Brian De Palma: Interviews

Conversations With Filmmakers Series

by Laurence F. Knapp (Editor)

Brian De Palma (b. 1940) isn't your average Hollywood director.

For years he reigned as the "master of the macabre," the man who massacred the class of '76 in Carrie and stalked Angie Dickinson in Dressed to Kill. By the mid-1980s De Palma found himself assaulting his audience and critics, daring them to watch a chainsaw enter a man's skull in Scarface and a power drill disembowel a defenseless woman in Body Double.

What drove De Palma to such extremes? In the late 1960s, he wanted to be the next Jean-Luc Godard and revolutionize American cinema. Instead, he found himself ostracized when Warner Bros. removed him from Get to Know Your Rabbit, his first Hollywood feature. De Palma sought the refuge of Alfred Hitchcock until the late 1970s (Sisters, Obsession), when his surreal approach to horror became a genre unto itself (Carrie, The Fury, Dressed to Kill). Ironically, just as De Palma achieved the success that his fellow Movie Brats George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg had enjoyed since the mid-1970s, he could not hide his resentment toward Hollywood. After battling with the MPAA in the 1980s, he gradually became part of the mainstream with the success of The Untouchables and Mission: Impossible, although he never suppressed his desire to make audiences aware of his camera-eye and his dark, penetrating worldview.

Brian De Palma: Interviews follows De Palma's fortunes as he makes the difficult transition from underground filmmaker to celebrity auteur. In profiles and q&a interviews, he emerges as a fascinating figure of excess and ambivalence. De Palma is not afraid to share his opinions about censorship, violence, feminism, American culture, and the fate of cinema in the twenty-first century.

Genres: Film

197 pages, Paperback

First published January 2, 2003

Reviews

[brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

alright, enough already.
the guy is a genius.
the sleaziest, smartest, campiest, creepiest...


brian de palma: best to worst

dressed to kill
blow out
femme fatale*
hi mom!
carrie
body double
scarface
snake eyes
phantom of the paradise
sisters
raising cain
greetings
carlito's way
the fury
casualties of war
untouchables
mission impossible
obsession
mission to mars
wise guys
bonfire of the vanities
black dahlia

haven't seen: redacted, home movies, get to know your rabbit, the wedding party.

*that's right! suck it haters!

[Lo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I adore BDeP. I love his work from the cheeky Home Movies (which technically isn't considered part of the cannon) to the criminally underrated Mission Impossible It's not a Tom Cruise flim; it's a DePalma film starring Tom Cruise. Don't get it twisted. Anyway, there is good stuff here. I mean if you're totally obsessed with his work you'll be very happy. All the biggies are touched upon: Scarface, Dressed To Kill, The Untouchables (my favorite DePalma film, back when Costner wasn't embarrassing.)

DePalma is an asshole, and THANK GOD it is clear from page one. So often when these kinds of books they seem to slow pitch things in order to make the subject seem likable. He's a cheeky, misogynistic bastard and that's how come his movies are so damn good. He's the king of violent sex and sex violence!

I gave it 3 stars because like another reviewer I was looking for Bonfire of the Vanities dish (as would most devotees.) and it wasn't there. I needed to know what kind of crack he was smoking during the project so I can avoid it.

[Joseph Frankel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

[Walter · Rating 5 out of 5]

De Palma is GREAT

[Pearce · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an okay collection of interviews from throughout Brian De Palma's career. Because the interviews are from various times and interviewers, there is a fair amount of repetition through it. In addition, the introduction is poor and mostly consists of a selection of pieces from the interview itself rather than putting them into context.

In the absence of something like Faber & Faber style "De Palma on De Palma" volume this will have to suffice. For real insight into the man you are probably better off reading The Devil's Candy even though that concentrates on a single De Palma film, and one of his worst to boot.

[Markle · Rating 4 out of 5]

One star off because one of the interviews was missing a page it seemed.