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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
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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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Tuesday, May 16, 2023
TONY STELLA ART FOR GERMAN 4K ULTRA 'CARLITO'S WAY'
32-PAGE BOOKLET TO BE INCLUDED IN COLLECTOR'S EDITION, COMING JULY 20, 2023
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/arthauscarlito.jpg

Posted by Geoff at 10:21 PM CDT
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Sunday, April 30, 2023
'DE PALMA LET ME BRING ALL MY FRIENDS' FOR CLUB SCENE
LEGUIZAMO: "THOSE ARE ALL MY FRIENDS, AND MY EX-WIFE" IN 'CARLITO'S WAY'
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/carlitolegend75.jpg

IndieWire's Christian Zilko summarizes part of a GQ video interview (below) in which "John Leguizamo Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters" -
In an interview with GQ, Leguizamo revealed that he was so sick of auditioning to play drug dealers early in his career that he considered passing on his now-iconic role as Benny Blanco in Brian De Palma’s “Carlito’s Way.”

“I’m a Latin guy and I didn’t wanna play another drug dealer. I was just kind of sick of that kind of routine,” Leguizamo said. “So I turned it down three times.”

He continued to resist the role, only to learn that one of Hollywood’s other rising Hispanic stars, Benicio Del Toro, was also in the mix for it. Once he learned Del Toro was interested, Leguizamo said that he opted to do the film after realizing it was a good career move.

“The producers said, ‘Look, this is the last time I’m coming to you. We’re gonna go to Benicio,'” he said. “Okay, I’ll take it!”

Leguizamo’s thoughts about not wanting to play drug dealers echo similar comments he made in a recent interview with IndieWire. The actor explained that the limited range of roles he was considered for as a young actor shaped his view about the importance of representation in films.


But the really interesting stuff about filming Carlito's Way comes after that. "I did a lot of research," Leguizamo says in the video. "I hung out with a lot of drug dealers in the L.E.S. And I was crazy, because I thought I had celebrity immunity, and then I realized nobody's going to care about it when they shoot them up. One of the guys I was running with, his brother got shot. I'm glad I left, because, yeah, I would have got shot, too. But all that research paid off, and Brian De Palma let me bring all my friends in the club scene. Those are all my friends, and my ex-wife. So I felt really comfortable and at home, and I improvised all that dialogue with Pacino. De Palma taught me how to act on film, on this flick. He let me do... I did, like, thirty takes of my entrance, on film. Which is unherad of. You did an independent film back then, you had to beg for another take. You had to have a good reason, because it was too expensive. And he did thirty takes on my entrance, and I would do crazier things, and he'd laugh. I'd knock people's trays down, I'd throw my cigarette at people, and he loved it."

 


Posted by Geoff at 12:01 AM CDT
Updated: Monday, May 1, 2023 12:26 AM CDT
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Saturday, March 25, 2023
LANA DEL REY GOES CARLITO'S WAY ON NEW ALBUM
"WHEN I'M VIOLENT, IT'S CARLITO'S WAY" SHE SINGS ON CLOSING TRACK, 'TACO TRUCK'

Lyrics:

Met my boyfriend down at the taco truck
Pass me my vape, I'm feelin' sick, I need to take a puff
Imagine if we actually gave a fuck
Wouldn't that be somethin' to talk about for us?
Caribbean Blue in sweater weather, I'm falling into you
Although it seems I've gotten better, I can be violent too

Oh, that's why they call me Lanita
When I get down I'm Bonita

Don't come find me in Reseda
I'll go crazy
Read my gold chain, says "Lanita"
When I'm violent, it's Carlito's Way
Blood on my feet, on the street
I'm dancin' crazy

Spin it 'til you whip it into white cream, baby
Print it into black and white pages, don't faze me
Before you talk, let me stop what you're saying
I know, I know, I know that you hate me


