BrianDepalma Tagged Articles at Cinematical

There are plenty of different kinds of montages in the language of film, and they can fill you in on everything from the emotional state of your characters to a wacky makeover. So while a good montage sequence will explain everything you need to know in the most economical way possible, one of my favorite kinds is the "Rise to Power" montage -- which brings me to Scarface. I love Brian De Palma's crime opus for so many reasons, but I think when it comes to the art of the montage, I have a soft spot for cheese -- and it doesn't get much more pungent than Giorgio Moroder, the patron saint of 80's movie music.

By the time the power chords of Moroder and Paul Engemann's Push it To The Limit kicks in, we've already been watching Tony Montana work his way up the criminal ladder and this segment occurs after he has killed Frank Lopez (Robert Loggia) and taken over as the head cocaine trafficker in Miami. This montage has it all: bags of money, weddings -- hell, there's even a tiger.

Sure, this montage is a little over the top, and you can see Tony's downfall coming from a mile away. In just over two minutes there are enough ominous glances that you just know things are not going to end well for our cocaine dynasty. So even though this sequence has every crime cliché front and center, remember, it isn't a cliché it you were the one to do it first.

After the jump: the rise of Tony Montana, and another Moroder movie classic...

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Brian De Palma is headed into murderous territory. He has signed on to direct The Boston Stranglers for Valhalla Motion Pictures, a movie all about the notorious 60's killing spree.

The movie will be based on Susan Kelly's nonfiction book, The Boston Stranglers: The Public Conviction of Albert DeSalvo and the True Story of Eleven Shocking Murders. The movie will detail the famous murders, as well as their controversial resolution. Debate still centers on the guilt of Albert DeSalvo, who confessed to the murders, but never fit the profile. He was later murdered in prison.

Kelly's book is one of several to suggest there was more than one killer. Looking through Wikipedia, it seems there's a whole Jack the Ripper cult beginning to emerge around the murder cases. Everyone loves trying to piece together a gruesome tale, I suppose. Will they be inventing a fictional detective to center it on? It doesn't seem like there were any Abberlines or Paul Averys trying to untangle this spree, but I'm no expert.

This one is likely to be less controversial than Brett Ratner's forthcoming take on The Incredible Shrinking Man, but it may still offend some Brian De Palma die-hards. Fox has commissioned a remake of The Fury, which was De Palma's follow-up to Carrie back in 1978. Based on a book by John Farris, the movie dealt with a telepathic teenager and nefarious government agents' attempts to use him for weapons experiments. Looking back, it bears more than a passing resemblance to Stephen King's Firestarter novel (if not the Drew Barrymore film), though that was published after The Fury was released.

Speaking as a De Palma fan, I'm not terribly offended by the prospect of a remake -- I think that The Fury is one of the man's less memorable films. (Case in point: I saw it less than two years ago, and I barely remember it.) The new movie will be written by newcomers Brian McGreevy and Lee Shipman, who got the job on the strength of an unproduced spec script. Let's hope this doesn't wind up being in the vein of the cheap-and-quick PG-13 horror we've been seeing a lot of lately.

As for De Palma, he's still licking his wounds after the beating that Redacted took, and reportedly mulling an Untouchables sequel.

This weekend sees the release of Kimberly Peirce's Stop-Loss, about a soldier who returns from a grueling tour of duty in Iraq only to learn that he's being sent back for another one. The movie's not bad: very passionate, very angry, a bit didactic, and liberal to the core. (See our own Eric D. Snider's SXSW review here.) The "liberal" part is no surprise, at least not if you've been listening to the conservative pundits who have torn into Hollywood for what they see as anti-war propaganda masquerading as entertainment. Those same pundits like to gloat about Iraq War movies' perceived financial failure, holding up their box-office receipts as proof that the American people either aren't interested or aren't on the same page.

But have the Iraq War movies we've seen in the past couple of years actually performed all that poorly? And even if they have, does that have anything to do with public distaste for liberal Hollywood or its "propaganda"? Take a look at some numbers and share your thoughts after the jump.

