De Palma a la Mod

Monday, April 4, 2016

DE PALMA ON 'LIGHTS OUT'
"I'D LIKE MY FILM TO BE A KIND OF MIXTURE BETWEEN 'MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE' & 'WAIT UNTIL DARK'"

The picture at left, from France 3 TV, shows Brian De Palma on stage during Saturday's Cinema Masterclass at the Beaune International Thriller Film Festival. I'll post more about that this week, but for now, here is what De Palma told Alain Grasset at Le Parisien regarding his current project, Lights Out: "Yet another thriller-but I love so much this genre - which tells the story of a blind Chinese girl whose father is involved in a secret operation with the CIA. It will take place between China and Canada. I would like my film to be a kind of mixture between Mission: Impossible and Wait Until Dark, with Audrey Hepburn. Hopefully, I will start shooting this summer." Metro News mentioned the other day that the screenplay for Lights Out is still being worked on and finalized.

Posted by Geoff at 1:54 AM CDT
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Friday, April 1, 2016

BEAUNE THRILLER FEST - TRIBUTE TO DE PALMA
FILMMAKER RECEIVES STANDING OVATION, SPEAKS; INTERVIEW TRANSLATIONS TO COME

Some nice photos (taken by Philippe Bruchot) from the Beaune International Thriller Film Festival have been posted at Le Bien Public today, which paid tribute to Brian De Palma. De Palma received a standing ovation. So far, two French outlets have posted interviews with De Palma today from Beaune: Metro News and 20 Minutes. The interviews cover such topics as reality TV, Donald Trump, trying to work for television and having to fight for final cut, and De Palma's current project, Lights Out, for which he is currently finalizing the script with an eye to begin shooting this summer. I'll get translations of those interviews later this weekend. For now, here are a couple more photos:

Posted by Geoff at 5:59 PM CDT
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Wednesday, March 30, 2016

'CARRIE' MIDNIGHTS APRIL 1 & 2 AT IFC, NEW YORK
40th ANNIVERSARY SCREENINGS KICK OFF MONTHS-LONG MIDNIGHT STEPHEN KING SERIES

Brian De Palma's Carrie will have midnight screenings this Friday and Saturday, April 1 and 2, at the IFC Center in New York City. The screenings, which will be from DCP, kick off a thirteen-film midnight series, "Stephen King on Film." The IFC description of the series reads, in part, "Presented in honor of the 40th anniversary of Carrie (1976, Brian De Palma), the horror classic adapted from King’s first novel and the first of what would be countless films and TV productions derived from King’s work, the series showcases more than three decades of terrifying cinema inspired by the writer—an extensive, but by no means exhaustive selection."

Posted by Geoff at 9:13 PM CDT
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Sunday, March 27, 2016

'CARRIE' TUESDAY IN SANTA ANA, CALIFORNIA
SHORT FILM 'THE BIRTHDAY', INSPIRED BY 'CARRIE', WILL PLAY BEFOREHAND

This Tuesday night (March 29) at The Frida Cinema in Santa Ana, California, Frida volunteer Trevor Dillon will present his short film The Birthday at 8pm, and then right after, Dillon will present a screening of one of the films that inspired his "70s horror-themed" short: Brian De Palma's Carrie. The night of horror is also the launch of Dillon's indie horror company, Ghost Party Productions.

Posted by Geoff at 11:58 PM CDT
Updated: Monday, March 28, 2016 12:08 AM CDT
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Saturday, March 26, 2016

'WAR DOGS' POSTER PARODIES 'SCARFACE'
TAGLINE: "AN AMERICAN DREAM"; RELEASES AUGUST 19 2016

Posted by Geoff at 2:34 AM CDT
Updated: Saturday, March 26, 2016 2:36 AM CDT
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Friday, March 25, 2016

GUILLERMO DEL TORO TWEETS 'PHANTOM' ART

Posted by Geoff at 2:37 AM CDT
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Tuesday, March 22, 2016

'DE PALMA' AT HOT DOCS IN TORONTO MAY 2, 3, 6
SHANE SMITH: "LIVELY & UNEXPECTEDLY MOVING DOCUMENTARY"

The full schedule for Hot Docs Film Festival in Toronto was posted today. Jake Paltrow and Noah Baumbach's De Palma is set to play Monday, May 2 (6:15pm), Tuesday, May 3 (10am), and Friday, May 6 (9:30pm).

On the film's event page, Shane Smith writes of the film: "One of the most talented, influential and iconoclastic filmmakers of all time, Brian De Palma started his career in the 1960s. It has included such acclaimed and diverse films as Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Blow Out, Scarface, The Untouchables, Carlito's Way and Mission: Impossible. In this lively and unexpectedly moving documentary, directors Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow engage in a personal and candid discussion with De Palma, exploring not only his life and work but also his singular approach to the craft of filmmaking. Touching on his remarkable experiences navigating the film business, from his early days as the bad boy of New Hollywood to his more recent years as a respected veteran of the field, what emerges is a funny and incisive portrait of a truly one-of-a-kind artist. It's an exhilarating look at the last 50 years of film through the eyes of someone who's truly seen it all."

