Hello and welcome to the unofficial Brian De Palma website.
Here is the latest news:

De Palma a la Mod

E-mail
Geoffsongs@aol.com

De Palma Discussion
Forum

-------------

Recent Headlines
a la Mod:

Domino is
a "disarmingly
straight-forward"
work that "pushes
us to reexamine our
relationship to images
and their consumption,
not only ethically
but metaphysically"
-Collin Brinkman

De Palma on Domino
"It was not recut.
I was not involved
in the ADR, the
musical recording
sessions, the final
mix or the color
timing of the
final print."

Listen to
Donaggio's full score
for Domino online

De Palma/Lehman
rapport at work
in Snakes

De Palma/Lehman
next novel is Terry

De Palma developing
Catch And Kill,
"a horror movie
based on real things
that have happened
in the news"

Supercut video
of De Palma's films
edited by Carl Rodrigue

Washington Post
review of Keesey book

-------------

Exclusive Passion
Interviews:

Brian De Palma
Karoline Herfurth
Leila Rozario

------------

AV Club Review
of Dumas book

------------

« August 2011 »
S M T W T F S
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30 31

Interviews...

De Palma interviewed
in Paris 2002

De Palma discusses
The Black Dahlia 2006


Enthusiasms...

De Palma Community

The Virtuoso
of the 7th Art

The De Palma Touch

The Swan Archives

Carrie...A Fan's Site

Phantompalooza

No Harm In Charm

Paul Schrader

Alfred Hitchcock
The Master Of Suspense

Alfred Hitchcock Films

Snake Eyes
a la Mod

Mission To Mars
a la Mod

Sergio Leone
and the Infield
Fly Rule

Movie Mags

Directorama

The Filmmaker Who
Came In From The Cold

Jim Emerson on
Greetings & Hi, Mom!

Scarface: Make Way
For The Bad Guy

The Big Dive
(Blow Out)

Carrie: The Movie

Deborah Shelton
Official Web Site

The Phantom Project

Welcome to the
Offices of Death Records

The Carlito's Way
Fan Page

The House Next Door

Kubrick on the
Guillotine

FilmLand Empire

Astigmia Cinema

LOLA

Cultural Weekly

A Lonely Place

The Film Doctor

italkyoubored

Icebox Movies

Medfly Quarantine

Not Just Movies

Hope Lies at
24 Frames Per Second

Motion Pictures Comics

Diary of a
Country Cinephile

So Why This Movie?

Obsessive Movie Nerd

Nothing Is Written

Ferdy on Films

Cashiers De Cinema

This Recording

Mike's Movie Guide

Every '70s Movie

Dangerous Minds

EatSleepLiveFilm

No Time For
Love, Dr. Jones!

The former
De Palma a la Mod
site

Entries by Topic
A note about topics: Some blog posts have more than one topic, in which case only one main topic can be chosen to represent that post. This means that some topics may have been discussed in posts labeled otherwise. For instance, a post that discusses both The Boston Stranglers and The Demolished Man may only be labeled one or the other. Please keep this in mind as you navigate this list.
All topics  «
Ambrose Chapel
Are Snakes Necessary?
BAMcinématek
Bart De Palma
Beaune Thriller Fest
Becoming Visionary
Betty Buckley
Bill Pankow
Black Dahlia
Blow Out
Blue Afternoon
Body Double
Bonfire Of The Vanities
Books
Boston Stranglers
Bruce Springsteen
Cannes
Capone Rising
Carlito's Way
Carrie
Casualties Of War
Catch And Kill
Cinema Studies
Clarksville 1861
Columbia University
Columbo - Shooting Script
Congo
Conversation, The
Cop-Out
Cruising
Daft Punk
Dancing In The Dark
David Koepp
De Niro
De Palma & Donaggio
De Palma (doc)
De Palma Blog-A-Thon
De Palma Discussion
Demolished Man
Dick Vorisek
Dionysus In '69
Domino
Dressed To Kill
Edward R. Pressman
Eric Schwab
Fatal Attraction
Femme Fatale
Film Series
Fire
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Fury, The
Genius of Love
George Litto
Get To Know Your Rabbit
Ghost & The Darkness
Greetings
Happy Valley
Havana Film Fest
Heat
Hi, Mom!
Hitchcock
Home Movies
Inspired by De Palma
Iraq, etc.
Jack Fisk
Jared Martin
Jerry Greenberg
Keith Gordon
Key Man, The
Laurent Bouzereau
Lights Out
Lithgow
Magic Hour
Magnificent Seven
Mission To Mars
Mission: Impossible
Mod
Montreal World Film Fest
Morricone
Mr. Hughes
Murder a la Mod
Nancy Allen
Nazi Gold
Newton 1861
Noah Baumbach
NYFF
Obsession
Oliver Stone
Palmetto
Paranormal Activity 2
Parker
Parties & Premieres
Passion
Paul Hirsch
Paul Schrader
Pauline Kael
Peet Gelderblom
Phantom Of The Paradise
Pimento
Pino Donaggio
Predator
Prince Of The City
Print The Legend
Raggedy Ann
Raising Cain
Red Shoes, The
Redacted
Responsive Eye
Retribution
Rie Rasmussen
Robert De Niro
Rotwang muß weg!
Sakamoto
Scarface
Scorsese
Sean Penn
Sensuous Woman, The
Sisters
Snake Eyes
Sound Mixer
Spielberg
Star Wars
Stepford Wives
Stephen H Burum
Sweet Vengeance
Tabloid
Tarantino
Taxi Driver
Terry
The Tale
To Bridge This Gap
Toronto Film Fest
Toyer
Travolta
Treasure Sierra Madre
Tru Blu
Truth And Other Lies
TV Appearances
Untitled Ashton Kutcher
Untitled Hollywood Horror
Untitled Industry-Abuse M
Untouchables
Venice Beach
Vilmos Zsigmond
Wedding Party
William Finley
Wise Guys
Woton's Wake
Blog Tools
Edit your Blog
Build a Blog
RSS Feed
View Profile
You are not logged in. Log in
Monday, August 22, 2011
'SCARFACE' CAST REUNION - LIVESTREAM TUESDAY
PACINO, BAUER, LOGGIA, BREGMAN, & F. MURRAY ABRAHAM, 11:15PM EASTERN
Watch live streaming video from scarface at livestream.com