The double-role has been a favorite for movie audiences for a long time. Actors as different as Lon Chaney and Ronald Colman have indulged in the two-actors-for-the-price-of-one roles. In The Dark Knight, Aaron Eckhart will get to do a two-fer, playing a character who didn't get nearly enough to do in that Joel Schumacher fiasco. (Though I did very much enjoy the bifurcated Tommy Lee Jones' use of the pluralis majestatis, the royal "we.") Few double-roles, however, are as roundly a good time as Brian De Palma's Raising Cain, a reviled but rich melodrama derived in equal parts from Psycho and the equally scandalous Peeping Tom. Preposterous, invigoratingly silly, and done to a technical turn by Hitchcock's most devoted fan, this forgotten thriller gives John Lithgow -- kindly actor and easy-going TV star of Third Rock from the Sun --a chance to show his hulking, evil side.

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"This fall, film director Martin Scorsese embarked on a secret experiment in filmmaking. A project which could have bold repercussions on future film preservation. Or maybe not." So begins a fascinating and unusual mocumentary/short film hybrid that is also part Freixenet wine commercial. Confused? Alright, well in the mockumentary portion -- which initially fooled several media outlets (and me) into thinking it was the real deal -- Scorsese has discovered 3 1/2 undated pages from an unmade Alfred Hitchcock project called The Key to Reserva. Scorsese has the nifty idea to make those pages into a Hitchcock-by-way-of-Scorsese short film, done in the style of Hitch. "It's one thing to preserve a film that has been made," says Scorsese. "It's another to preserve a film that has not been made."

This portion of the short is highly entertaining, with Scorsese glowing like a pregnant woman over the prospect of tackling one of his idols. He is such a high-strung dude, and the funniest moment is when the interviewer attempts to put his grubby hands on the script pages and Scorsese flips out. As for The Key to Reserva, boy did Scorsese nail the Hitchcock style. It's the ultimate homage. Scorsese cast classically handsome Simon Baker in the lead, and he uses the North by Northwest score and some super sweet old school effects (dig that balcony fall!) to complete the illusion you're watching an old Hitch classic. It's a bummer we'll never see a feature-length version of The Key to Reserva, but it's cool to have this little taste of Scorcock. (Hitchsese?) If you've got nine minutes, be sure to head here to check out the short (or watch it above). And if you could pick any modern-day filmmaker to do a film in another director's style, whom would you choose? Michael Bay doing Ingmar Bergman?

Starting tonight and running through December 17th, Edgar Wright is taking control of the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles. Wright, director of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, is programming a festival of his favorite movies, and it's a wonderful and eclectic bunch. He's calling the fest "The Wright Stuff," (also the name of a universally beloved screenwriting column on this very site), and he will be on hand to introduce several screenings with special guests. As always at the New Beverly, one of Los Angeles' absolute treasures, every screening is a double feature.

I'll just tell you about the screenings with special guests, all of which start at 7:30. But don't forget to check the website for all show dates and times. Tonight, Edgar and songwriter Paul Williams will kick off the event with two musicals -- Bugsy Malone and Brian DePalma's Phantom of the Paradise. December 5th, the first feature is Flash Gordon, with special guest (and ex-Bond) Timothy Dalton. The second feature is Mario Bava's Danger Diabolik, introduced by Edgar and the great Joe Dante. On December 7th, Edgar will introduce The Last Boy Scout and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang with one of the finest action screenplay writers of our time -- Shane Black. December 10 is John Landis' An American Werewolf in London and Tremors (which I spouted my love for here). Landis will help Wright introduce his film. December 12th is Top Secret! (almost as funny as Airplane and The Naked Gun, in my opinion) and Woody Allen's Bananas, with David Zucker on hand. December 14th is the Roger Ebert - penned Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, and Head, hosted by Wright and Micky Dolenz of The Monkees. And on December 16th, Wright will introduce Evil Dead 2 and an all time favorite of mine -- the Coen Brothers' Raising Arizona.

Here is a press release from Edgar with his thoughts on the included films. If you live in the Los Angeles area, there's really no excuse to miss this. See you there!

