De Palma on De Palma

by Brian De Palma, Blumenfeld Samuel, Laurent Vachaud

Genres: Film

317 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2024

Reviews

[Mateo Ellacott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read for fans of De Palma; really served to further underscore just how much of a kindred spirit I find him to be personally and politically even outside of the art. All the stories about his fellow Movie Brats Scorsese/Spielberg/Lucas were fascinating. The French interviewers he was conversing with for the entirety of the book were more thoughtful and well-studied about BDP’s work than I even expected from an exercise like this. Cool to have confirmed that his next film Sweet Vengeance is something he’s been thinking about for at least a decade or so

[Jilles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book about de Palma and 'the Movie Brats', about the changes in the last 50 years in Hollywood.

[Stewart Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is basically a Bible for anyone like myself who is hopelessly obsessed with De Palma’s work and wants as much context and as many behind the scenes stories about it as possible. And as a bonus, it covers periods in his career that other great books on this director typically do not mention (specifically his post-2000 flop era). The only major issue is that this is presented as an extended interview when in reality it is a Frankenstein’s monster built of a handful of conversations that took place many years apart. For this reason, it is often unclear exactly which De Palma is speaking, and sometimes things become schizophrenic when an older/younger version contradicts an earlier/later interview with no footnote or indication of when each response was given. Still, the good far outweighs the bad and there are so many stories and insights to appreciate here, especially regarding how De Palma views his relationship to Hitchcock’s work (he balks at “homage” but concedes that his entire visual language is built on Hitch), his thoughts on the new school of Hollywood directors (unfortunately he seems to be a Nolan fan), and his total lack of fucks to give about the reception his recent films have received (“they’ll call it a masterpiece in 10 years” - I’m not so sure I agree).