There’s something cruel about Brian De Palma’s output being a strictly literary endeavor as of late. His films are such sumptuous visual experiences, as a critic I find it can sometimes be difficult to convey the intoxicating pleasures of their mellifluous camera movements and exquisitely-timed payoffs. There’s a musicality to De Palma movies and words don’t always do it justice. Alas, a new Brian De Palma film hasn’t opened in area theaters since his 2007 “Redacted,” with 2012’s lurid, underrated “Passion” and 2019’s budgetarily crippled, but not uninteresting “Domino” banished to straight-to-video bargain bins.

Die-hard fans have had to content ourselves with the likes of “Are Snakes Necessary?” The director’s 2020 debut novel (co-written with Susan Lehman) reads like a De Palma movie you’re watching in your head, dense with allusions to classic Hollywood, extravagant, unfilm-ably expensive set-pieces and characters saying that they felt like they were seeing things in slow motion. It was a fun way to pass the time and somewhat frustrating as a substitute for a movie. AMBROSE CHAPEL is even more so. This unproduced screenplay penned by De Palma in the 1990s and recently published by Sticking Place Books is a glimpse of what might have been – the blueprint for a most eccentric thriller.

Hailed as “The Masterpiece That Wasn’t” in an introduction by the estimable film archeologist and Edward Burns superfan James Kenney – a heroic scholar who discovered Peter Bogdanovich’s discarded director’s cut of his final film on eBay – “Ambrose Chapel” was written between 1993’s “Carlito’s Way” and 1996’s “Mission: Impossible,” but finds the filmmaker in the playful, self-referential mode of his 1992’s “Raising Cain.” Kenney smartly cites the screenplay as the missing link between “Cain” and the filmmaker’s 2002 rapturously naughty “Femme Fatale.”

Film scholar and returning guest James Kenney has a knack for uncovering lost and forgotten cinematic treasures. You can listen to episodes 18 and 32 of the Movies In Focus podcast to learn about his headline-making work on Peter Bogdanovich’s Squirrels To The Nuts and the rediscovery of the original version of the Keanu Reeves and Ana de Armas film, God’s Daughter.

James now returns to discuss his latest find: Brian De Palma’s ‘lost’ film script, Ambrose Chapel. The now-published screenplay features an introductory essay from James, which examines De Palma’s fascinating and stylish career as a master of suspense.

Written by De Palma in the 1990s between Carlito’s Way and Mission: Impossible, audiences can finally catch sight of De Palma’s ‘screwball noir’. Virtual reality, mind control, and De Palma’s famed voyeurism are the order of the day for this Hitchcock-inspired, Mexico City-set thriller. James digs into the origins of Ambrose Chapel, exploring how it fits within many of De Palma’s signature themes.

The conversation takes a broader look at De Palma’s legendary career, tracing his evolution as a filmmaker and examining how Ambrose Chapel fits into the director’s cinematic legacy – ultimately offering a look at one of Hollywood’s most misunderstood auteurs.

Brian De Palma's AMBROSE CHAPEL gleefully blends thriller tropes with farce, virtuoso set pieces, and a meta-awareness of cinematic history.
Mind control.
Repressed trauma.
Virtual reality.
Political manipulation.
Gendered power dynamics.

May 26th.

From Brian De Palma's screenplay, coming soon: "The problem with hypnotic programming is that it always leaks out into the subconscious. There’s no way to absolutely contain it. That’s why she’s having all these mixed-up nightmares. You may have a Sleeping Beauty on your hands."

Previously:
De Palma's Ambrose Chapel screenplay to be published in May, by Sticking Place Books

James Kenney posts more Ambrose Chapel screenplay book teasers

"Each of us is a great mystery writer. Every night we create our stories. The dream is a mystery that only the dreamer can solve. And yet, in the solution lies knowledge that the dreamer may not wish to have."
Brian De Palma's unproduced screenplay AMBROSE CHAPEL.

Coming in May

On Friday, Kenney tweeted another teaser for the upcoming book:

Previously:
De Palma's Ambrose Chapel screenplay to be published in May, by Sticking Place Books

Early this morning, Kenney tweeted:

In the mood for an old-school Brian De Palma thriller?

Written between CARLITO'S WAY & MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE.

Brian De Palma’s wildest vision: AMBROSE CHAPEL

Coming in May from Sticking Place books.

From my intro to Brian De Palma's unproduced 1994 screenplay AMBROSE CHAPEL: "The set pieces are pure De Palma...A sequence involving a misused TV remote...escalates into a revenge fantasia that feels like Abel Ferrara’s Ms. 45 restaged by Jacques Tati"

Coming in May from SPB.