Well he might not have his Capone yet, but Brian DePalma is still determined to bring his Untouchables prequel to the big screen. MTV Movies Blog reports that DePalma will likely make The Untouchables: Capone Rising his next film. DePalma tells MTV that they still have not cast their Capone (played by Robert De Niro in the original film), but that he was looking for an actor with "...that street animal sexuality" -- and this just might be me, but Nicolas Cage is not the first person to come to mind with that particular description (although, I guess it doesn't matter now). Gerard Butler (300) is attached to play Jimmy Malone -- a role made famous by Sean Connery (I can still picture the overacting 20 years later... "You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. *That's* the *Chicago* way"). But, it did get the man his only Oscar, so you can never tell.

DePalma told MTV that the story will focus on "[Jimmy Malone]'s relationship with Capone during Capone's rise". News of a prequel first emerged around this time last year; so here we are a year later, and not all that much has been accomplished. DePalma did make assurances that the film would be keeping as much of the original feel of the 1987 flick as possible, saying, "I would like to use a lot of the original music from 'The Untouchables,' (which means the amazing score from Ennio Morricone will return) and the original locations in Chicago." I wonder if that will include giving the cast some snazzy costumes from Armani again. Until DePalma finds his Capone, though, he probably won't be 'rising' anytime soon.

In January, we brought you word of Brian De Palma's newest film, the Iraq war drama called Redacted. Coming from the term used to describe text that has been edited with black bars, the drama details the Al-Mahmudiyah Incident -- where soldiers murdered a young Iraqi girl's parents and younger sister before gang-raping and murdering her as well. The film is currently surfing the film fest circuit, and our Ryan Stewart reviewed it at TIFF. Now the film is being redacted itself.

At the end of his film, the director included disturbing images that were never published by the press, which he had found online. Mark Cuban and Magnolia want them removed. During a recent press conference at the New York Film Festival, IFC captured an argument between De Palma and Magnolia President Eamonn Bowles over the dispute. When De Palma starts to discuss the removal of the images, and his fight to keep them, Bowles jumped in from the back row to argue with him over them, before the film's producer, Jason Kliot, also came on stage to give his two cents. De Palma, meanwhile looks like he can't wait to get out of there and explode.

Ex-Cinematical head and current Spout blogger Karina Longworth contacted Mark Cuban about the argument, and he says: "The film is going to be 'redacted' before we release it. He is using images that have not been cleared... he can absorb 100 percent of the risk and release the film as he sees fit. If he chooses not to, then we will release the movie without the images." But it's not only business, Cuban also swears he won't include them so that family members could accidentally stumble upon the disturbing pictures and see a murdered loved one. I see where he's coming from, but in that case, why would you give De Palma the money to do whatever he wants? It's not like the guy is all about cinnamon hearts and puppies -- this is just like Casualties of War.

It was at last year's TIFF that Brian De Palma was approached by the guys from HDNet, who made him their 'five million' offer -- we'll give you five million dollars to make any film you want. The film he decided to make was, surprisingly, one he's already made -- 1989's Casualties of War. Redacted tells the same story, of a company of Army grunts who take part -- some willingly, some reluctantly -- in the rape and murder of a young girl. The key difference is that De Palma adopts what I can only describe as a 'bloggy' style to film his movie, instead of using traditional dramatic techniques. We frequently get plot points delivered to us via suspiciously Youtube-like video screens, we watch video letters from the troops to their loved ones back home and vice versa, and most importantly, we see through a home video camera being used by one of the main characters, Angel Salazar (Izzy Diaz.) Salazar is a grunt who plans to attach his documentary war footage to his application for film school after he returns home.

Those who go to Redacted looking for the traditional quirks of De Palma will probably not be disappointed; in addition to the video screens that recall the director's obsession with split-screen, there are also several panoramic shots that echo earlier films like The Untouchables, with one in particular standing out. The camera is placed in the inside of an Iraqi car that is approaching a U.S. military checkpoint, more or less up against the windshield, and as it turns and swerves through the curves of the checkpoint, we see the increasingly agitated faces of the soldiers – agitated because this car is not stopping. All good stuff, but the film has other peculiarities that aren't so successful, such as a decision to add unnecessary subtitles to some sections, and to more or less dump the main narrative in the closing moments in favor of showing stills of dead Iraqis. Even though these stills are explicitly titled as being authentic, during a Q&A after a screening here at TIFF, one of the producers acknowledged that some of them were created by De Palma's team.