LOVE FOR CARRIE
Another De Palma film being mentioned all over the place this Halloween season is Carrie. Today, romance writer Jill Sorenson wrote on her blog that Carrie is one of her favorite scary movies. "De Palma's masterpiece" was also screened under the stars last Saturday at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. In a U.K. poll of more than 6000 HMV customers, Carrie was voted the 24th best horror film ever made, according to results released yesterday. And just today, The Playlist team posted what they call the "Rosetta Stones of the fright genre." Here's what they say about Carrie:

Carrie (1976) begins and ends in a bloodbath. From the unforgettable opening scene as bullying girls unmercifully taunt the titular menstruating outcast with tampons ("Plug it up!") in the high school locker room to the prom night cataclysm that leaves Carrie soaked to the skin in pig's blood before unleashing her telekinesis for ultimate revenge against her vindictive classmates, this film remains today one of the most effective cinematic tragedies. Stephen King's first novel-to-film adaptation directed by Brian De Palma is not your standard horror flick, obviously, and the fact that Carrie is both the sympathetic protagonist and demonic villain — leaving the delineation between good and evil unclear — makes this film so powerful and classic. And who could forget Piper Laurie's bone-chilling performance as Carrie's bible-beating, devil-fearing, lunatic mother, in particular, the orgasmic exhalations of her kitchen knife crucifixion?

It’s based on Susan Kelly’s book called The Boston Stranglers, because everything that we think we know is wrong. There was a film made right after the events called The Boston Strangler starring Tony Curtis and Henry Fonda. And it posits that Albert DeSalvo was the Boston Strangler, but the truth is, if you scratch beneath the surface, Albert DeSalvo was never charged with the crimes. He was actually incarcerated for another series of assaults, and there was not one shred of evidence linking him to the crimes. So the film is very much (about) how did things go so wrong, that to this day we all think Albert DeSalvo was tried and convicted as the Boston Strangler?

When Busch told Hurd that that sounded "really interesting," Hurd responded by saying, "Yeah. With media, with fear, with the cult of celebrity, so many of the things that are part of our life today, were just beginning in the late sixties."

EARLY VERSION OF SCREENPLAY
Mr. Beaks over at Aint It Cool News provides a brief synopsis from an earlier draft of Alan Rosen's screenplay. (Rosen has been with the project since 2001, when Hurd was trying to get it set up for Carl Franklin to direct at Paramount. Now that De Palma has signed on to the project, the screenplay is being revised under his direction.) Mr. Beaks writes:

The massive-in-scope screenplay (a recent draft by Alan Rosen ran over 160 pages) starts small with DeSalvo's first string of crimes (he talked his way into the homes of lonely/neglected women by pretending to be a scout for a modeling agency), but quickly turns into a multi-layered dramatization of the botched police investigation, the intense, often unhelpful media scrutiny (courtesy of an ambitious young female reporter for The Boston Herald), and DeSalvo's jailhouse confession to convicted murderer George Nassar (who got F. Lee Bailey involved). It's kinky, bloody and full of betrayal; in other words, it's ideal material for De Palma. Right now, he's just got to find the narrative throughline.

MICHAEL IMPERIOLI
A user named blackmantis, posting in the "Talk Back" section following Mr. Beaks' AICN post, stated, "Michael Imperioli is DeSalvo's doppelganger! He absolutely must play that part." Several other users agreed that Imperioli would be perfect for the role. Imperioli is best known for his role on HBO's The Sopranos, and can currently be seen carrying an authentically distinct '70s vibe as a cop working for Harvey Keitel on ABC's Life On Mars. No casting has yet been mentioned for The Boston Stranglers.

Above is a video of Lars Nilsen providing a wonderful introduction to Brian De Palma's Dressed To Kill last Wednesday at the Alamo Drafthouse in downtown Austin, Texas. The screening was part of Nilsen's "Weird Wednesday" series, which happens every Wednesday night, and is free of charge thanks to local sponsor I Luv Video. When you go to Nilsen's blog posting about Dressed To Kill, be sure to read the comments section, where a guy named Jay complains that Nilsen was so uptight about the "slightest snicker" that he went into "full-on Geek police mode" to keep people from distracting from the film (in the intro above, Nilsen tells the audience it is especially important not to talk during Dressed To Kill). Nilsen's reply to Jay's post indicates what kind of atmosphere to expect when attending "Weird Wednesday":

Sorry, we don't allow people to carry on conversations during the movie. It's an unpopular policy with people who like to carry on conversations at movie screenings.

