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De Palma a la Mod

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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

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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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« February 2015 »
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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
Icarus
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
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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
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Peet Gelderblom
Phantom Of The Paradise
Pimento
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Predator
Prince Of The City
Print The Legend
Raggedy Ann
Raising Cain
Red Shoes, The
Redacted
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Retribution
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Rotwang muß weg!
Sakamoto
Scarface
Scorsese
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Sensuous Woman, The
Sisters
Snake Eyes
Sound Mixer
Spielberg
Star Wars
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To Bridge This Gap
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Untitled Ashton Kutcher
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Sunday, February 8, 2015
'QUEEN OF EARTH' IN VEIN OF 'PERSONA', 'SISTERS'
AND OTHER LINKS BETWEEN ALEX ROSS PERRY & BRIAN DE PALMA


One of last year's best films was Alex Ross Perry's bitingly sardonic Listen Up Philip. Perry's new film, Queen Of Earth just premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, and many are highly impressed. "A deep-dish cinephile with a pronounced affection for late 1960s/early 1970s alt-Hollywood cinema," writes Variety critic Scott Foundas, "Perry is working this time in a style that seems equally influenced by doppelganger narratives like Bergman’s Persona and Brian De Palma’s Sisters, as well as by the claustrophobic domestic terror of Repulsion and Chantal Akerman’s seminal Jeanne Dielman. (Perry himself has also cited Woody Allen’s Interiors as a key influence.)"

Perry tells Indiewire's Eric Kohn about making a smaller film this time around, and movies that inspired Queen Of Earth:

"All this came together during a Fassbinder retrospective at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. I went to a double bill of The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant and Martha. I knew that was the kind of movie I wanted to make. From there, it became this fun little maze of what other kind of movies you can fold into this — you can take a very sad, emotional drama and find yourself talking about a cheap horror movie like Carnival of Souls and realizing it's more connected to those other films than they seem.

"The common thread here is these really interesting women stories — these unique, threatening and occasionally frightening stories about the troubles of broken women. That's the driving force behind almost all of Fassbinder's films. So immersing in a retrospective gives you time to marinate in this theme of women under extreme duress. But then you look at Carnival of Souls, or Roman Polanski's Repulsion, and it takes the form of exaggerated gothic horror. Then you look at Robert Altman's Images, which straddles both lines and becomes a fascinating text of its own. In his body of work, at the time of that film and now, that one sort of sticks out as this quasi-horror experiment. Then I was also thinking of Woody Allen's Interiors, which is as quiet a drama as you can have. I wanted this movie to live in this cinematic world of broken women."

Last September, Perry tweeted an image from De Palma's Body Double in response to being tagged to post a #cinephilephoto. And he mentions De Palma in an interview with Richard Porton in the Winter 2014 issue of Cineaste. Asked by Porton how working at Kim's Video influenced his film education, Perry replies, "That overlapped with my time at NYU. I distilled it down to one point: Working at a place like that taught me not to be afraid of what I liked. Film school teaches you to be very afraid of what you like. You don't want to be the one who stands up in class and says, 'I think Sylvester Stallone is an incredible director.' You're going to look like an idiot, especially at NYU where everyone is trying to be as highbrow as possible. Working at Kim's taught me, working with people like Sean [Price Williams], to like what you like. But you have to defend what you like about these films. You could come into Kim's and say, 'I want to rent the two-tape edition of The Mother And The Whore.' Eustache is an incredible filmmaker. But you needed to defend why you were renting Staying Alive or Rocky IV. Stallone is an incredible filmmaker and even Jean Eustache respected him.

"That's a lesson you'll never be taught in an academic setting—how to equally appreciate high and low cinema. At NYU, people might see Brian De Palma as a trashy filmmaker who made pulpy movies in the Eighties. When you were working at Kim's, Brian De Palma was the master."


