Brian De Palma
Brian De Palma | |
---|---|
Born | Brian Russell De Palma September 11, 1940 Newark, New Jersey, U.S. |
Alma mater | |
Occupations |
|
Years active | 1960–present |
Spouses |
|
Children | 2 |
Brian Russell De Palma (
De Palma was a leading member of the New Hollywood generation of film directors.[3] His direction often makes use of quotations from other films or cinematic styles, and bears the influence of filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock, Jean-Luc Godard, and Michelangelo Antonioni. His work has been criticized for its violence and sexual content but has also been championed by American critics such as Roger Ebert and Pauline Kael.[1][4][5]
Early life and education
De Palma was born on September 11, 1940, in
Enrolled at
Career
1963–1976: Rise to prominence
An early association with a young
During the 1960s, De Palma began making a living producing documentary films, notably The Responsive Eye, a 1966 movie about
Dionysus in '69 (1969) was De Palma's other major documentary from this period. The film records the Performance Group's performance of Euripides' The Bacchae, starring, amongst others, De Palma regular William Finley. The play is noted for breaking traditional barriers between performers and audience. The film's most striking quality is its extensive use of the split-screen. De Palma recalls that he was "floored" by this performance upon first sight, and in 1973 recounts how he "began to try and figure out a way to capture it on film. I came up with the idea of split-screen, to be able to show the actual audience involvement, to trace the life of the audience and that of the play as they merge in and out of each other."[17]
De Palma's most significant features from this decade are
In 1970, De Palma left New York for Hollywood at age thirty to make
1976–1979: Breakthrough
In November 1976, De Palma released
The financial and critical success of Carrie allowed De Palma to pursue more personal material. The Demolished Man was a novel that had fascinated De Palma since the late 1950s and appealed to his background in mathematics and avant-garde storytelling. Its unconventional unfolding of plot (exemplified in its mathematical layout of dialogue) and its stress on perception have analogs in De Palma's filmmaking.[28] He sought to adapt it numerous times, though the project would carry a substantial price tag, and has yet to appear on-screen (Steven Spielberg's 2002 adaptation of Philip K. Dick's Minority Report bears striking similarities to De Palma's visual style and some of the themes of The Demolished Man). The result of his experience with adapting The Demolished Man was the 1978 science fiction psychic thriller film The Fury, starring Kirk Douglas, Carrie Snodgress, John Cassavetes and Amy Irving.[29] The film was admired by Jean-Luc Godard, who featured a clip in his mammoth Histoire(s) du cinéma, and Pauline Kael, who championed both The Fury and De Palma.[30] The film boasted a larger budget than Carrie, though the consensus view at the time was that De Palma was repeating himself, with diminishing returns. As a film, it retains De Palma's considerable visual flair, but points more toward his work in mainstream entertainments such as Mission: Impossible, the thematic complex thriller for which he is now better known.[31]
1980–1996: Established career
The 1980s were marked by some of De Palma's best known films including the erotic psychological thriller
In 1987, De Palma directed the crime film
1998–present: Career slump
De Palma's work after Mission: Impossible has been less well received. His ensuing films was also unsuccessful and is currently the last movie De Palma has directed with backing from Hollywood.
A political controversy erupted over the portrayal of US soldiers in De Palma's 2007 film Redacted. Loosely based on the 2006 Mahmudiyah killings by American soldiers in Iraq, the film echoes themes that appeared in Casualties of War. Redacted received a limited release in the United States and grossed less than $1 million against a $5 million budget.[43][44][45]
De Palma's output has slowed since the release of Redacted, with subsequent projects often falling into development hell, due mostly to creative differences.[46] In 2012, his film Passion starring Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 69th Venice International Film Festival but received mixed reviews[47] and was financially unsuccessful.