Posted by Geoff at 1:38 AM CDT
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Wednesday, March 22, 2023
ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE CINEMAS SCHEDULE 2023 'APRILCINO'
KICKING OFF WITH SCARFACE & CARLITO'S WAY
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/aprilcino2.jpg

"This month is all about two things – 4/20 and Al Pacino," begins Jake Salter on today's news item at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. In the second paragraph, Salter continues:
Ahh, spring. There’s just something about the flowers blooming and the sun shining that makes us want to watch Tony Montana introduce an army of assassins to his little friend. If you feel the same, then join us for a nice mug of Aprilcino, our month-long celebration of one Alfredo James Pacino. Aside from SCARFACE, we’ll be screening Pacino classics like CARLITO’S WAY, DOG DAY AFTERNOON, SEA OF LOVE, CRUISING, and yes, even JACK & JILL for all you Dunkaccino (RIP) lovers.

Under the heading, "Beginning April 1st," Salter writes of Scarface, the first film in the Aprilcino series:
A bit of cocaine-dusted brilliance from director Brian De Palma that spawned a million posters on dorm room walls, we’re kicking off Aprilcino with one of Al Pacino’s most iconic, swaggering performances.

And then "Beginning April 7th," for Carlito's Way, Salter writes:
The second team-up between director Brian De Palma and star Al Pacino, following 1983's SCARFACE, invariably acts as a perfect companion. Pacino’s Carlito Brigante strives to live a better life away from drugs and violence after getting out of prison, but a crooked lawyer (Sean Penn) and an up-and-coming gangster (John Leguizamo) have other ideas. As the man said (in a different movie), “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!”


Posted by Geoff at 6:59 PM CDT
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Friday, March 3, 2023
SOUNDTRACKER PODCAST FOCUS ON 'CARLITO'S WAY'
THE FILM WAS CHOSEN FOR DISCUSSION BY GUEST ARJUN HUNDAL - PODCAST HOSTED BY ERIC PEACOCK
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/soundtracker1.jpg

Posted by Geoff at 10:29 PM CST
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Thursday, February 16, 2023
THE CHAOTIC VIBES OF 'CARLITO'S WAY' & 'SYNONYMS'
INSPIRED AN ASPECT OF CONTROL IN 'RETURN TO SEOUL', SAYS DIRECTOR DAVY CHOU
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/seoul1.jpg

At Filmmaker Magazine today, Kyle Turner interviews director Davy Chou about his new film, Return to Seoul:
Filmmaker: It’s interesting that Freddie seems to be getting away from the camera, yet is being tracked by it. I was wondering how you want to establish her relationship to the camera in the film.

Chou: It’s totally something that we built into the film, the dance between the camera and the actress. That reflects the dynamic of the character, her constant refusal to be labeled. I decided not to use [over the] shoulder camera. I thought it would be a bit too tautological for filming an agitated character. On the contrary, [we filmed] still shots on her face, but also larger shots with a lot of people. The best example is when she is first meeting her biological family at dinner; there are seven people around the table and it’s like she’s surrounded by people, but it’s only still shots. Then suddenly you can feel [the agitation] because, 20 minutes before, you got to know the fire inside of her and now you can read in her eyes. Even though she doesn’t move, she looks clearly petrified, but something is boiling in her. And I found the tension between [the] stillness of the shots and [the] politeness of the setting reflects a relationship in a traditional Korean family and the boiling fire inside her.

When she feels pressured by people, she starts to become her own filmmaker: transforming other people in the room into extra actors and secondary roles, deciding places and remapping, like at the bar in the beginning. It’s interesting, because it’s someone in the new territory. She’s remapping the restaurant, deciding which people are going to sit and everything like that. She’s not in control in a place that she doesn’t know anything about, so here’s an attempt at taking control. Interestingly, the way of taking control is to create chaos. I was very inspired by Nadav Lapid’s Synonyms and Brian De Palma’s Carlito’s Way for that chaos.