Posted by Geoff at 8:26 PM CDT
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Sunday, March 20, 2016

DE PALMA TO GIVE MASTERCLASS AT THRILLER FEST
BEAUNE THRILLER FEST WILL ALSO PAY TRIBUTE TO DE PALMA, SCREENING 6 OF HIS FILMS

The Beaune International Thriller Film Festival, celebrating its 8th annual edition this year, will pay tribute to Brian De Palma on April 1st. De Palma will present a Cinema Masterclass at the fest on April 2nd. As part of the tribute, the festival, which takes place in Beaune, France, from March 30 to April 3, will screen six of De Palma's films: Dressed To Kill, Blow Out, Scarface, The Untouchables, Carlito's Way, and his latest, Passion. (The festival organizers may have missed a serendipitous opportunity, as Sandrine Bonnaire, who has a cameo as herself in De Palma's Femme Fatale, is their jury president this year.)

The festival's selected filmography for De Palma lists The Key Man along with Lights Out as a film currently in development. While De Palma had been announced as director for The Key Man back in 2011, it was reported the following year that De Palma was no longer attached, and that Oskar Thor Axelsson was then negotiating to direct. Here in 2016, nothing seems to be going on with that project with either director, and one wonders if its inclusion in the Beaune fest's filmography for De Palma is simply a mistake.

Posted by Geoff at 7:42 PM CDT
Updated: Sunday, March 20, 2016 7:45 PM CDT
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Thursday, March 17, 2016

'SCARFACE' REMAKE IS LARRAIN'S DREAM PROJECT
ALAS, PROJECT IS CURRENTLY STUCK IN DEVELOPMENT

The Guardian's Danny Leigh posted a profile on Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín. Two years ago, it was first reported that Larraín was in negotiations to direct a new remake of Scarface, and then a year later (otherwise known as a year ago), it was announced that Straight Outta Compton screenwriter Jonathan Herman had been hired to write the Scarface remake. Now Leigh reports that this would be Larraín's dream project, but that it is currently stuck in development. Here's an excerpt from The Guardian article:

Larraín’s films aren’t just politically alive, they’re bracing as cinema. No was shot on U-matic tape to imitate lo-fi 80s Chilean TV news; The Club unfolds in ashen half-light, as if the moral rot had got into the sun. He shrugs at the idea that, as a director, moving into the English language is inevitable. “I just want to be able to control the story, and for it to mean something to me.” But he is making his first American film: Jackie, a portrait of Jacqueline Kennedy in the days after John F Kennedy’s assassination. Before that will be another Chilean movie, Neruda, about the 1940s hounding of the communist poet Pablo Neruda. “The scale is big. The money. Here, you might not think it was big, but it’s big for us in Chile.”
The money may get bigger still. Larraín’s dream project, marooned in development, is a remake of Brian De Palma’s Scarface. It would be set in Los Angeles, with a Mexican kingpin replacing the Cuban Tony Montana: quite something in Trumpian times. Larraín is coy. “I could never talk about a movie I haven’t made yet.” It would be a hell of a risk, remaking a film whose every line is someone’s favourite ever. There’s a laugh and an eye roll. “Tell me about it!”

Posted by Geoff at 11:58 PM CDT
Updated: Friday, March 18, 2016 12:11 AM CDT
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Wednesday, March 16, 2016

AV CLUB LOOKS AT DE PALMA'S 'OBSESSION'
"DE PALMA FINALLY WENT FULL HITCHCOCK WITH THIS 'VERTIGO' RIFF"

In honor of the new movie Midnight Special, which apparently pays heartfelt homage to the films of Steven Spielberg and John Carpenter, A.V. Club's "Watch This" column is "recommending excellent homages to other films and filmmakers" this week. In today's post, Noel Murray looks at Obsession, Brian De Palma and Paul Schrader's direct homage to Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo.

"Obsession is both crazy and quasi-relevant," states Murray, "as well as being the most boldly Hitchcock-derived movie in De Palma’s filmography. (Body Double is a close second, with Dressed To Kill lurking just behind.) Screenwriter Paul Schrader patterned the story directly after Vertigo, a movie that circa 1976 was out of circulation, and had a mixed critical reputation. But Schrader and De Palma weren’t trying to fool anybody. They just both loved Vertigo, and rather than writing an essay for some film journal, they made a movie together that expressed what fascinated them about it."

And in his closing paragraph, Murray writes, "Obsession doesn’t exactly plumb any depths that Vertigo didn’t hit first, nor do its insights into one dangerously driven man differ much from what Hitchcock and screenwriters Alec Coppel and Samuel Taylor had already done. But the movie’s extended, dialogue-free set pieces are mini-masterpieces of cinematic choreography. And the heightened luridness of Obsession does succeed in making Vertigo’s twisty plot seem all the more inessential to that film’s power. What both movies do is cut a tale of murder and madness down to its essence, exploring characters who’ve been damaged by social expectations and their own desires. The difference is that in Vertigo, James Stewart’s Scottie Ferguson is, deep down, probably a decent guy—while [Cliff] Robertson’s Michael is an empty suit, defined only by his wants. That’s the De Palma touch."

Posted by Geoff at 11:57 PM CDT
Updated: Thursday, March 17, 2016 12:03 AM CDT
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