Hello and welcome to the unofficial Brian De Palma website.
Here is the latest news:

De Palma a la Mod

E-mail
Geoffsongs@aol.com

De Palma Discussion
Forum

-------------

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

-------------

Exclusive Passion
Interviews:

Brian De Palma
Karoline Herfurth
Leila Rozario

------------

AV Club Review
of Dumas book

------------

« May 2012 »
S M T W T F S
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31

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

Alfred Hitchcock
The Master Of Suspense

Alfred Hitchcock Films

Snake Eyes
a la Mod

Mission To Mars
a la Mod

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
Betty Buckley
Bill Pankow
Black Dahlia
Blow Out
Blue Afternoon
Body Double
Bonfire Of The Vanities
Books
Boston Stranglers
Bruce Springsteen
Cannes
Capone Rising
Carlito's Way
Carrie
Casualties Of War
Catch And Kill
Cinema Studies
Clarksville 1861
Columbia University
Columbo - Shooting Script
Congo
Conversation, The
Cop-Out
Cruising
Daft Punk
Dancing In The Dark
David Koepp
De Niro
De Palma & Donaggio
De Palma (doc)
De Palma Blog-A-Thon
De Palma Discussion
Demolished Man
Dick Vorisek
Dionysus In '69
Domino
Dressed To Kill
Edward R. Pressman
Eric Schwab
Fatal Attraction
Femme Fatale
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
Heat
Hi, Mom!
Hitchcock
Home Movies
Inspired by De Palma
Iraq, etc.
Jack Fisk
Jared Martin
Jerry Greenberg
Keith Gordon
Key Man, The
Laurent Bouzereau
Lights Out
Lithgow
Magic Hour
Magnificent Seven
Mission To Mars
Mission: Impossible
Mod
Montreal World Film Fest
Morricone
Mr. Hughes
Murder a la Mod
Nancy Allen
Nazi Gold
Newton 1861
Noah Baumbach
NYFF
Obsession
Oliver Stone
Palmetto
Paranormal Activity 2
Parker
Parties & Premieres
Passion
Paul Hirsch
Paul Schrader
Pauline Kael
Peet Gelderblom
Phantom Of The Paradise
Pimento
Pino Donaggio
Predator
Prince Of The City
Print The Legend
Raggedy Ann
Raising Cain
Red Shoes, The
Redacted
Responsive Eye
Retribution
Rie Rasmussen
Robert De Niro
Rotwang muß weg!
Sakamoto
Scarface
Scorsese
Sean Penn
Sensuous Woman, The
Sisters
Snake Eyes
Sound Mixer
Spielberg
Star Wars
Stepford Wives
Stephen H Burum
Sweet Vengeance
Tabloid
Tarantino
Taxi Driver
Terry
The Tale
To Bridge This Gap
Toronto Film Fest
Toyer
Travolta
Treasure Sierra Madre
Tru Blu
Truth And Other Lies
TV Appearances
Untitled Ashton Kutcher
Untitled Hollywood Horror
Untitled Industry-Abuse M
Untouchables
Venice Beach
Vilmos Zsigmond
Wedding Party
William Finley
Wise Guys
Woton's Wake
Blog Tools
Edit your Blog
Build a Blog
RSS Feed
View Profile
You are not logged in. Log in
Thursday, May 3, 2012
'PASSION' INCLUDES FASHION SHOW SCENE, ETC.
FOR MUSEUM-SET SCENES, CORNELIA OTT DESIGNED FIVE SCULPTURES, "WITH WATCHES IN BELLIES & BREASTS"

An article posted today by Märkische Allgemeine's Ricarda Nowak (dated May 4, 2012), states that shooting on Brian De Palma's Passion wraps up on Saturday. The article features an interview with production designer Cornelia Ott, who talks about the way she and the Babelsberg Art Department transformed 30 of the film's Berlin locations, including a catwalk for a fashion show, which was filmed at the Sofitel hotel (a room of which is pictured below). Most interestingly, Ott designed five sculptures used in the scenes filmed at the Bode Museum, "with elegant watches stuck in their breasts and bellies," according to the article. What follows is an English translation of the first three paragraphs of the article (the fourth and final paragraph simply lists credits and plot for the film).

