DE PALMA Review

by shael stolberg

“Your being critizied against the fashion of the day and when the fashion changes everybody forgets about that”

“Being a director is being a watcher. We have a lot of egos in the room and you have to watch how they interact with each other”

” I did grow up in an operating room I saw a lot of blood”

– Brian De Palma

You know when you watch a trailer at a theatre and, aside from giving away almost all the plot twists, you think “that looks good” but then the cynical or realistic side of you thinks, “yeah but that’s probably the best 3-4 scenes or comments in the film and the whole thing cannot be that good”… well the above quotes are from the De Palma trailer directed by fellow filmmakers Noah Baumbach & Jake Paltrow about…you got it…the iconoclastic maverick director Brian De Palma and they are just the icing on the cake, so to speak.

(L-R) Jake Paltrow, Brian De Palma & Noah Baumbach

(L-R) Jake Paltrow, Brian De Palma & Noah Baumbach

The film is more like listening to your favourite uncle or family friend impart to you the wisdom of his experience from his early years right up until the current day. That being said, the film and conversation being shot is obviously between well respected peers and a few times, thought out the film, De Palma consciously or unconsciously alludes to this by saying something like “you know what that’s like” or “has this happened to you” that makes it clear he is being filmed by individuals who not only are interested in what he has to say but quite probably have experienced it themselves or at least may have a knowledge of similar situations or experiences.

 Robert De Niro in Greetings Photo Credit: Courtesy of Film Reference Library

Robert De Niro in Greetings Photo Credit: Courtesy of Film Reference Library

Now, even though the film is basically a one shot P.O.V. of De Palma sitting in a chair talking about his life, films, hollywood etc without any “talking heads” they still include more then a few interesting photos related to what De Palma is talking about at the time. At one point, De Palma talks about how close he and Steve Spielberg had became and that he was one of the first people he knew to have a phone in his car. At this point, there is a photo of a 70’s or early 80’s Steven Spielberg on the screen and, I believe, you hear his message. This creates a genuineness to the story and works better then if a current Steven Spielberg responded to the comment. There are many ‘behind the scenes’ photos and film clips from De Palma’s early and later films such as Greetings (1968), Hi, Mom (1970) & Sisters (1973) just to mention a few, with a very young Robert De Niro & William Finley (best known as Winslow Leach aka The Phantom in The Phantom of the Paradise (1974).

 William Finley as The Phantom in Phantom of the Paradise Photo Credit: Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

William Finley as The Phantom in Phantom of the Paradise Photo Credit: Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

At one point, De Palma talks with joyful glee on being able to use several different cameras to film the final shoot out in Scarface and, more importantly, being able to use his friends to do it including Spielberg. Photos from the film or ‘behind the scenes’ of the film are interwoven into the film as De Palma is telling the story. The care, enthusiasm and creativity De Palma has had for the visuals in his films is on perfect display here.

(L-R) Brian De Palma  & Vilmos Zsigmond on the set of Bonfire of the Vanities

(L-R) Brian De Palma & Vilmos Zsigmond on the set of Bonfire of the Vanities

To emphasize this point, I had the privilege to interview the now late Academy Award Winning D.O.P. Vilmos Zsigmond (thanks to TIFF link to interview) who worked with De Palma on Obsession (1976) & Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) and Zsigmond states that “Brian De Palma is very, very visual…and he comes up with all these great ideas and you feel like everyday you are contributing. Everything is visual.” This point is also empathized when De Palma starts taking about a specific scene in Carlito’s Way and how much time it took to get it just right.

(L-R) Sean Penn & Michael J. Fox in  Casualties of War Photo Credit: ©1989 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

(L-R) Sean Penn & Michael J. Fox in Casualties of War Photo Credit: ©1989 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

As De Palma states “Being a director is being a watcher. We have a lot of egos in the room and you have to watch how they interact with each other”. As if trying to prove this above quote exactly, De Palma tells the story of how on the set of Casualties of War (1989) Sean Penn would call Michael J. Fox, especially, before a big scene a ‘TV actor’. This incensed Fox but De Palma let it continue because it created the perfect atmosphere for the relationship between the two characters which was one of condescension and anger to say the least. In essence, both Baumbach & Paltrow followed this quote very well. When you have an entertaining, glib, humourous, clever, engaging personality as the ‘star’ of your film just get him talking and role camera.

De Palma will open in Toronto at the TIFF Bell Lightbox on June 17 a day before the opening of the TIFF retrospective Split/Screen: The Cinema of Brian De Palma which runs from June 18th – September 3rd and is being released by A24 & Elevation Pictures in Canada.

Shael Stolberg has previously written 3 books, moderated panels at film festivals, gave seminars at film schools, hosted a film based radio show, occasionally appears on HuffPostLive, works as a film, festival & distribution consultant and, for full disclosure, presently runs FILMbutton.com & FILMbutton Follows….

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