De Palma's next project was the thriller Domino (2019), released two years after the film began production. It received generally negative reviews and was released direct-to-VOD in the United States, grossing less than half a million dollars internationally.[48][49] De Palma has also expressed dissatisfaction with both the production of the film and the final result; "I never experienced such a horrible movie set."[50]
In 2018, De Palma published his debut novel in France, Les serpents sont-ils nécessaires? (English translation: Are Snakes Necessary?), co-written with Susan Lehman.[51] It was published in the U.S. in 2020. De Palma and Lehman also wrote a second book, currently unpublished, called Terry, based on one of De Palma's passion projects about a French film production making an adaptation of Thérèse Raquin.[52]
Trademarks and style
De Palma's films can fall into two categories, his
Inspirations
De Palma frequently quotes and references other directors' work. His early work was inspired by the films of
Camera shots
Film critics have often noted De Palma's penchant for unusual camera angles and compositions. He often frames characters against the background using a
Personal life
De Palma has been married and divorced three times, to actress Nancy Allen (1979–1983), producer Gale Anne Hurd (1991–1993), and Darnell Gregorio (1995–1997). He has one daughter from his marriage to Hurd, and one daughter from his marriage to Gregorio.[53] He resides in Manhattan, New York.[54]
Reception and legacy
De Palma is often cited as a leading member of the New Hollywood generation of film directors, a distinct pedigree who either emerged from film schools or are overtly cine-literate.[3] His contemporaries include Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader, John Milius, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, and Ridley Scott. His artistry in directing and use of cinematography and suspense in several of his films has often been compared to the work of Alfred Hitchcock.[3][5][55] Psychologists have been intrigued by De Palma's fascination with pathology, by the aberrant behavior aroused in characters who find themselves manipulated by others.[56]
De Palma has encouraged and fostered the filmmaking careers of directors such as Mark Romanek and Keith Gordon, the latter of whom collaborated with him twice as an actor, both in 1979's Home Movies and 1980's Dressed to Kill.[57] Filmmakers influenced by De Palma include Terrence Malick,[58] Quentin Tarantino,[59] Ronny Yu,[60] Don Mancini,[61] Nacho Vigalondo,[62] and Jack Thomas Smith.[63] During an interview with De Palma, Quentin Tarantino said that Blow Out is one of his all-time favorite films, and that after watching Scarface he knew how to make his own film. John Travolta's performance as Jack Terry in Blow Out even resulted in Tarantino casting him as Vincent Vega in his 1994 film Pulp Fiction, which would go on to reinvigorate Travolta's then-declining career.[64] Tarantino also placed Carrie at number eight in a list of his favorite films.[65]
Critics who frequently admire De Palma's work include Pauline Kael and Roger Ebert. Kael wrote in her review of Blow Out, "At forty, Brian De Palma has more than twenty years of moviemaking behind him, and he has been growing better and better. Each time a new film of his opens, everything he has done before seems to have been preparation for it."[4] In his review of Femme Fatale, Roger Ebert wrote about the director: "De Palma deserves more honor as a director. Consider also these titles: Sisters, Blow Out, The Fury, Dressed to Kill, Carrie, Scarface, Wise Guys, Casualties of War, Carlito's Way, Mission: Impossible. Yes, there are a few failures along the way (Snake Eyes, Mission to Mars, The Bonfire of the Vanities), but look at the range here, and reflect that these movies contain treasure for those who admire the craft as well as the story, who sense the glee with which De Palma manipulates images and characters for the simple joy of being good at it. It's not just that he sometimes works in the style of Hitchcock, but that he has the nerve to."[5]
The influential French film magazine
Julie Salamon has written that critics have accused De Palma of being "a perverse misogynist",[56] to which De Palma has responded with, "I'm always attacked for having an erotic, sexist approach – chopping up women, putting women in peril. I'm making suspense movies! What else is going to happen to them?"[67]
