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Domino is
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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

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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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Friday, May 7, 2021
UP IN A TREE - PAUL HIRSCH RECALLS 'RABBIT' ROUGH CUT
AND THE BITTER STRUGGLE FOR TREE SCENE - DE PALMA WANTED IT OUT, THE PRODUCERS WANTED IT IN
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/inthetree2.jpg

In between Hi, Mom! and Sisters, Brian De Palma went to Los Angeles to make his first studio film at Warner Bros., Get To Know Your Rabbit. Paul Hirsch, who had edited Hi, Mom!, found himself back in Manhattan, cutting trailers for a "fly-by-night company" run by Sig Shore, as Hirsch describes in his book, A long time ago in a cutting room far, far away.... (out in paperback as of this week). In chapter four of the book, Hirsch, who had been editing a trailer for a film called Detective Belli, tells of meeting up with De Palma in late 1971 (almost 50 years ago) and attending a screening of a rough cut of Get To Know Your Rabbit, which would end up being released in 1972, a long delay after De Palma had been fired from the movie and locked out of the editing room:
The negative for Detective Belli was to be made in a lab in L.A. from materials supplied by the Italian distributor, and I was dispatched there in late 1971 to make sure everything was copacetic. Brian De Palma was also in Hollywood then, editing his picture Get To Know Your Rabbit. It was Brian's first studio picture, and he hadn't been able to hire me to work on it because I wasn't even in the New York union, not to mention L.A.'s.

I called him to say I was in town. He invited me to come see a rough cut of his movie, which he was screening that afternoon out at Warner Bros. I went and watched the picture with Brian, his editor, and his producer. When the house lights went up, all eyes turned to me, since mine were the only fresh eyes in the room. The producer asked me what I thought, and I tentatively offered that there was one scene in particular I thought they could do without, a scene in which Tommy Smothers is up in a tree.

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, a silence fell on the room, and I could feel a kind of tension. Brian thanked me, and we made a date to get together for dinner later. He explained to me that night that the scene I had mentioned had in fact been the subject of a bitter struggle between Brian and the producers, Brian wanting it out, them wanting it in. They wrongly assumed that Brian had told me what to say. I went on to give Brian a more detailed list of suggestions, which hadn't seemed appropriate to offer in front of anyone else.

I returned to New York and shortly thereafter left Sig Shore's employ.



Posted by Geoff at 12:01 AM CDT
Updated: Saturday, May 8, 2021 1:04 AM CDT
Post Comment | View Comments (2) | Permalink | Share This Post

Saturday, May 8, 2021 - 1:01 PM CDT

Name: "Bill Fentum"

Except that Smothers clearly wasn't in the tree, but Hirsch could hardly be blamed if he hasn't seen RABBIT since then -- right? I love the book a lot. It's impossible to overstate his contributions to De Palma's films, especially over that next decade. So many groundbreaking moments.

Saturday, May 8, 2021 - 3:15 PM CDT

Name: "Geoff"
Home Page: http://https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog

Yes, exactly, Bill-- I thought about mentioning that Smothers is not the one actually in the tree (as the images here make clear), but I had a feeling it would come up in the comments and we could just discuss it here, haha. But you said it just as I was thinking: it was such a long time ago (in a galaxy far, far away?) , and obviously a scene that De Palma and Hirsch agreed could be taken out of the movie with no great loss, that it makes total sense that Paul Hirsch doesn't recall that specific detail. Maybe he doesn't remember the last time he sneezed, either. :D

And I definitely agree, this is such a great book-- not only a great book about editing and the film business, but also a great book for anyone interested in De Palma's cinema.

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