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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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« December 2017 »
S M T W T F S
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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
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
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Wedding Party
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Thursday, December 7, 2017
THURSDAY TWEET - GOD'S EYE VIEW TRIPLET
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/tweetgodseye.jpg

Posted by Geoff at 7:53 AM CST
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Friday, December 1, 2017
DONAGGIO TALKS DE PALMA, 'DOMINO', 'CARRIE', ETC.
SAYS HE ALWAYS WANTS TO SCORE EVERY DE PALMA FILM, BUT DE PALMA FEELS HE IS BEST FOR SUSPENSE
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/pinotorino.jpg

Pino Donaggio took a break from working on the score for Brian De Palma's Domino this week to appear during the De Palma retrospective at the 35th annual Torino Film Festival, where the composer received the Grand Prize prior to a screening of Dressed To Kill. Film.it has some highlights from Donaggio's press conference there-- here's a rough Google-assisted translation:
The thirty-fifth Torino Film Festival invites Pino Donaggio as the representative of the retrospective dedicated to Brian De Palma. An author for whom Maestro Donaggio wrote the music for six of his films. We all know the titles - Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Blow Out, Body Double, Raising Cain, and (the less famous) Passion - but listening to the composer's stories instantly provokes goosebumps: "Do you remember Carrie's ending? When Amy Irving walks past the grave and we see her hand jump off the ground accompanied by the music? I saw George Lucas jump during that scene, he jumped from the cinema chair. And he started laughing as if he wanted to say: 'You cheated me!'".

Another anecdote about Carrie is about Martin Scorsese: "We were in New York and in a cinema showing Carrie ... with the title in the luminous sign in big letters, and at the bottom, but much smaller, there was the title of the second film: Taxi Driver. Brian took the picture of that sign and sent it to Scorsese! I have wonderful memories of that period: Brian was very close to Spielberg, Scorsese and Coppola."

Maestro Donaggio still works with De Palma today. He is currently busy creating the music for his new thriller: Domino. What will we see on the screen?
The plot is simple: the films of Brian are, at least the ones that I do with him which are those full of suspense, action and sex. Domino opens with a death: they kill the companion of a policeman and then this protagonist goes around all over Europe to look for the perpetrators. Among other things, he also meets ISIS members and other terrorists while he continues to hunt for the guilty. There will be a great finale set during a Bullfight with people running up the stairs.

You named De Palma's friends: Scorsese, Spielberg and Coppola, that is, authors who almost always work with the same troupe. Are there any De Palma films that you did not participate in - I think about Scarface or The Untouchables - were you too busy at the time?
No. I wanted to do them all. But he had made up his mind that I was good at making that kind of music for that kind of suspense film. He said that he had worked with many but that he found me "the best of all on those films in particular". He thought I was not suitable for more dramatic films like The Untouchables, or Casualties Of War. The strange thing is that when this happens, he avoids me. He does not want me to do even the audition, because he feels uncomfortable telling me no. I remember in the eighties I was in New York: I was working on the music of The Fan ... he was in the same building I was in. I wanted to say hello. He told me he was busy. The truth is that he was starting another movie. And he could not tell me that I would not have done that movie. He is a bit like that. But when he comes to Venice we always see each other. (Smiles)

You have worked a lot also for Italian cinema. Is there a film you would have liked to participate in, which you did not do?
We should have done with Benigni and Troisi the following: Nothing Left To Do But Cry. It was scheduled but then it was different after the death of Troisi. It was a lot of fun to work on that first film: Benigni and Troisi came to me to ask me the theme. They left me free: "You and we listen to him" - they told me. And then in that movie we played with the music. There were musical gags like in the scene in which they open the door hoping to find themselves in the present and instead find the musicians of the Middle Ages.

Returning to the cinema of De Palma. One of the greatest fans of the director is Quentin Tarantino. Have you ever discussed with him about a potential project to be developed together?
Tarantino used the Blow Out theme in his Death Proof. Once I read an interview in which he said: "I love the music of Donaggio" ... yet he never called me (smiles). Another who loves my work is Benicio del Toro. He said: "When I prepare a film I listen to Donaggio's music" ... he too has never called me though. Maybe he does not have my number yet!