His films have also been interpreted as feminist and examined for their perceived queer affinities. In Film Comment's "Queer and Now and Then" column on Femme Fatale, film critic Michael Koresky writes that "De Palma's films radiate an undeniable queer energy" and notes the "intense appeal" De Palma's films have for gay critics.[68] In her book The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema, Linda Ruth Williams writes that "De Palma understood the cinematic potency of dangerous fucking, perhaps earlier than his feminist detractors".[69]
Robin Wood considered Sisters an overtly feminist film, writing that "one can define the monster of Sisters as women's liberation; adding only that the film follows the time-honored horror film tradition of making the monster emerge as the most sympathetic character and its emotional center."[70] Pauline Kael's review of Casualties of War, "A Wounded Apparition", describes the film as "feminist" and notes that "De Palma was always involved in examining (and sometimes satirizing) victimization, but he was often accused of being a victimizer".[71] Helen Grace, in a piece for Lola, writes that upon seeing Dressed to Kill amidst calls for a boycott from feminist groups Women Against Violence Against Women and Women Against Pornography, that the film "seemed to say more about masculine anxiety than about the fears that women were expressing in relation to the film".[72]
David Thomson wrote in his entry for De Palma, "There is a self-conscious cunning in De Palma's work, ready to control everything except his own cruelty and indifference."[73] Matt Zoller Seitz objected to this characterisation, writing that there are films from the director which can be seen as "straightforwardly empathetic and/or moralistic".[74]
His life and career in his own words was the subject of the 2015 documentary De Palma, directed by Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow.[75][76]
Filmography
Awards and nominations
Year | Title | Academy Awards | BAFTA Awards
|
Golden Globe Awards | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nominations | Wins | Nominations | Wins | Nominations | Wins | ||
1974 | Phantom of the Paradise | 1 | 1 | ||||
1976 | Obsession | 1 | |||||
Carrie | 2 | 1 | |||||
1980 | Dressed to Kill | 1 | |||||
1983 | Scarface | 3 | |||||
1984 | Body Double | 1 | |||||
1987 | The Untouchables | 4 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
1989 | Casualties of War | 1 | |||||
1993 | Carlito's Way | 2 | |||||
2006 | The Black Dahlia | 1 | |||||
Total | 9 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 12 | 1 |
References
- ^ a b Rose, Steve (September 8, 2006). "Steve Rose Talks to Director Brian De Palma". The Guardian. Retrieved June 18, 2018.
- ^ a b "Director Brian De Palma's underrated gems, decade by decade". Los Angeles Times. June 10, 2016. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g Murray, Noel & Tobias, Scott (March 10, 2011). "Brian De Palma | Film | Primer". The A.V. Club. Retrieved February 3, 2012.
- ^ a b Kael, Pauline (July 27, 1981). "Blow Out: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Gadgeteer". The New Yorker. Retrieved February 3, 2012.
- ^ a b c Ebert, Roger (November 6, 2002). "Femme Fatale (2002)". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved January 14, 2012.
- ^ "Brian De Palma Biography (1940–)". Film Reference. Retrieved January 14, 2012.
- ^ Clark, Ashley (June 7, 2016). "Brian de Palma: 'Film lies all the time … 24 times a second'". The Guardian. Retrieved June 18, 2018.
- ^ Kenigsberg, Ben (August 30, 2013). "Brian De Palma talks about his stylish new remake, Passion". A.V. Club. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
- ISBN 0-8108-1621-0.
- ^ De Palma, Brian (February 11, 2020). "Brian De Palma Remembers Filming a Student Film With Kirk Douglas". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
- ^ "Brian De Palma". The Daily Star. August 13, 2016. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
- ISBN 0-8065-2110-4.
- ^ Brode 2001, p. 23.
- ^ Ditlea, Steve (April 28, 1969). "Brian De Palma is a revolutionary". Columbia Daily Spectator. Vol. CXIII. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
- ^ Lester, Peter (October 22, 1979). "Director Brian De Palma and Actress Nancy Allen Just Got Carrie-D Away". People. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
- ^ Gelmis, Joseph (1970). The Film Director as Superstar. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. p. 24.