Posted by Geoff at 2:09 AM CST
Updated: Sunday, February 8, 2015 2:11 AM CST
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SUPREME IRONY OF 'SCARFACE' ENDING
APPEARS TO BE LOST ON AN ENTIRE GENERATION
The Hollywood Reporter's Boyd van Hoeij reviews the new documentary, Jack Pettibone Riccobono's The Seventh Fire, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival the other day. Presented by Terrence Malick, and executive-produced by Natalie Portman, the film follows "the hardscrabble lives of two men on the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota" for several years, according to van Hoeij. "The first couple of reels are very loosely structured," van Hoeij states, "with no one identified onscreen, which gives the film a verite edge but which also means that it takes a good while for the material to find its footing and make it clear what and, more importantly, who, the film is exactly about.

"The feature’s protagonists finally turn out to be Rob Brown, in his thirties, and Kevin Fineday, who’ll be 18 when the film ends. They are, respectively, a criminal with (as per the press notes) ties to the Native Gangster Disciples gang and his young and unofficial protégé of sorts, with the initially scrawny Kevin looking up to the hulking Brown, who’s been to prison already five times. Kevin, called a liar and worse by several others around him, admits on camera he’s torn between the idea of becoming a big drug dealer and 'doing something somewhat the right way,' though for the moment, he described himself as a 'middle man, for weed, pills, meth, whatever,' and says that’s pretty much his 'job until further notice'. In one of the film’s strongest scenes, which would have deserved a bit more prominence, Brown tells Kevin that he already spent 12 years in jail and Kevin’s only 15 years old. 'Don’t be like me and get used to it,' he says, though at that very moment, Kevin’s just told Rob he hopes he’ll get his first plea bargain.

"Brown, meanwhile, has impregnated his girlfriend of three months before he’s off to jail for another 57 month stint and Kevin has even followed his example in this respect, knocking up a girl who then lost the baby a couple of weeks into her pregnancy. She blames herself, saying she 'messed up' (not quite the term she uses) birth control and has since broken up with Kevin over the fact he 'messed' -- more f-words used here -- with several drugs deals for her, each time adding salt to the meth he’s selling so as to increase the weight. Clearly, any idea of a connection or some kind of affection between these two human beings seems far-fetched; Brown, despite the fact he’s about to miss out on the first two-and-a-half years of his daughter’s life, seems a little -- but just a little -- luckier in that respect.

"What thus emerges, initially in fits and starts but then more forcefully as the film builds and the relationships crystallize, is a picture of life in the reservation community of Pine Point (or 'P-Town') as a place where lying and cheating, scoring and selling drugs and a host of other criminal activities are the order of the day and something as normal as love and human warmth are in short supply, with even the rapport between Kevin and his father feeling distant. Drug use is filmed with an unflinching eye (though some of this footage is not as high-definition as the rest) while posters on the walls in the background attest to an unoriginal and unhealthy obsession with the Brian De Palma version of Scarface, which seems to have made being a gangster super cool, suggesting exactly none of the people of an entire generation watched the film al the way through until it’s bloody, tragic and supremely ironic ending."


Posted by Geoff at 12:16 AM CST
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Thursday, February 5, 2015
'PHANTOM' ALSO AT TARANTINO'S NEW BEVERLY
MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS FEB 14 & 21
Hold the phone-- after posting earlier today about two different theaters showing Brian De Palma's Phantom Of The Paradise in February (one in Wales, the other in Winnipeg), Matthew sends along word that the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles, now owned and operated by Quentin Tarantino, will be screening Phantom at midnight shows on two consecutive Saturdays, February 14 and February 21. Looks like winter is the unofficial season for De Palma screenings everywhere.
(Thanks to Matthew!)

Posted by Geoff at 6:06 PM CST
Updated: Thursday, February 5, 2015 5:13 PM CST
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'PHANTOM' IN WALES SATURDAY & TUESDAY
AND BACK IN WINNIPEG FOR MOVIE NIGHT & GAME LOUNGE FEB 23, AT PARK THEATRE
Brian De Palma's Phantom Of The Paradise will screen at Chapter Film in Cardiff, Wales, this Saturday (Feb 7) at 8:15pm, and also Tuesday (Feb. 10) at 2:30pm. Each of the two screenings will feature an introduction by Chapter Wails, which means a lecture and discussion.

