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NO one would
argue that Brian De Palma likes to watch, but
what the director stares at incites disagreement
between his fans and foes. De Palma's always-seeking
eyes, his supporters say, contribute to a visually
inventive style of moviemaking that is eerily
reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock. His detractors say that
the filmmaker's often violent voyeurism reveals a
disturbing penchant for cutting up women on film and an
appreciation for Hitchcock that borders on plagiarism.
As a teenager growing up in Philadelphia, De Palma
enjoyed observing his father, an orthopedic surgeon,
operate on bones, install artificial femurs, and
amputate legs. When the strong-stomached lad required
extra visual stimulation, he sneaked a peek at brain and
eye operations performed by his father's colleagues.
These bloody images sunk deep and built the foundation
for a high gore tolerance and a fondness for elegant
slicing. After high school, De Palma enrolled as a
physics student at Columbia University, where he soon
discovered a taste for drama and joined the Columbia
Players, a student theatre group. It wasn't long before
he got hold of a second-hand 16mm camera and filmed his
acting buddies in several short movies, including
Wotan's Wake (1962), a film that earned the
budding director a graduate fellowship to Sarah Lawrence
College.
De Palma spent the next two years writing his first
feature, The Wedding Party. Shot on the streets
of New York in 1966, the $43,000 film examined
Vietnam-era politics in cinema veritT style and starred
Jill Clayburgh and Robert
De Niro in their feature debuts. Although initially
unreleased, the movie was a learning experience for De
Palma, and he churned out a string of increasingly
appreciated low-budget satirical and horror movies.
During this period, De Palma began to draw inspiration
from Hitchcock thrillers; he frequently imbued his
camerawork with rhythmic motions that seemed to run
along with the tormented characters. In 1976, De Palma
achieved his commercial breakthrough with Carrie,
a film adaptation of Stephen
King's story about a telekinetic teenager (played by
Sissy Spacek).
As De Palma's clout in Hollywood strengthened, so did
the volume of his critics, who found the director's
depiction of violence unprecedented in its artistic
pretense and sexual overtones. His cinematic slayings
featured murder weapons ranging from an ice pick
(Murder a la Mod, 1968) to a chainsaw
(Scarface, 1983). Had they given an award for
"Most Non-P.C. Filmmaker," De Palma would have won hands
down with 1984's Body Double. Set amid the world
of pornography, the thriller depicted a murder of a
beautiful woman with a very phallic (and very large)
electric drill. ("It's a little tongue in cheek," De
Palma remarked.) The erotically charged scene would,
justifiably or not, become an emblem of De Palma's
controversial career.
Although strong, elegant images are consistent among
De Palma movies, commercial and critical success are
not. For example, the director erased the smash success
of The Untouchables (1987) by turning The
Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) into one of filmdom's
biggest turkeys. (Erratic behavior has marked De Palma's
personal life, as well. He's been married three times:
first, to Carrie actress Nancy Allen; second, to
producer Gale Anne Hurd, who gave birth to a daughter,
Lolita; third, to Darnelle De Palma, from whom he split
after seven months of marriage, and who gave birth to
his second daughter, Piper.) Hitless during the first
half of the nineties, De Palma signed on to helm a
couldn't-miss 1996 remake of the TV show Mission:
Impossible starring golden boy Tom
Cruise (and loads of special effects). He followed
the highly lucrative actioner with the so-so 1998
thriller Snake Eyes, which starred Nicolas
Cage and Gary
Sinise. |
Brian De Palma 
