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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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Interviews...

De Palma interviewed
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De Palma discusses
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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.
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Saturday, October 26, 2019
'BODY DOUBLE' HIT THEATERS 35 YEARS AGO TODAY
OCTOBER 26, 1984
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/bdshowermedium.jpg

Posted by Geoff at 1:23 AM CDT
Updated: Saturday, October 26, 2019 8:52 AM CDT
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Monday, October 14, 2019
AMERICAN PSYCHO & BODY DOUBLE IN BRIGHTON OCT 26
"A MOVIE ABOUT PATRICK BATEMAN & PATRICK BATEMAN'S FAVOURITE MOVIE"
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/bdthishalloween1.jpg
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/bdthishalloween2.jpg


White Wall Cinema will host a "a special Halloween double bill pop up cinema experience" October 26th at Wgner Hall in Brighton: Mary Harron's adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho and Brian De Palma's Body Double. "Two movies back to back," reads the event description, "a movie about Patrick Bateman and Patrick Bateman's favourite movie!" Sponsored by It Is Still 1985 ("Brighton's legndary 80s Party"), the event page includes a lovingly-edited trailer scored to Pino Donaggio's Body Double theme, save for a bit of Huey Lewis and The News near the end, and a bite of Frankie Goes To Hollywood to close things out.

Here's more from the event page:

We start the evening with Mary Harron’s 2000 cult classic American Psycho starring Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman, an investment banker who attempts to hide his serial killer impulses as he descends into hedonistic violence, in a deeply satirical look at 1980s New York.

The second movie of the evening, 1984’s Body Double, is cited throughout Bret Easton Ellis’s original American Psycho novel as Patrick Bateman’s favourite film (Bateman mentions that he has seen the film 37 times and rents the tape of it from a video store several times in the story, and also repeats scenes from the film to the reader or to other characters). Directed by Brian DePalma (other works include Carrie, Scarface, The Untouchables, Carlito’s Way) and influenced by Hitchcock classics Rear Window & Vertigo, Body Double follows an out of work actor as he delves into the seedy world of adult entertainment in order to solve a murder he witnesses in the Hollywood hills. A vibrant 80s neo-noir thriller it’s an unashamed celebration and examination of the most superficial of decades. Tickets on sale now.


Posted by Geoff at 1:02 AM CDT
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Monday, February 25, 2019
JAMIE DUNN PRESENTS 'BODY DOUBLE' IN EDINBURGH
"CINEMA HAS NEVER BEEN SO TRASHY AND SO INTELLIGENT ALL AT ONCE"
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/bodydoublecard.jpgAs part of The Skinny's February 2019 film series at Filmhouse in Edinburgh, Jamie Dunn tonight presented a screening of Brian De Palma's Body Double.

"Cinema doesn’t get more self-reflexive than this wry thriller about a claustrophobic Z-list actor whose voyeurism gets him in a heap of trouble," reads Dunn's pre-screening description. "With its gleeful perversion and baroque violence, the film was De Palma’s thinly-veiled provocation to the critics who clutch their pearls at his previous films. But it’s also a paean to filmmaking, from its winking film-within-films to De Palma’s feverish set pieces paying homage to Hitchcock. Cinema has never been so trashy and so intelligent all at once."

Posted by Geoff at 11:58 PM CST
Updated: Tuesday, February 26, 2019 12:05 AM CST
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Tuesday, July 31, 2018
GUCCI AD w/FAYE DUNAWAY USES 'BODY DOUBLE' THEME
PINO DONAGGIO MUSIC SCORES BEVERLY HILLS-SET AD, DIRECTED BY PETRA COLLINS
Previously:
Selena Gomez & Petra Collins share 'fetish' for Brian De Palma films


Via Dazed:
Petra Collins: What is your current obsession or ‘fetish’?

Selena Gomez: Right now, I have a fetish for Brian De Palma films. The way he shoots women is so sexy. I’m printing out pictures to hang up in my new house right now. Melanie Griffith in Body Double. So sexy.

Petra Collins: Oh my God. Brian De Palma. I love him. I’m with you on that one, that’s my fetish right now too.