And on Monday, February 23rd, Phantom returns to Winnipeg for Movie Night & Game Lounge at the Park Theatre. From the website description: "The Movie Night and Game Lounge is a monthly film series at The Park Theatre. The concept is simple, we play favourite classic cult movies on our big screen. But the fun doesn't stop there, we begin the night by turning The Park Theatre lobby into a game lounge, with a full service bar, 9 beers on tap, and lots of room to get your game on. After that, grab your drinks and head into the theatre for the movie. There will also be a pop-up restaurant set up so you can feel free to skip supper and grab food when you get here!" The doors open at 7pm, the show starts at 9pm, and the entire event ends at 11pm.

Posted by Geoff at 12:37 AM CST
Updated: Thursday, February 5, 2015 12:43 AM CST
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Wednesday, February 4, 2015
'OBSESSION' SCREENS FRIDAY IN NEW YORK
AT RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART - INTRODUCTION BY NEUROSCIENTIST STEPHEN MACKNIK
Brian De Palma's Obsession will screen this Friday, February 6th, at New York City's Rubin Museum Of Art. The screening, which begins at 9:30pm, is part of a Friday night series called Cabaret Cinema, "Where Movies and Martinis Mix." The films chosen explore "themes featured in the museum's galleries," according to the Cabaret Cinema page. "Each film is introduced by a notable guest to provide context."

For Obsession, the notable guest is neuroscientist Stephen Macknik, co-author of the book Sleights Of Mind. The description at the book's website states that Macknik and co-author Susana Martinez-Conde are "founders of the exciting new discipline of NeuroMagic — and also members of the Magic Castle, Magic Circle, International Brotherhood of Magicians, and the Society of American Magicians," and that they "have convinced some of the world’s greatest magicians to allow scientists to study their techniques for tricking the brain." So it all makes sense-- in Obsession, De Palma and Paul Schrader, inspired by Hitchcock, have created a masterful magic trick of the cinema.

The Rubin Museum's website includes an excerpt from Richard Schickel 1976 review of the film for TIME: "...Exquisite entertainment...The film also throws into high melodramatic relief certain recognizable human truths: the shock of sudden loss, the panic of the effort to recoup, the mourning and guilt that blind the protagonist to a multitude of suspicious signs as he seeks expiation and a chance to relive his life. In a sense, the movie offers viewers the opportunity to do the same thing—by going back to a more romantic era of the cinema and the simple, touching pleasures denied the audience by the current anti-romantic spirit of the movies."


Posted by Geoff at 5:52 PM CST
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Sunday, February 1, 2015
DE PALMA SELECTROSPECTIVE IN LONDON
FIVE FILMS, ONE EVERY MONDAY IN MARCH, AT PRINCE CHARLES CINEMA


The Prince Charles Cinema in London will feature a Brian De Palma Selectrospective, with a De Palma film screening every Monday in March. The series kicks off March 2nd with Carrie, then Scarface (March 9), Dressed To Kill (March 16), The Untouchables (March 23), and Blow Out (March 30).

Posted by Geoff at 11:03 PM CST
Updated: Monday, February 2, 2015 12:08 AM CST
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Saturday, January 31, 2015
GREENBERG HONORED AT EDDIE AWARDS
EDITOR RECEIVES LIFETIME CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Jerry Greenberg was honored last night with a Lifetime Career Achievement Award at the 65th annual American Cinema Editors (ACE) Eddie Awards. Deadline's Ross A. Lincoln and Erik Pedersen report that "Carol Littleton presented Greenberg with his career nod. The Oscar-winning editor of The French Connection has a résumé of required viewing spanning decades, but watching his tribute reel tonight, it stuck out that, if editing is the most important part of completing a film, he is one of the most quantifiably influential people in the past 40 years. Not only on film, but given his work on Scarface, the man is partly responsible for an enormous amount of hip-hop. Greenberg was double Oscar nominee in 1980 for Apocalypse Now and Kramer Vs. Kramer, and his dozens of editing credits also include The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three, The Untouchables, Christmas Vacation, American History X and Get Carter."