- ^ Knapp, Lawrence (2003). Brian De Palma Interviews. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi. p. 26.
- ^ "Berlinale 1969: Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Retrieved March 6, 2010.
- ^ Brody, Richard. Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard. p. 323.
- ^ Salamon, p. 26.
- ^ Eder, Richard (November 17, 1976). "Film: After the Prom, the Horror". The New York Times. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
- ^ Kael, Pauline (November 15, 1976). "The Curse". The New Yorker. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
- ISBN 978-1-250-05412-8.
- ^ "Sissy Spacek, Carrie Fisher – Princess Leia ('Star Wars'): Sissy Spacek – Almost Cast: Who Lost Iconic Roles? – Photo Gallery". Life. 2011. Archived from the original on June 30, 2011. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ISBN 978-1-5275-1801-8.
- Wired.com. Condé Nast Publishing. Archivedfrom the original on October 25, 2014. Retrieved October 25, 2014.
- ^ "Turn Any Time Story Into the Beginning of Star Wars". Time. December 13, 2015. Archived from the original on December 9, 2019. Retrieved December 30, 2019.
- ^ Knapp 2003, p. 167–168.
- ^ Canby, Vincent (March 15, 1978). "Film: De Palma Mixes Genres in 'Fury':Psyching a Spy". The New York Times. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
- ^ Scott, A. O. (September 17, 2006). "Say 'Brian De Palma.' Let the Fighting Start". The New York Times. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
- ^ Chang, Justin; Olsen, Mark (June 10, 2016). "Director Brian De Palma's underrated gems, decade by decade". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
- ^ Canby, Vincent (July 25, 1980). "'Dressed to Kill,' DePalma Mystery". The New York Times. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
- ^ Canby, Vincent (July 24, 1981). "Travolta Stars in DePalma's 'Blow Out'". The New York Times. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
- ISBN 0-03-069362-4.
- ^ Canby, Vincent (December 9, 1983). "Screen: Al Pacino Stars in 'Scarface'". The New York Times. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
- ^ Canby, Vincent (October 26, 1984). "Film: DePalma Evokes 'Vertigo' in Body Double". The New York Times. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
- ISBN 0-8195-6761-2.
- ^ Bennetts, Leslie (July 6, 1987). "'The Untouchables': De Palma's Departure". The New York Times. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
- ^ Macnaughton, Oliver (April 2, 2021). "Why did The Bonfire of the Vanities go from bestselling book to box-office bomb?". the Guardian. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
- ^ Tobias, Scott (March 5, 2009). "The New Cult Canon: Femme Fatale | Film | The New Cult Canon". The A.V. Club. Retrieved April 16, 2012.
- ^ "Brian De Palma on "Passion," passion and film | Features | Roger Ebert".
- ^ Sims, David (September 27, 2019). "Antonio Banderas Is One of the Best Movie Stars of His Generation". The Atlantic. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
- ^ Elsworth, Catherine (November 28, 2007). "Iraq war atrocity film Redacted bombs in US". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on January 12, 2022. Retrieved September 8, 2018.
- ^ Aloisi, Silvia (August 31, 2007). ""Redacted" stuns Venice". Reuters. Retrieved December 15, 2020.
- ^ "Redacted (2007) - Financial Information". The Numbers. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
- ^ Kohn, Eric (June 2, 2016). "Brian De Palma: Why He'll Never Work in Hollywood Or on Television Again". IndieWire. Retrieved November 12, 2023.
- ^ "Passion". Metacritic.com. Retrieved May 10, 2021.
- ^ "Domino (2019)". Rottentomatoes.com. May 31, 2019. Retrieved May 10, 2021.
- ^ "Domino (2019) - Financial Information". The Numbers. Retrieved May 10, 2021.