Salvador Dali-inspired sculptures appear to be in the Bode Museum, with elegant watches stuck in their breasts and bellies. Normally, visitors marvel at the Wilhelminian-built consumer product, but for the new thriller Passion by director Brian De Palma, the Bode Museum was transformed into a movie set. Berlin is the secret star of the movie. The Scarface director filmed on 30 original locations - which the Art Department of Studio Babelsberg either remodeled or supplemented.

For the shooting at the Bode Museum, where a reception of the watchmaker Bulgari takes place, production designer Cornelia Ott said the Babelsberg craftsmen were responsible for the construction of five sculptures, which were used as exhibit supports. In the paint workshop, various surfaces were imitated: white and green marble, bronze, gold bronze, stainless steel.

"For the most part, the locations got a new feature," said the production designer. Thus, the Schöneberg Town Hall served as the "London office" of an advertising agency. In the historical room of the Sofitel hotel, a fashion show was filmed: The art department made a transparent catwalk, so that the light from the illuminated floor below could be used. The metal workshop from the studio was also used to construct the iron frame designed for the catwalk. The studio craftsmen have "built my designs with excellent virtuosity," praised Cornelia Ott, who has worked several times with the Studio Babelsberg group, on international productions such as Unknown (2011) and Brothers (2009). And Art Department Chairman Michael Düwel was pleased to have been able to work for Brian De Palma.


Posted by Geoff at 8:25 PM CDT
Updated: Friday, May 4, 2012 4:21 PM CDT
Post Comment | View Comments (5) | Permalink | Share This Post
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
'SISTERS'/'PHANTOM' DOUBLE FEATURE AT UCLA TONIGHT
DE PALMA/PRESSMAN/FINLEY FILMS SCREENED FROM 35MM PRINTS

Tonight at 7:30, UCLA Film & Television Archive presents a Brian De Palma double feature at the Million Dollar Theater. The two films, Sisters (1973) and Phantom Of The Paradise (1974), also happen to have been produced by Edward R. Pressman, and they both star William Finley, who passed away last month. Both will be screened in 35mm, with the Sisters print courtesy of the Edward R. Pressman Collection at the Academy Film Archive.

Posted by Geoff at 5:20 PM CDT
Post Comment | View Comments (1) | Permalink | Share This Post
Tuesday, May 1, 2012


Posted by Geoff at 12:39 AM CDT
Post Comment | View Comments (5) | Permalink | Share This Post
Monday, April 30, 2012
MORETZ: PEIRCE & DE PALMA ARE GOOD FRIENDS
"THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT THE MOVIE... WE'RE TAKING A LOT OF HIS NOTES," BUT REALLY GOING BACK TO THE BOOK
In an MTV Movies Blog video posted today, Chloe Moretz tells Josh Horowitz that the Carrie remake, being directed by Kimberly Peirce, is getting input from Brian De Palma himself. Asked if she has seen De Palma's version, Moretz replied, "Yeah, I saw the De Palma movie actually during... I was making Let Me In at the time. And that's when I first saw it. No, I mean, De Palma's movie is absolutely amazing, and we're definitely taking... you know, Kim is actually really good friends with De Palma, and, you know, they're talking about the movie and everything, and they're good friends. So we're taking a lot of his notes and stuff, but what we're really doing is we're taking the book, and we're breaking the book down, and we're putting a lot of elements from the book into our story. So it's... it's more of like a Black Swan version of it. So you really see the mythology in the character, and you really see everything going on with Carrie, and it's darker."

Posted by Geoff at 4:54 PM CDT
Updated: Monday, April 30, 2012 5:01 PM CDT
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Sunday, April 29, 2012
MORETZ: DE PALMA'S 'CARRIE' ONE OF BEST MOVIES EVER
SAYS NEW VERSION WILL BE MORE PSYCHOLOGICAL, LIKE 'BLACK SWAN'
Coming Soon's Silas Lesnick got to discuss the upcoming remake of Carrie with Chloe Moretz, who is taking on the lead role in Kimberly Peirce's new version. Here is what Moretz had to say about the Brian De Palma version, and the new take on it:

I start that June 1st... It's going to be very well done. I don't want to jinx it, but [Peirce] is a genius, genius, genius director. I would never do it with someone that I don't trust. I trust her more than a lot of the directors I've worked with. She's the right woman for the job.

I'm actually not looking at the original, even though De Palma's movie was one of the best movies ever made. It's completely iconic and I'm proud to be able to be doing a retooling of it. We're kind of going off the book. It's darker and much more psychological. More Black Swan. You're really looking into her mind and it really looks into the relationship of Margaret and Carrie. It's set in modern time, so it's a lot different.

