PODCAST "SEEING FACES IN MOVIES" ON DRESSED TO KILL
"This month we're celebrating the Father of Cinema, Brian De Palma," tweets Seeing Faces in Movies Podcast's Felicia Maroni, "and to start things off I'm joined by Eugina Gelbelman to discuss the iconic Dressed To Kill (1980). We had a lot of fun, with a director who knows how to have a fun time." The episode description adds:
They chat about De Palma’s ability to elevate a B-Grade thriller to A-Grade material through his master craftmanship. His use of split screen and split diopter, and dialogue free scenes to show and not tell the audience the characters movements.They gush about De Palma being one of their all time favourite directors (Felicia’s top favourite director? Maybe, probably!), and how deliberately frames each scene, and how no one is able to pace a story like him.
Here's a nice exchange from the first part of the episode:
Felicia: The tagline for Dressed To Kill is, “Every nightmare has a beginning – this one never ends.” That’s funny. It makes it sound like it’s an extreme slasher movie.Eugina: It does.
Felicia: I mean, technically, there are slasher elements, but it’s more of a cerebral thriller.
Eugina: As far as movies from that era go, it’s, like, slick. It’s very aesthetically pleasing, kind of. Not really like a grimy slasher film, it’s very polished and classy. Kind of a classy De Palma.
Felicia: Right? And I love you for that, because some people kind of describe him as “sleazy,” and I’m like, I don’t think he’s sleazy. He makes stuff that I think is in the back of everyone’s fantasies, and he’s just putting it out there. But it’s so beautiful to watch. His films are beautiful. They’re not sleazy, they’re not gross.
Eugina: No, it’s crafted very well.