- ^ "De Palma: Weinstein Horror Gets A Title; Disses Soderbergh & Calls Domino A "Horrible" Experience". Theplaylist.net. Retrieved May 10, 2021.
- ^ Coyle, Jake (March 18, 2020). "Q&A: Brian De Palma on why movies should be beautiful". Associated Press. Retrieved August 9, 2023.
- ^ Bizio, Silvia (March 23, 2020). "L'intervista: Brian de Palma". la Repubblica (in Italian).
- ^ "Brian De Palma". IMDb. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
- ^ Thompson, Anne (August 30, 2013). "Brian De Palma Q & A: 'Passion,' McAdams vs. Rapace, Sex Tools UPDATED (New Trailer)". IndieWire. p. 2. Archived from the original on October 26, 2014. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
- ^ Rainier, Peter. "The Director's Craft: The death-deifying De Palma". Los Angeles Times Calendar. Archived from the original on March 25, 2008. Retrieved December 26, 2007.
- ^ a b Salamon, p. 27.
- ^ Zakarin, Jordan (February 18, 2019). "Keith Gordon is the directorbehind all your favorite peak TV shows". Syfy.com.
- ^ Fisher, Nate (June 17, 2016). "'Dionysus in '69': Brian De Palma's Balance of the Profane and the Political", Thefilmstage.com
- Vulture.
- ISBN 978-0-684-80341-8. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
- ^ Topel, Fred (November 11, 2004). "Behind-the-Scenes of 'Seed of Chucky'". MovieWeb.
- ^ Hatfull, Jonathan (August 25, 2014). "FrightFest 2014 Day 4 review: killers, singers and demons". SciFiNow.
- ^ Wien, Gary (October 19, 2014). "Infliction: An Interview With Jack Thomas Smith". New Jersey Stage.
- ^ Smith, Hilary Jane (July 20, 2021). "I Hate When a Man Is Right: Brian De Palma’s BLOW OUT at 40". Merry-Go-Round Magazine.
- ^ "Quentin Tarantino's Handwritten List of the 11 Greatest Movies". Empire. 2008. Archived from the original on October 5, 2013. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
- ^ Johnson, Eric C. "Cahiers du Cinema: Top Ten Lists 1951–2009". alumnus.caltech.edu. Archived from the original on March 27, 2012. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
- ^ Caputi, Jane (June 15, 1987). The Age of Sex Crime. Popular Press. p. 92
- ^ Koresky, Michael (July 17, 2019). "Queer and Now and Then: 2002". Film Comment. New York: Film at Lincoln Center. Retrieved September 5, 2020.
- ISBN 978-0253218360.
- ISBN 978-0231129671.
- ^ Kael, Pauline (August 14, 1989). "A Wounded Apparition". The New Yorker. New York: Condé Nast. Retrieved September 5, 2020.
- ^ Grace, Helen (September 2013). "Responsive Eyes and Crossing Lines: Forty Years of Looking and Reading". Lola.
- ^ Thomson, p. 257.
- ^ Seitz, Matt Zoller (September 20, 2006). "From the Short Stack: David Thomson on Brian De Palma in The New Biographical Dictionary of Film". Slant Magazine. Retrieved February 23, 2020.
- ^ "De Palma (2015)". Rottentomatoes.com. June 10, 2016. Retrieved May 10, 2021.
- ^ David Rooney (September 8, 2015). "'De Palma': Venice Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 28, 2016.
Bibliography
- De Palma, Brian; Lehman, Susan (May 16, 2018). Les serpents sont-ils nécessaires? (in French). Translated by Esch, Jean. OCLC 1037152284.
- ISBN 978-0-307-27174-7.
- ISBN 0-395-56996-6.
- Bliss, Michael (1986). Brian De Palma. Scarecrow.
- Blumenfeld, Samuel, Vachaud, Laurent (2001). Brian De Palma. Calmann-Levy.
- Dworkin, Susan (1984). Double De Palma: A Film Study with Brian De Palma. Newmarket.