Lesnick got Moretz to talk about the clothes her Carrie will be wearing: "It's something that's very different from me. It's an out of body thing. I'm becoming a totally different person for it. I'm letting go of all of my self-esteem issues and just kind of going into it. You have to."

And finally, the article delves into the fan-made poster art pictured here:

Although shooting won't begin for another month, Moretz and Peirce have already been impressed with the outpouring of fan support and, in particular, the fan-made poster pictured above. Designed by Pierre-Luc Boucher, the teaser was posted to his Deviant Art page and soon found its way to Peirce.

"That was a cool poster!" Moretz laughs. "Kim sent that to me. She said, 'Oh my god, you've got to look at this. It's really, really, really cool!' We both felt so pumped. Now we're chomping at the bit to get in there."


Posted by Geoff at 6:28 PM CDT
Post Comment | View Comments (1) | Permalink | Share This Post
Saturday, April 28, 2012
'CARRIE' REMAKE TO USE 'FOUND FOOTAGE' FORMAT
AS JULIANNE MOORE GETS CLOSER TO TAKING ON MOTHER OF A ROLE
A month after Chloe Moretz was announced as the lead in MGM's new version of Carrie, Deadline's Mike Fleming reports that the studio has made a formal offer to Julianne Moore to take on the role of Carrie's mother, Margaret White. Meanwhile, according to Peter Hall at Movies.com, MGM's CEO Roger Birnbaum visted his alma mater, the University of Denver, this week, as a guest in the school's film history and production classes. During one of the talks, Birnbaum specifically used the phrase "found footage" while discussing the new version of Carrie, which is being directed by Kimberly Peirce, with a screenplay by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa that is said to cling closer to Stephen King's novel than Brian De Palma's film version. Hall explains nicely how the found footage format would tie in with the novel:

Now, before you get out your anti-found footage pitch forks, this shouldn't be that surprising. King's original novel is interspersed with various "official" documents recounting what happened on Carrie's deadly prom night (a writing technique called epistolary, which is basically the literary equivalent of found footage), so if Aguirre-Sacasa's script is indeed going back to the source material, the film focusing on "interviews with the survivors of the prom incident" makes perfect sense. It also doesn't necessarily mean Carrie will be filled with first-person POV found footage as we traditionally know - though the person who posted the recap did confirm to us that Birnbaum specifically used the words "found footage" - but is simply using recorded interviews as a framing device much like the book used newspaper clippings, which actually means Peirce's film will have more in common with the 2002 made-for-TV Carrie movie starring Angela Bettis than De Palma's film.

Posted by Geoff at 4:15 PM CDT
Post Comment | View Comments (1) | Permalink | Share This Post
Friday, April 27, 2012
DONAGGIO TO RECEIVE LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
AT 12TH WORLD SOUNDTRACK AWARDS IN OCTOBER
Variety reports that Pino Donaggio will receive the 12th Lifetime Achievement Award at this year's World Soundtrack Awards, an event which takes place on the closing night (October 20) of Belgium's Ghent Film Festival. The festival runs October 9-20. A selection of Donaggio's music will be performed at the event by the Brussels Philharmonic, conducted by Dirk Brosse, accompanied by film clips. During the event, composer James Newton Howard will also be honored with a concert in which he will conduct the Brussels Philharmonic along with Brosse. Donaggio is best known for the many scores he has composed for the films of Brian De Palma, beginning with Carrie in 1976, and continuing this year with Passion.

Posted by Geoff at 12:44 AM CDT
Updated: Friday, April 27, 2012 5:20 PM CDT
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Thursday, April 26, 2012
'PASSION' UPDATES
KAROLINE HERFURTH FINISHED HER PART TODAY DESPITE SICKNESS
Karoline Herfurth posted on her Facebook page that she finished up her final day on the set of Passion today, but not without some complications. If you go to her Facebook post linked above, be aware that she provides a spoiler in her post. Here is what she wrote in the post, with the spoiler part left out:

That´s the hard part with beeing an actress, that even when you're sick you can´t stay home but the shooting schedule has to stay as planned. So right on time for my most important scene in the whole script I get a cold that makes me not able to speak. But I had to speak! A lot! And in english!! Horror!... That was my last day of shooting! HOLIDAYYYY!!! :-)

Meanwhile, the IMDB page for Passion has added Alexander Yassin to the cast list as a Concierge.


