Brian De Palma Archive

  • Brian De Palma’s sixteenth film is lurid Hitchcock (a novel idea the Master almost nailed in Psycho, had he not included that abysmal Talking Psychoanalyst at the end), souped up […]

    Body Double

    Brian De Palma’s sixteenth film is lurid Hitchcock (a novel idea the Master almost nailed in Psycho, had he not included that abysmal Talking Psychoanalyst at the end), souped up […]

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  • In order to “get” Dressed to Kill, you must bear a soft spot in your heart for slasher films. And you have to view its director, Brian De Palma, as […]

    Dressed to Kill

    In order to “get” Dressed to Kill, you must bear a soft spot in your heart for slasher films. And you have to view its director, Brian De Palma, as […]

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  • Carrie is a funny and frightening film.  Brian De Palma, the director, turns Stephen King’s novel, itself a female-dominated Rage (King, 1974), into a semi-satiric teen opera without any of […]

    Carrie

    Carrie is a funny and frightening film.  Brian De Palma, the director, turns Stephen King’s novel, itself a female-dominated Rage (King, 1974), into a semi-satiric teen opera without any of […]

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  • Miscast and not at all curious about its characters. James Ellroy (who wrote the novel) and De Palma are simpatico. They are stylists to the bone. Ellroy got the vibe, […]

    The Black Dahlia

    Miscast and not at all curious about its characters. James Ellroy (who wrote the novel) and De Palma are simpatico. They are stylists to the bone. Ellroy got the vibe, […]

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  • Brian De Palma’s Scarface is kind of an inverse Godfather. The movie is semi-epic – a dry cartoon of the American dream gone numb. But (and this may stem from […]

    Scarface

    Brian De Palma’s Scarface is kind of an inverse Godfather. The movie is semi-epic – a dry cartoon of the American dream gone numb. But (and this may stem from […]

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  • Brian De Palma loves pulp. And though he leans on certain tricks of the trade (e.g., split-screen and slow motion; a restless camera and a male gaze), he uses them […]

    The Fury

    Brian De Palma loves pulp. And though he leans on certain tricks of the trade (e.g., split-screen and slow motion; a restless camera and a male gaze), he uses them […]

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