BLOW OUT, SCARFACE, DRESSED TO KILL, UNTOUCHABLES ALL GET SHOUT-OUTS
For IndieWire's "Best Films of the ’80s", Todd Field, Edgar Wright, Sean Baker, Phil Joanou, Randall Park, Alex Ross Perry, A.V. Rockwell, Bill Hader, Nia DaCosta, Wayne Wang, and more share their picks for best films of the 1980s. Several included Brian De Palma films: Blow Out and Scarface were each mentioned six times, Dressed To Kill was mentioned twice, and The Untouchables had one mention. Here are some highlights:
Ian Cooper, producer (“Nope”)
BLOW OUT (1981) — Working with Johnnie Burn on his epic and precise soundscape for NOPE (2022) had me recollecting on my introduction (and subsequent obsession) with movie sound design vis-a-vis De Palma’s foley-forward masterpiece. I watched this film on VHS in early high school and the boots-on-the-ground-artistry depiction of Travolta’s character concretized the marriage of pragmatism and creativity that is the bedrock of the BTS of filmmaking.
Alex Ross Perry, writer, director (“Her Smell”)
Blow Out/ Brazil – All systems rigged against the individual.
Bishal Dutta, director (“It Lives Inside”)
Blow-Out (1981)A perfect marriage of cinematic sound and image. Has any other film bridged the audiovisual divide better than this one? Split diopter shots, for example, visualize the process of eavesdropping. An eerily spinning shot disorients us while the sound becomes dizzying in its monotony. One of the post-Jazz Singer dreams is finally and gloriously realized: a film that uses sound and visuals interchangeably as brushstrokes on its cinematic canvas.
Phil Joanou, director (“Three O’Olock High”)
Scarface — A cultural phenomenon as much as it was a film. I remember seeing it opening night and thinking Pacino’s accent was so over-the-top. But then, as the film progressed, he just owned the screen in a performance that is so one-of-a-kind, it’s still jaw-dropping. Plus, Oliver Stone and Brian DePalma together? Insane.
Posted by Geoff
at 12:01 AM CDT
Updated: Sunday, August 20, 2023 12:37 PM CDT
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Updated: Sunday, August 20, 2023 12:37 PM CDT
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