BUT "IT IS ALSO THE MOST DE PALMA OF DE PALMA MOVIES," WRITES VINCE KEENAN
"Filmmakers were working in the Hitchcock style when he was operating at his peak, and they’re still doing so today," states Vince Keenan in the intro to an article posted today at CrimeReads. "Time for an appraisal of Alfred Hitchcock movies that were not directed by Alfred Hitchcock, although his spirit hangs over each and every one of them." In his "A Survey of Hitchcock Films Not Directed by Alfred Hitchcock," Keenan includes Brian De Palma's Obsession:
C’mon, you knew Brian De Palma would appear on this list. The only question is which Hitch-influenced De Palma movie to select? His filmography is studded with them, from Sisters (1973) to Femme Fatale (2002). I opted for the one that is, in a sense, the most Hitchcockian. De Palma and screenwriter Paul Schrader concocted the story for Obsession—about a widower who meets the doppelganger of his late wife—out of their admiration for Vertigo, and the film features one of the final scores by frequent Hitchcock composer Bernard Herrmann. It is also the most De Palma of De Palma movies; the plot, when all its twists are revealed, is both preposterous and deeply, deeply disturbing, yet De Palma’s technical skill—aided immeasurably by a bravura performance from Geneviève Bujold—vaults past the inconsistencies and unsavory elements to conjure an overpowering atmosphere of doomed romanticism.