Aside from Scarface and The Untouchables, Greenberg worked with De Palma on Dressed To Kill, Body Double, Wise Guys, and the music video for Bruce Springsteen's Dancing In The Dark. In Susan Dworkin's 1984 book Double De Palma, De Palma said of Greenberg, "I can just talk to him on the phone, and he'll know exactly what I want. And can even do it better."

According to the bio on the ACE press release, Greenberg "began his career in his native New York in 1960 where he learned how to edit music and began familiarizing himself with the Moviola, splicers, synchronizers and recorders. He was ready for his big break and he got it when he was offered an apprenticing job for the legendary Dede Allen on Elia Kazan’s America America. By 1967, Greenberg and Allen were working closely together and on Bonnie and Clyde, Greenberg was given the task of editing a couple of the shootout scenes and worked closely with Allen and director Arthur Penn on them. Not soon after, his career was off and running. He cut his first solo feature Bye Bye Braverman for director Sidney Lumet in 1971 and won the Oscar® and BAFTA for editing William Friedkin’s The French Connection a year later. The infamous car chase from that film has been dissected and taught at film schools ever since."


Posted by Geoff at 3:00 PM CST
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Friday, January 30, 2015
'SCARFACE' CARTOON
FROM THIS WEEK'S ISSUE OF 'THE NEW YORKER'


Thanks to Alan for letting us know about the cartoon above, which is published in the February 2, 2015 issue of The New Yorker.

Posted by Geoff at 7:14 PM CST
Updated: Friday, January 30, 2015 8:12 PM CST
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Thursday, January 29, 2015
TWERPS SINGER LOVES DE PALMA FILMS
IF HE COULD CHOOSE WELL-KNOWN FILMMAKER TO MAKE VIDEO, WOULD CHOOSE DE PALMA OR SPIKE JONZE
Martin Frawley, singer/guitarist from the band Twerps, was asked by Under The Radar's Mark Redfern which well-known filmmaker would he most like to direct one of Twerps' music videos. Frawley responded, "Spike Jonze so we could do kickflips together. Or actually probably Brian De Palma, he has made some of my fave films of all time. I would have said Richard Linklater but his last score on Boyhood was cringe-worthy."

Posted by Geoff at 6:56 PM CST
Updated: Thursday, January 29, 2015 7:52 PM CST
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Wednesday, January 28, 2015
BOBBI ACTION FIGURE SELLS OUT - ONLY 10 MADE
RETROBAND PIECE WAS COMMISSIONED BY 'HANNIBAL' PRODUCER BRYAN FULLER
Aaron Moreno, aka Retroband, and Gabe Hernandez created an action figure of Bobbi, the killer from Brian De Palma's Dressed To Kill. The 4" figure, which comes with a toy straight razor, was made available today, but quickly sold out. According to Broke Horror Fan's Alex DiVincenzo, "Only 10 exist, and they promptly sold out at $100 a pop."

The figure was apparently requested by the man behind NBC's Hannibal TV series, Bryan Fuller. Last night, Moreno posted a picture of the figure on the Retroband Instagram page, along with the message, "'Oh Doctor, I'm so unhappy. I'm a woman trapped inside a man's body and you're not helping me to get out.' Commission piece for our good pal @bryanfullergram! @worthyenemies and I had a blast working on this piece. Only a few will be available, if interested please visit Retroband.bigcartel.com."

At about the same time, Austin posted the pic on his Worthy Enemies Instagram page, with the message, "1980's Dressed To Kill. @retoband and myself worked on this thrasher earlier this month for the Creator of Pushing Up Daisies, Dead Like Me and the awesome Hannibal the series, #BryanFuller . It was a blast and if you would be interested in getting one, check out www.retroband.com. They are very very limited. Once their gone. POOF! Their gone!"

Back in May 2014, several people tweeted that the latest episode of Hannibal had reminded them of De Palma.

(Thanks to Phillip!)


Posted by Geoff at 6:43 PM CST
Updated: Wednesday, January 28, 2015 5:58 PM CST
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