Quentin Tarantino's New Beverly Cinema. The film will screen from what we presume is Tarantino's own personal 35mm print of this De Palma classic.

Posted by Geoff at 1:48 AM CST
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Tuesday, November 17, 2015
'BLOW OUT' SCREENS WEDNESDAY IN NEW YORK
AS PART OF "ON SCREEN/SOUND" SERIES AT EMPAC
Brian De Palma's Blow Out will screen Wednesday night as part of EMPAC's On Screen/Sound series. EMPAC is located in Troy, New York.

This week's screening "examines the influence of Foley and sound effects on moving image," according to the website description. "Creeping tension is defused by the banality of production in Deborah Stratman’s Hacked Circuit," the event description continues, "while the hyperactive, fantastical sounds of magic highlight the otherworldliness of an episode of Kou Matsuo's Japanese anime Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta. The feature film of the evening, Brian de Palma’s Blow Out, a sonic response to Michelangelo Antonioni’s classic Blowup, finds a movie sound-effects engineer (John Travolta) in the wrong place at the wrong time as he unwittingly records the sound of a murder and is drawn into a web of intrigue."

Posted by Geoff at 12:11 AM CST
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Sunday, November 15, 2015
JEFF BYRD INSTAGRAM POST FROM LAST WEEK
"HAVING MR. DE PALMA ON BOARD AS THE DIRECTOR IS LIKE DREAMING AWAKE"

Posted by Geoff at 6:21 PM CST
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Friday, November 13, 2015
'LIGHTS OUT' SEEN AS POTENTIAL FRANCHISE-STARTER
SAID HUACE PICTURES HEAD JON CHIEW; FORBES BLOG: DE PALMA HEADING TO CHINA IS START OF A TREND
In a Hollywood Reporter article by Clifford Coonan, posted from the Cannes Film Festival this past May, Jon Chiew, head of international film for Huace Pictures (the company co-producing Lights Out), said, "We believe Lights Out is shaping up to be a Chinese female superhero franchise that the market has never seen and we are happy to be onboard this ride with Arclight Films, a company that has a real understanding of the Chinese marketplace." Coonan's description of the film from that article goes like this: "Lights Out follows the plight of Emma Mitchell, a woman in her 20s forced to fight for her life when her dilapidated, Louisiana, plantation-styled home is inexplicably targeted by a crew of international gangsters."

Meanwhile, in a blog post with a curious typo in its headline (considering that it is for a Forbes blog), Cherry Hong suggests that a big-name director such as Brian De Palma heading to China to make a film is the start of a trend. "China is putting emphasis on rejuvenation and protection of its culture as global force able to hold its own," writes Hong. "Recognizing that the competition with the West is fierce, Xi [Jinping] aims to control the trend of globalization in the film industry within China, and to raise the quality of domestic films for greater competitive power. With these goals on agenda, China is in the forefront of seeking talents for its film industry revolution."

Posted by Geoff at 7:34 AM CST
Updated: Friday, June 10, 2016 6:30 PM CDT
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