Posted by Geoff at 10:49 PM CDT
Updated: Tuesday, July 31, 2018 10:57 PM CDT
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Wednesday, February 21, 2018
TWEET - WES ANDERSON THANKS BRIAN DE PALMA
IN THE END CREDITS OF 'ISLE OF DOGS'
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/tweetisleofdogs.jpg

Posted by Geoff at 8:17 AM CST
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Friday, February 9, 2018
VIDEO - DAKOTA JOHNSON WATCHES 1984 INTERVIEW
AS HER MOM, MELANIE GRIFFITH, DESCRIBES 'BODY DOUBLE' AUDITION WITH DE PALMA
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/dakotamelanie.jpg

Posted by Geoff at 7:55 AM CST
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Sunday, February 4, 2018
CRAMPTON DISCUSSES 'RAW' & 'BODY DOUBLE'
WITH APRIL WOLFE ON SWITCHBLADE SISTERS PODCAST
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/barbaracrampton2.jpgBarbara Crampton joins film critic/filmmaker April Wolfe to discuss Julia Ducournau's Raw on the latest episode of the podcast Switchblade Sisters. Discussing that film's central relationship between two sisters, Crampton mentions Brian De Palma's Sisters in terms of theme and style (she says she recently watched the latter again, as well). At the start of the second part of the podcast, Wolfe asks Crampton about her work on De Palma's Body Double:
April Wolfe: So I wanted to talk a little bit about these extras scenes.

Barbara Crampton: Yeah...

April: It's one of the things that we actually rarely talk about when it comes to Raw, but it makes it so, so good, and something you brought up, when they do the hazing rituals...

Barbara: Right...

April: Ducournau personally cast all three hundred of them.

Barbara: No way...

April: Yes. Exactly. So you hear Barbara's shock at that-- that doesn't happen. There's usually a casting person who does the extras casting.

Barbara: Yeah (laughing), it's whoever's available.

April: Yes!

Barbara: Because you don't get paid a lot!

April: No! So she personally cast all three hundred of these extras-- like, she was single-handedly constructing this veterinary school. She said she tried to keep their characters in mind, and use them in scenes that would fit with how they had appeared in other scenes, really building their characters. And, you know, it made for a better, fuller film. It felt realistic.

Barbara: Yeah.

April: But also, it was a way to get the extras invested in the film, because they would have to be there for the full 37 days of shooting, which is a huge undertaking if you're an extra.

Barbara: Oh my God, yeah, you want to feel like you're a part of the project. That's so smart!

April: It is! And I thought it's honestly so wonderful when a director takes that kind of care with every actor on set, no matter...

Barbara: Who they are-- yeah...

April: Exactly. Even if you have a small part. I was thinking in terms of your role in De Palma's Body Double.

Barbara: Mmm-hmm...

April: Because I had read some interviews with you where you had said that, like, they did so many takes, and he was so interested in getting the scene right, and you got to work with him on so many things. And even if some of that stuff got cut out, you were still, you know, working towards kind of a perfect moment.

Barbara: We actually did that scene all day. I mean it was all day. From different angles. Forty takes from all different angles. It was hundreds of takes. It was incredible. I will say, when I first got that film, there were two other scenes in the movie that I had dialogue in. And the night before I was to start shooting, I got a call: "Oh, oops, they cut the dialogue scenes. You only have this one scene with Craig Wasson in bed." And I thought, hmm... was this on purpose? Or, is this legitimate? But it's Brian De Palma, so I should work with him, and it was great to be with him on set, and I did it and it was super fun.

April: It was really early in your career, too.

Barbara: I think it was like the first thing I actually did on film, because I was on Days Of Our Lives for about a year, and that was my first job, and I think that was my second job.

April: What do you think you learned from that set?

Barbara: To relax, and to just have no fear. I mean, that was the first thing... because everybody was just kind of laissez-faire in a way. You know, when you're making a movie, and I just said, oh, you have to hurry up, you have to go, and you have to be right on point, and you do... and I'm sure even on a film like that, you have to be on point, but it felt like I... I could see the other actors who were on set, they... they were really calm. And relaxed, and I think you want to feel secure, and centered, and it was nice to see everybody on set just, you know, doing their job, but, and fast, but relaxed. You have to be relaxed.

April: [laughter]

Barbara: Well, I like relaxing, so that's good for me to be reminded of that all the time.

