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Brian De Palma   

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Director / Screenwriter / Producer / Editor
1940 - 
Born September 11, Newark, New Jersey, USA
Key Production Country: USA 
Key Genres: Thriller, Psychological Thriller, Crime, Crime Thriller, Horror, Gangster Film
Key Collaborators: Paul Hirsch (Editor), Stephen H. Burum (Cinematographer), Bill Pankow (Editor), Pino Donaggio (Composer), Jerry Greenberg (Editor), William Finley (Character Player), Charles Durning (Character Player), John Lithgow (Leading Player), Robert De Niro (Leading Player), David Koepp (Screenwriter)
Highly Recommended: Blow Out (1981), The Untouchables (1987)
Recommended: Carrie (1976), Scarface (1983)
Worth a Look: Sisters (1973), Phantom of the Paradise (1974), Dressed to Kill (1980), Raising Cain (1992), Carlito's Way (1993), Mission: Impossible (1996)
Links: [ IMDB ] [ TCMDB ] [ All-Movie Guide[ Senses of Cinema: Great Directors ] [ Film Reference ] [ Wikipedia ] [ De Palma a La Mod ] [ Gerald Peary Interview ] [ Brian De Palma on "Snake Eyes" ] [ Los Angeles Times Article (2006) ] [ Reverse Shot Feature (2006) ] [ Close-Up Film Interview (2008) ]
Books: [ Becoming Visionary: Brian De Palma's Cinematic Education of the Senses ] [ Misogyny in the Movies: The De Palma Question ] [ Double De Palma: A Film Study With Brian De Palma ] [ Brian De Palma: Interviews ] [ Brian De Palma: Authorship as Survival ] [ Brian De Palma ]
DVD's: [ Amazon ]
1,000 Greatest Films: Carrie (1976), Blow Out (1981), Scarface (1983)
21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films: Femme Fatale (2002)
 
Blow Out (1981)The Untouchables (1987)Carrie (1976)Scarface (1983)
 
     
  "Like Hitch, De Palma is famed for his elegant camera movements, shock cutting, use of lurid colour (especially red), and meticulously staged set-pieces of violent action - in short, technique - but unlike the master he lacks originality and ideas...There is a cold, clinical misanthropy (and, indeed, misogyny) to much of De Palma's work, evident in his readiness to subordinate his thinly drawn characters to flashy visual effect." - Geoff Andrew (The Director's Vision, 1999)  
     
  "His early lower-budget thrillers, although superbly manufactured, were too bloody and garish for the average taste and infuriated many critics. But De Palma began gaining respectability with Dressed to Kill (1980) and following several critical setbacks, reached the apex in the late 80s with such high-powered productions as The Untouchables (1987) and Casualties of War (1989). A superb technician, he was finally crafting material worthy of his bold, often dazzling, visual flair." - (The MacMillan International Film Encyclopedia, 1994)  
     
  "There is a self-conscious cunning in De Palma's work, ready to control everything except his own cruelty and indifference. He is the epitome of mindless style and excitement swamping taste or character. Of course, he was a brilliant kid. But his usefulness in an historical survey is to point out the dangers of movies falling into the hands of such narrow movie-mania, such cold-blooded prettification." - David Thomson (The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, 2002)  
     
  "De Palma's early films (Greetings; Hi, Mom) are clever satires on the manners and mores of 1960s youth. His recent efforts are erratic explorations into genre filmmaking.." - William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978)  
     
  "'I think that Hitchcock probably has had the best story ideas and cinema ideas in the history of the cinema, and I'm just trying to follow the master a little bit." - Brian De Palma (Directing the Film, 1976)  
     
  "I've dropped myself into straightforward character pieces in order to explore that form and reap its values. But you are sort of restricted visually when your first requirement is to tell a fairly straightforward story." - Brian De Palma  
     
 
 

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Last updated: 28/01/2010 10:35 AM.  Contact Us: bill@theyshootpictures.com.
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