Posted by Geoff at 9:21 PM CDT
Updated: Thursday, April 26, 2012 9:23 PM CDT
Post Comment | View Comments (2) | Permalink | Share This Post
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
AMOS VOGEL DIES AT 91
SCREENED EARLY DE PALMA FILMS AT NY'S CINEMA 16 FILM SOCIETY
The Hollywood Reporter reported today that "Amos Vogel, creator of the influential Manhattan avant garde film club Cinema 16 and co-founder of the New York Film Festival, died Tuesday in his apartment off Washington Square Park. He was 91." At Cinema 16, Vogel, who has been called the ultimate cinephile, juxtaposed films the way filmmakers such as Eisenstein collided images. In the documentary named after his seminal book, Film As A Subversive Art (which can be viewed here), Vogel explained, "When I showed five or six films on the Cinema 16 program, they were always selected from the point of view how they would collide with each other in the minds of the audience. On one program there would always be an abstract film, a scientific film, an avant-garde film and a political documentary, because my intention at all times was to subvert audience expectations by showing such diverse and different films on one and the same program." Cinema 16 was founded in 1947 by Vogel and his wife, Marcia.

In the 2005 book A Critical Cinema 4: Interviews with Independent Filmmakers, Jim McBride (David Holzman's Diary) was asked by author Scott MacDonald if he used to go to Cinema 16. "I was a member for a couple of years, I think," said McBride. "When I was at NYU, Brian De Palma, who I knew from the neighborhood, was making these little 16mm movies and getting them shown at Cinema 16, which I thought was kind of amazing. I remember going to see Woton's Wake [1962]. We did see some interesting stuff at Cinema 16. Certainly Maya Deren, but I'm not sure what else. In those days, anything you could see was a plus."

The Hollywood Reporter article quotes Martin Scorsese: "If you’re looking for the origins of film culture in America, look no further than Amos Vogel. Amos opened the doors to every possibility in film viewing, film exhibiton, film curating and film appreciation. He was also unfailingly generous, encouraging and supportive of so many young filmmakers, including me when I was just starting to make my first pictures. No doubt about it — the man was a giant." In 1963, Vogel founded the New York Film Festival with Richard Roud.


Posted by Geoff at 11:58 PM CDT
Updated: Saturday, April 28, 2012 4:19 PM CDT
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
STATHAM TALKS DE PALMA & 'HEAT'
"WE'RE GOING TO DO THE BEST WE CAN WITH IT"
The Playlist's Drew Taylor spoke briefly with Jason Statham at a recent press junket for Boaz Yakin's Safe, which opens Friday. Taylor made sure to ask Statham about his connection to Brian De Palma, who had earlier been developing Parker, which Statham wound up signing on for and filming with director Taylor Hackford. De Palma will direct Statham in a remake of the Burt Reynolds movie Heat later this year. "I met De Palma in New York and, you know, he's one of the living legends," Statham told Taylor. "Scarface is one of my top five movies of all time, so the chance to work with that kind of quality is something I never saw happening. It just happens to be an old movie from the past and we're going to do the best we can with it."

When asked by Taylor what drew him to make Safe, Statham said, "It sounded like something that maybe people would want to go see." Statham then elaborated on how he approaches such decisions. "The whole purpose of doing these films is, 'Would you want to go see these films? Do you think anyone else would?' And 'Would it be a good experience?'" Taylor calls Safe one of Statham's better films. Salon's Andrew O'Hehir feels that Safe is perhaps the most authentic of recent thrillers that "partake of a ’70s-flavored dystopian and/or paranoid vision." Aware of the upcoming Heat remake, O'Hehir suggests that Statham "seems on course to becoming a modern-day [Charles] Bronson or Burt Reynolds."

Statham seems like he will be a great match for De Palma. The actor, who loves to do his own stunts, fights, etc., told Ivan Solotaroff in the April 2012 issue of Details about his disdain for special effects. "Fahkin' hate green screen," Statham is quoted as saying. "Pay significant amounts of money never to do it again. You cannot fake adrenaline." Sounds like an actor tailor-made for De Palma's brand of No Net Productions and long, continuous, choreographed takes.


Posted by Geoff at 10:38 PM CDT
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post

Newer | Latest | Older