Posted by Geoff at 1:31 AM CST
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Wednesday, November 29, 2017
DE PALMA'S 1987 LETTER TO THEATER PROJECTIONISTS
"THERE ARE TWO OR THREE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT 'THE UNTOUCHABLES'"
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/depalmainstructionsuntouch.jpg

Thanks to Metrograph for tweeting the image above last weekend, as the New York City movie theater screened Brian De Palma's The Untouchables. The image shows a letter that De Palma had written to theaters that were getting ready to show The Untouchables in 1987. "Dear Theater Manager/Operator," begins the letter. "There are two or three things you should know about The Untouchables." The letter continues:
Firstly, it is important to realize that the 70mm prints were blown up from a 35mm anamorphic negative which means in order to maintain a 2.35:1 screen aspect ratio, it became necessary to introduce frame lines top and bottom that, unfortunately, may be projected.

Therefore, any help you can provide toward alleviating this problem (either by adjusting your screen masking or cutting new projector mattes) would be greatly appreciated.

It is also hoped that in converting your print to a platter format, clear rather than opaque tape be used to join the reels and that fast drying white ink or some other commercially available marker be employed to mark the joins.

Though these procedures may take some extra time, they are plainly in the interests of our audience.

Finally, a note on changeovers.

If you intend to screen your print on 2,000 ft. reels, be advised that the changeover cue marks at the end of reel 1 may be difficult to see. As scribed in, they occur at the end of a scene in which Robert DeNiro (Capone) reads a paper in bed while smoking a cigar.

Fortunately, these cues are the only ones you need to worry about, as the rest are clearly visible.

Thank you for hearing us out.

We wish you much succcess with The Untouchables and trust you won't hesitate to call the T.A.P. hotline (1-800-545-2525) should any problems arise.

Sincerely, Brian DePalma


Posted by Geoff at 12:04 AM CST
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Saturday, November 18, 2017
CRITIC - 'WE BLEW IT' SUMMONS SPECTRUM OF DE PALMA
DURING SEQUENCE IN WHICH CAMERA TRACES ROAD OF JFK ASSASSINATION
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/weblewit.jpgFilmed during the year leading up to the election of Donald Trump as president, Jean-Baptiste Thoret's documentary We Blew It takes its title from a line spoken by Peter Fonda in Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider. As The Hollywood Reporter's Bernard Besserglik describes it, "Jean-Baptiste Thoret's enthralling documentary We Blew It tackles the riddle of the 1960s head-on — a riddle that has been the subject of lively debate virtually since the day the decade ended. How, after that heady upsurge of youthful idealism and revolt, did we get to where we are now? What happened to the dreams and visions of the peace-and-love generation? What were the twists and turns that brought us from Easy Rider to Donald Trump?"

CineSeries' Guillaume Meral brings up Brian De Palma in his discussion of a shot that traces the road in Dallas where JFK was assassinated in 1963 (a description that cannot help but also remind of the scene in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, when Travis meets the gun dealer):
Basically, We Blew It is a film that deals with the question of the years '60-'70 by questioning their very existence. The work of a director who evolves in a landscape of images and is all too aware of the impact of these images themselves not to wonder if they have not printed in the retina of the popular unconscious a reality that never took place. A dialectic that is found in particular in the staging bias of Thoret. Filmmaker obviously cinephile, the author multiplies the references to New-Hollywood to question his own references. We think of the scene where the camera is walking in Dallas, on the road on which JFK died as if it were scanning the traces of a perennial trauma. As the screen sweeps the asphalt, an oppressive music straight out of a film by Brian De Palma, THE filmmaker who made this fatal day of November 15, 1963 the reason for his cinema, accentuates and invades the entire sound space. As if Thoret summoned the spectrum of the director of Blow Out to derealize what he films and plunge into an agonizing abstraction, which exceeds the factual historical event to touch something more disturbing. For those who arrive in the empty room of all references, the tools work in the first degree, but for the viewer initiated to its author and his cinephilia, Thoret brings a historical event to his cinematographic representation, as if the passage of a historical event in a regime of specific images had altered the initial reality. Did New Hollywood invent these years? Has cinema created America? This is the agonizing question that runs through the author's approach, seeking the traces of cinema in what he films.

