Synopsis:
One of the most talented, influential, and iconoclastic filmmakers of all time, Brian De Palma’s career started in the 60s and has included such acclaimed and diverse films as Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Blow Out, Scarface, The Untouchables, Carlito’s Way, and Mission: Impossible. In this lively, illuminating and unexpectedly moving documentary, directors Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow engage in a personal and candid discussion with De Palma, exploring not only his life and work but also his singular approach to the craft of filmmaking and his remarkable experiences navigating the film business, from his early days as the bad boy of New Hollywood to his more recent years as a respected veteran of the field. In the end, what emerges is a funny, honest, and incisive portrait of a truly one-of-a-kind artist, and an exhilarating behind-the-scenes look at the last 50 years of the film industry through the eyes of someone who has truly seen it all.
What We Thought:
De Palma is a must see documentary for film buffs. I absolutely loved it.
It’s pretty much a master class of do’s and don’ts of Hollywood. Director Brian De Palma is considered one of the best directors of the past 40 years. He’s up there with Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola especially for directors that became big in the 1970s.
Yet De Palma might have more duds than hits at the box office. For every Mission: Impossible, The Untouchables and Carrie, he has Mission to Mars, Snake Eyes and The Bonfire of the Vanities.
Even Scarface, a film that he’s well known for, wasn’t quite the film it is now. It made some money at the box office, but it wasn’t until the 1990s when the hip hop community embraced it that it became what we think of today.
And De Palma himself isn’t shy about his failures. A lot of his films are considered good or great, but even some of those were box office disappointments. He goes into length about most of his films, the small indie ones of the 1960s to Carrie in the 1970s to Scarface in the 1980s and Mission: Impossible (his biggest hit) in the 1990s.
The documentary has a ton of old footage that is worth the price of admission. You see Robert DeNiro way back in the 60s. You get early Al Pacino. You get Scorsese, Coppola and other famous directors as well. It really feels like a film class.
De Palma talks about working with all these people and more. He talks about what films he thought would be successful and even shows outtakes and deleted scenes from his films. You get an alternate ending to Snake Eyes in it which I thought was cool. Plus he explains his use of split screen and when to use it.
Obviously you should know who Brian De Palma is if you are going to see De Palma. It’s a documentary I know I’ll rewatch multiple times. You get a really personal side of De Palma and how much Alfred Hitchcock influenced everything he did. I was thoroughly entertained and learned a lot while watching it. Because of that, it is…
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Cast & Crew:
- Brian De Palma
- Robert DeNiro
- Al Pacino
- Noah Baumbach
- Tom Cruise
Recommended If You Like:
- The Films of Brian De Palma
- Movie Documentaries
- Movie History
The Nerds Templar 