[You might think Wolfe is laughing because Crampton has brought up the title of the Frankie Goes To Hollywood song that features in Body Double, but no-- her laughter comes from picturing the actors in Raw being relaxed while making such an intense film]

Previously:
Crampton shares details of two dialogue scenes cut from Body Double

Crampton: "I am still waiting for that call from Brian De Palma"


Posted by Geoff at 5:38 PM CST
Updated: Sunday, February 4, 2018 5:50 PM CST
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Tuesday, January 30, 2018
'BODY DOUBLE' FAN ART POSTER
BY DRW.MOV DESIGN - "CAPTURES THE FILM IN A DIFFERENT WAY" THAN ORIGINAL BY STEPHEN SAYADIAN
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/bdfanartdrew2018b.jpg

The fan art poster above for Body Double was created by Drew as part of a PosterADay challenge (Drw_mov on Twitter, and on Instagram). In the Instagram post, Drew explains, "It’s really hard for me to work on a film that already has a poster that I like, let alone one I love as much as Stephen “Rinse Dream” Sayadian’s original key art for this. But I think this does a very good job of capturing the film in a different way. Just makes me want to sing RELAX."

Posted by Geoff at 8:07 AM CST
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Tuesday, January 16, 2018
'HOWLING' SHIRT DESIGN REVERSES 'BODY DOUBLE' ART
AARON CRAWFORD: "I REALIZED HOW RAD IT WOULD BE TO REVERSE THE VOYEURISTIC ROLES"
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/howlingdouble.jpg

Posted by Geoff at 1:01 AM CST
Updated: Tuesday, January 16, 2018 1:14 AM CST
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Friday, December 15, 2017
HOWARD GOTTFRIED HAS DIED
EXEC-PRODUCER ON 'BODY DOUBLE' WAS 94
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/gottfried.jpg

Howard Gottfried, the executive producer on Brian De Palma's Body Double, died of a stroke a week ago today in Los Angeles. He was 94. Here's an excerpt regarding Gottfried from Susan Dworkin's book, Double De Palma, on the making of Body Double:
She had come to Brian's attention during the winter before Body Double started shooting, when Howard Gottfried, the executive producer, went to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The X-rated home video marketers had been denied space on the convention floor, but their wares and their stars were available in hotel rooms close by.

Howard threw up his hands. "Can you imagine, I went to Las Vegas with my casting lady to look at porno movies?! Can you imagine, I go in, I say..."--he straightens his jacket which he always wears with jeans and cocks his head like David Niven--"... Uh hello, I am from Columbia Pictures and I would like to talk with you about a major motion picture.... I mean, they look at you like you're some kind of lunatic!"

It is true that Howard Gottfried is not the sort of man you would ordinarily imagine as a sex scout. A voluble New Yorker with a burning concern about social issues, he made his name in the film industry as the partner of Paddy Chayefsky in such literate and relevant films as Hospital and Network and Altered States. Culturally and intellectually, Howard was made a little crazy by the porn connections of Body Double, all the more so because unlike Brian, unlike Steve Burum, the director of photography, and Joe Napolitano, the first assistant director, Howard Gottfried had children. Howard was the one who had to go home to his family in New York and be assaulted by feminist friends at dinner parties who wanted to know if it was true, was Howard really making a pornographic movie?! ... It was lucky for Howard, therefore, that he had a sense of humor. And Brian De Palma's sense of humor meant as much to him as any other element in the movie.

"Why do they say Brian hates women more than other filmmakers?" Howard asked. "Saturday Night Fever treated women like pieces of meat. And look at Flashdance. Sure she had a job, she had ambition, she was liberated. But how does she show us she's liberated? When the ex-wife stops at the table and asks, 'What do you two do?' she answers 'We fuck our brains out.' It's insulting to women because it means to be a serious portrayal. Now, look at this scene in Body Double with Linda Shaw. Is this a serious portrayal? They're both on these water beds and she's massaging her breasts in this television interview and she's screaming, 'I'm coming! I'm coming!' and the interviewer says, 'So while she's coming, we'll break fr this clip.' Now that's funny. That's fun-nee! How can all these women despise a guy who's as funny as that?!"


Posted by Geoff at 10:37 AM CST
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