Another scene that’s interesting is the scene where Freddie dances and I’m on the track. I can do this camera movement, the camera can pan a bit and I myself can do the zoom. But then at the same time, I don’t control what she’s actually doing, she’s doing whatever she wants. It becomes this struggle between the two of us.

Filmmaker: Your film has a really interesting relationship to music, in addition to choreography. You have the beginning club scene where it’s on that track and you’re watching Freddie dance. Then you have the other underground clubs and singing at her birthday, which is even more pumped up and fantastical in a way, and even more chaotic. Then you have the last moment where she’s at the piano and she’s completely alone.

Chou: There is an evolution where I play with the cultural identity of the music, as well. At the beginning, you will hear a lot of old vintage Korean songs that symbolize a past Freddie can feel from the texture of the song. You can feel it comes from the ’70s, but because she doesn’t speak the language, it already embodies a contradiction of knowing it’s from the past, but also having no idea what it is. It’s your past that you don’t know. I felt that the first time I went to Cambodia and listened to old Cambodian music.

In the second part, much more of the music is as if she had emancipated herself from her past and decided in some kind of extreme, positive gesture to say, “Hey, you reject me from Korea. I assure you I can be Korean, but I’m not having any link with my family whatsoever. I killed your heritage and now I’m a Korean girl with a Korean boyfriend, a drug fiend and everything.” So the music is very contemporary German techno music, also contemporary Korean electronic music that was composed for the film and shows her state of mind.

The third part is more silence, as if she needed less music. Because music for many is some kind of refuge, for her it is some kind of place that she can jump into and find comfort in when she feels too much pressure. And that’s basically the dancing scene in the first act, when the music is suddenly put on and she dances and there are no other characters in that shot. She dances as if she was inventing her own space, time and temporality. In the last part, there is less music, as if maybe she was ready to listen.

Filmmaker: As opposed to escaping.

Chou: The music becomes not only a refuge, but also a place to express feelings and sentiments when language doesn’t allow you to do it. At the very end, as you say, I think that it is something different. She is ready to be active. This journey may be full of loneliness—being totally alone with herself—so that she can start to feel it’s time to play her own melody.


Posted by Geoff at 10:01 PM CST
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Wednesday, January 18, 2023
1994 'CARLITO'S WAY' ART BY TOSHIAKI HONTANI
FROM THE MAY 1994 ISSUE OF ANIMAGE - TWEETED LAST WEEK BY ARTSAKUGAhttps://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/toshiakihontani1994animage.jpg

Posted by Geoff at 7:43 AM CST
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Friday, December 2, 2022
VIDEO - LUIS GUZMAN STORIES FROM 'CARLITO'S WAY' SET
IMPROVISING DURING ADR, STAIRWAY COLLISION WITH PACINO, BEING SO MOVED BY VIGGO MORTENSEN HE ALMSOT FORGOT HIS QUEUE

Thanks to Rado for sending along the video above, in which Luis Guzman appears on The Rich Eisen Show and plays "Celebrity True or False" - here's a bit of that section, in which Eisen asks Guzman about Carlito's Way:
Rich Eisen: In Carlito’s Way, Pachanga’s lines were originally written in phonetically spelled heavy-accented slang that offended some of the crew members of Latino descent, so the lines were rewritten in standard English, and you were directed to improve – uh, improvise some slang. Is that true or false on that film?

Luis Guzman: Yeah, I improvised everything, and I improved everything. [Eisman laughs] And one of the lines that I did was, we were doing ADR, and Brian De Palma, who directed it, he said, ‘Can you say something here?’ And it’s like, it’s the scene where Carlito’s dying, you know, this is after he’s been shot by Benny Blanco, and I looked at him, and I dropped in the line, says, ‘It be’s that way sometimes.’ But that was a real thing that we used to say in the neighborhood, that the older guys would say. You know, if you complained about something, they would look at you, say [shaking his head], ‘It be’s that way.’ So, yeah. But you know…

Rich Eisman: That was improvised, from your upbringing, you brought it to the table.