Posted by Geoff at 10:28 AM CST
Updated: Saturday, November 18, 2017 10:31 AM CST
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Friday, November 17, 2017
DONAGGIO TO RECEIVE GRAND PRIZE AT TORINO FEST
BEFORE NOV 29 SCREENING OF 'DRESSED TO KILL', PART OF FULL DE PALMA RETROSPECTIVE
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/tff35.jpg

Pino Donaggio will be presented with the Torino Grand Prize at the 35th edition of the Torino Film Festival, which runs November 24 through December 2. Donaggio will be handed the award ahead of a screening of Dressed To Kill on November 29th. That film is part of a complete Brian De Palma retrospective, which includes everything from Woton's Wake to videos for Bruce Springsteen and Frankie Goes To Hollywood, and all the features in between (including 1979's Home Movies, projected from DCP).

Posted by Geoff at 5:37 AM CST
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Tuesday, November 14, 2017
HIRSCH CONTRASTS DE PALMA & LUCAS STYLES
HAS COMPLETED UPCOMING BOOK CHRONICLING WAR STORIES OF LIFE IN THE INDUSTRY
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/starwarsmay1977.jpg

Paul Hirsch was interviewed by Variey's Will Tizard ahead of his visit to Camerimage in Poland this week, where he is receiving the Camerimage Award To Editor With Unique Visual Sensitivity. The article reveals that Hirsch has completed a book that reflects upon his time editing Star Wars with Marcia Lucas, as well as "sharply observed war stories of life in the industry," according to Tizard...
Accounts in the book illustrate what editors gain from directors with markedly different styles and focus.

“De Palma’s very visually oriented,” Hirsch says, reflecting on the baroque setups used in the bloody prom scene climax of 1976’s “Carrie.”

“In terms of storytelling, George Lucas is extraordinarily gifted in terms of design. De Palma’s very interested in how he moves the camera,” with elaborate tracking shots and set pieces that flew apart to accommodate them.

“While in ‘Star Wars’ I don’t think the camera ever moves within the visual-effects sequences.”

And shots of live actors used mainly just pans across the set, Hirsch recalls.

Although friends have praised the still unpublished project, Hirsch is wary of those who can’t be objective, arguing that Hollywood sometimes falls prey to that trap.

“I don’t think these ‘friends and families’ screenings are very meaningful – I want to hear what the enemies and strangers have to say.”


Posted by Geoff at 3:35 AM CST
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Wednesday, November 8, 2017
TWEET - BATTLEAXE VOICE
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/tweetbattleaxevoice.jpg

Posted by Geoff at 11:36 PM CST
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Tuesday, November 7, 2017
HIRSCH MASTER CLASS IN PARIS NOV 19
BRACKETED BY SCREENINGS OF 'OBSESSION' & 'FALLING DOWN'
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/hirschmasterclass.jpgPaul Hirsch, who has made 11 films with Brian De Palma, will present a Master Class at Cinéma Grand Action in Paris on Sunday, November 19th. The Master Class (at 6pm) will be preceeded by a screening of De Palma's Obsession (4pm), and the night will close out with a screening of Joel Schumacher's Falling Down (7:30pm).

The press release quotes Hirsch about Obsession: "The film was turned down by every major studio when it was originally finished. I then had the idea of substituting a single shot in the film, and convinced De Palma and the producer to do it. It was then picked up by Columbia. How changing one shot changed the meaning of the story, and transformed a picture no one wanted to distribute into one they did, is an interesting example of the significance of editing."

And then also a brief quote from Hirsch about Falling Down: "Falling Down is very relevant to current events in America today. It is one of my forgotten films, by and large, but I think it was sort of prophetic. And it represented a distinct editing challenge in its own way."


Posted by Geoff at 10:42 PM CST
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Monday, November 6, 2017
'FEMME FATALE' AT TRAILERS FROM HELL
ALLAN ARKUSH COMMENTARY KICKS OFF BRIAN DE PALMA WEEK AT TFH
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/fftfh.jpg

Trailers From Hell kicks off its Brian De Palma Week today with a brand new Allan Arkush commentary for the American version of the trailer for De Palma's Femme Fatale. Arkush begins by contrasting David Thompson's review of the film with Roger Ebert's. Later this week, the site will highlight Edgar Wright's commentary for The Fury trailer, and then Larry Karaszewski on Get To Know Your Rabbit.

Posted by Geoff at 8:37 PM CST
Updated: Monday, November 6, 2017 8:39 PM CST
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Saturday, November 4, 2017
SATURDAY TWEET - DE PALMA / BAUMBACH
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/tweetdivorce.jpg

Posted by Geoff at 9:36 PM CDT
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