DE PALMA FILM PLAYS ON TCM LATE NIGHT TONIGHT

We talked about the 35th anniversary of Carrie last week, but Brian De Palma released two films in 1976, and the other one, Obsession, is going to receive a lot of attention this year, as well. To start with, the film will be shown at 4am eastern Thursday morning on Turner Classic Movies. Later this year, British company Arrow Video will release Obsession on DVD and Blu-Ray. According to a forum post at Cult Labs, a newly released Arrow catalogue promises some enticing extras, including: the full original script by Paul Schrader, including a final act taking place years after the scene that concludes the final film (De Palma decided the film did not need this act, and it was never filmed, much to Schrader's chagrin); early short films from Brian De Palma; and a booklet by author and critic Brad Stevens. The catalogue description also promised more extras to come.
An Arrow Video representative involved in collecting materials for the upcoming package declined to unveil which of De Palma's short films might be included, but said they hope to have the whole thing ready for release by July of this year. De Palma's short films Wotan's Wake and The Responsive Eye were released a few years ago on a French DVD of Dionysus In '69. Significant shorts made by De Palma that have yet to surface include Icarus (a story about the god Pan arriving in New York that pokes fun at the very programmed dimension of modern life), 660214, The Story Of An IBM Card (influenced by Ingmar Bergman and starring Jared Martin as a painter who lets himself go to ruin), Jennifer (a sort of video diary of Jennifer Salt with a screenplay by Bruce Rubin), the NAACP documentary Bridge That Gap (filmed in New Orleans, it would make a nice supplement to Obsession), and Show Me A Strong Town And I'll Show You A Strong Bank, a documentary commissioned by the U.S. Treasury Department, the filming of which also served as a partial kick-off point for a script De Palma wrote years later with Jay Cocks called Nazi Gold.
Brad Stevens compared Al Pacino's roles in De Palma's Carlito's Way and Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part III at Senses Of Cinema's Carlito's Way appreciation compilation.