Luis Guzman: Yeah, I did. I did. I did, that was Luis Guzman, courtesy of the great poet writer that I grew up with in the neighborhood named TC Garcia.

Rich Eisman: You got a good Pacino story for me?

Luis Guzman: A good Pacino story… Yeah, so one day, you know, we’re doing that scene when Viggo Mortensen rolls into the office? And so, I had to go from upstairs… well, no. I had… something, it was seeing that I was downstairs, the camera starts on me, and then Al’s in the office, he walks out, he’s coming down the stairs, I’m running up the stairs, and it’s total darkness. You can’t see anything. So, I think on the second take, so the first time, some guy walks by me, I made it up. Second time, the guy’s in my way. And I grab him and I push him to the side and said, ‘Get the hell out of my way, I gotta get up there!’ I did not realize that that was Al. [Eisman laughs] That was Al.


Posted by Geoff at 12:01 AM CST
Updated: Saturday, December 3, 2022 4:17 PM CST
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Monday, October 17, 2022
'REFLEXIVE PANACHE'
PASTE'S RORY DOHERTY ON 'CARLITO'S WAY' & PACINO IN THE '90S
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/stefstory22.jpg

An article written by Rory Doherty, posted today at Paste Magazine, kicks off with the headline, "Just When They Thought I Was Out: The Brilliance of ‘90s Al Pacino," and includes some consideration for Brian De Palma's Carlito's Way:
Made with the reflexive panache that would make most modern directors weep, De Palma’s second collaboration with Pacino proved to be a much more muted affair than their first. Carlito’s Way sees a reformed Puerto Rican gangster trying to keep things clean upon his release from prison, but his attempts to own a garish nightclub that’s an assault on the senses of sight and sound inevitably gets tied up with the nefarious deeds he wanted to avoid. Poor guy! There’s not much hope for him throughout the two-and-a-half-hour runtime, seeing as the opening shots show his dead body being carried away. It’s great seeing Pacino, the same year he won his Oscar, slum around as a noble ex-con building his life up from nothing.

In terms of delirious performances, Pacino actually struggles to let his Hooah-ness shine, thanks to the dominating lifeforce that is Sean Penn as Carlito’s insecure, belligerent, coke-fiend best friend. When Pacino isn’t trying to calm down Penn’s sweaty turn, he has to fend off a scenery-chewing Viggo Mortensen (wired and wheelchair-riding in his one scene) and a luminescent John Leguizamo as the flashy wannabe bigtimer Benny Blanco (from the Bronx). And, like all good movies, Luis Guzmán is in the background somewhere. It’s understandable how straight Pacino plays it; even in a De Palma movie, there’s a limit on how many insane performances you can have before a movie bursts at the seams. And while Pacino hadn’t yet leaned fully into the shouty, eye-bulging indulgences that the ‘90s would represent for him, he did get to lead a classic dialogue-free De Palma suspense sequence, evading sinister characters across a big railway station. Little victories.


Posted by Geoff at 11:17 PM CDT
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Saturday, May 14, 2022
CARLITO'S WAY IS 'A STEALTHY NEO-NOIR CLASSIC'
DANILO CASTRO WRITES ABOUT DE PALMA'S FILM AS HIS FAVORITE NEO-NOIR IN NEW ISSUE OF NOIR CITY
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/noircitycarlito25.jpg

"The last of the Mo-Ricans: @DaniloSCastro dishes on CARLITO'S WAY in the new issue of NOIR CITY," Noir City Magazine tweeted the other day. A digital version or print copy of the issue can be ordered via the Film Noir Foundation. Meanwhile, here's a bit from Danilo Castro's article:
Carlito's Way has a cult following today, but the perception of it as a minor rehash has mostly stayed intact. And therein lies the problem. Carlito's Way is not a lesser gangster film. It's not a gangster film at all. It bypasses the highs of Scarface to explore the lows of the subsequent hangover, and the result is a stealthy neo-noir classic I never tire of watching.

Posted by Geoff at 12:01 AM CDT
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