You'll also note that Nilsen is wearing a De Palma T-shirt as he introduces the film. I've seen this shirt before, and was turned off by the design that resembles the Def Leppard logo. But now I may just have to get one as a tribute to Nilsen's enthusiastic introduction.

Thanks to Drew!

AND AT CARTHAGE FILM FEST IN TUNISIA
Brian De Palma's Redacted opened yesterday in Japan. The Japan Times ran a review of the film by Giovanni Fazio, who discussed the effect of De Palma's juggling of forms within the film:

Redacted will also screen this Friday (October 31st) as part of the 22nd Carthage Film Festival in Tunisia. The fest began October 25th, and runs through November 1st.

From the New York Press:

Meanwhile, over at the Huffington Post, Michael Showalter cites James Ellroy's L.A. Confidential to explain why he thinks Palin keeps using the tough-to-pronounce word "Ahmadinejad" to con her audiences into thinking that she is making sense. Palin then leads Showalter to think of The Bonfire Of The Vanities:

In separate Phantom news, Gerrit Graham will be a special guest at the third annual Manitoba Comic Con & Sci-Fi Expo this weekend in Winnipeg, where Phantom is a very popular cult film.

PRINT THE LEGEND
But what has happened to Print The Legend, De Palma's proposed Iraq-themed follow-up to Redacted? De Palma said he would love to experiment with these new forms of storytelling again, "but we couldn't get it financed. No one wants to make this kind of anti-war [film] now." Print The Legend had been announced by The Film Farm at Cannes last May, along with an untitled political thriller written by De Palma, with the understanding that Print The Legend would be made first. One can guess that if no one wants to finance an anti-war picture right now, investors might be similarly wary about financing a political thriller by the same man who has made his views on the current war in Iraq abundantly clear. While De Palma said that he still has no title for said political thriller, he was able to provide a clue as to what it is about (which he nevertheless presented in the capitalized form of a title): "Sex and Lies on the Champaign Trail."

CAPONE RISING, AND DE NIRO...
I also asked De Palma if he thought Capone Rising might get off the ground again (that project was stalled over questions about who owns the rights to the property). De Palma said it's "always possible-- it's a very good script." When I mentioned there had been rumors that Robert De Niro may appear in the film as the Mayor of Chicago, De Palma replied, "Haven't heard that one."

OTHER TIDBITS: LUDIVINE SAGNIER

A couple of weeks ago, Ludivine Sagnier, now appearing in Claude Chabrol's A Girl Cut In Two, was interviewed by Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle. Sagnier mentioned a conversation she'd had with De Palma while auditioning for a role in one of his films (which must have been The Black Dahlia). Sagnier recalled:

I auditioned once for a part with Brian De Palma, but he decided he didn't need a European actress for the role. But I remember he said, "Why don't you learn better English, learn a proper accent, and come down to L.A.?" And I was like, "No, I'm sorry, sir. I don't want that." And he was like, "Come on, you lazy cow." And I said, "No, it's not a question of being lazy. I just want to blossom in nice roles, whatever the geography." It's very difficult, the path of young actresses. For example, Scarlett Johansson started out to be a very indie actress, with very edgy roles. But even she - it seems like, ooh, suddenly something has reached her, and that, ooh, she's falling into the trap of too much exhibition, too much money, too much advertisement. And I want to say, "Oh, slow down girl! Slow down! Life is so long! Don't take it as a sprint. Take it as a marathon."

SNOOP DOG & JAKE SULLY
Finally, here are two more little tidbits, courtesy of Rado. Snoop Dog is currently on tour, and the screens behind the stage are showing clips from Scarface edited with Snoop-reenacted versions of them. Rado also notes that the main character in James Cameron's upcoming 3-D extravaganza Avatar is named Jake Sully. Of course, the main character in De Palma's Body Double was named Jake Scully, but there is another odd connection here in the fact that Gale Anne Hurd, who was once married to Cameron and once married to De Palma, has produced projects for both directors (but neither Body Double nor Avatar). Hurd, no longer married to either director, is currently producing The Boston Stranglers for De Palma to direct.

Brian De Palma kicked off the week by reminding us to always be assertive; to seize every opportunity. He spoke of meeting young filmmakers who complained about their lack of money and studio attention, or worse, filmmakers who did not take charge of their own careers. De Palma feels that breakthroughs in video technology over the past 10 years has erased any lingering excuses. "If you can’t go get a digital camera and get some actors together," he asked, "why are you here?" However, his best advice was regarding clear communication on set. "Be careful," he told us, "Not with what you’re saying, but what they’re hearing. Red to one means blue to another." Solid advice.