Watch the Live Scarface cast reunion tomorrow night (Tuesday, August 23rd) at 11:15pm eastern, on livestream. Al Pacino, Steven Bauer, Robert Loggia, F. Murray Abraham, and producer Martin Bregman are all expected to take part in the live reunion. All but Loggia have worked with Brian De Palma on more than one occasion, so it should be a fun discussion.


Posted by Geoff at 6:59 PM CDT
Post Comment | View Comments (4) | Permalink | Share This Post
Sunday, August 21, 2011
'SISTERS' PLAYS HERRMANN SERIES IN CAMBRIDGE
PART OF DOUBLE FEATURE WITH 'TWISTED NERVE' THIS TUESDAY
This Tuesday, August 23, the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, will pair up Brian De Palma's Sisters with Roy Boulting's Twisted Nerve for a double feature as part of its series, "Music for Movies: Bernard Herrmann Centennial," which began in early July and concludes August 30th. Herrmann's eerie whistled theme from Twisted Nerve was used by Quentin Tarantino in a De Palma-esque sequence of Kill Bill Vol. 1.
(Thanks to Jim!)

Posted by Geoff at 1:31 PM CDT
Updated: Sunday, August 21, 2011 1:32 PM CDT
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Thursday, August 18, 2011
DE PALMA TO DIRECT 'THE KEY MAN'
CONSPIRACY THRILLER WRITTEN BY JOBY HAROLD, WHO WILL ALSO PRODUCE
Brian De Palma has just closed a deal to direct a thriller, with financing and distribution already in place, according to Deadline Hollywood's Michael Fleming. But let's go back to the beginning:

Last month, Deadline Hollywood reported that Open Road Films ("the new distribution company created by exhibitors AMC Entertainment and Regal Entertainment") had aquired the U.S. rights to The Key Man, a thriller written by Joby Harold (pictured here, he is the writer and director of 2007's Awake). The Key Man, about a single father targeted by U.S. government agents who are apparently aware that the man's body contains answers to important national secrets, already had financing in place from QED International. QED's founder Bill Block told Deadline that the screenplay "recalls great films like Three Days Of The Condor and Marathon Man and is built on a fantastic story in the vein of The Da Vinci Code and National Treasure, and will appeal to a broad global audience." Open Road promised "a significant P&A [print & advertising] commitment," which is exactly what one might expect from a distribution company backed by the two largest U.S. theatrical exhibitors. Open Road CEO Tom Ortenberg told Deadline that The Key Man is "one of the smartest, most original scripts we've seen," and that he expected it to "attract top notch talent."

Well, they're off to an excellent start with that top notch talent by signing De Palma to direct the picture, which will be produced by Harold, Block, Tory Tunnell (Awake, Trumbo) and Paul Hanson (Oliver Stone's W.).

PRODUCTION TO START BY YEAR'S END; QED STARTING OFFERS TO ACTORS
Deadline's original story stated that principal photography was "due to begin by early 2012," and today's post from Fleming states that production will begin "by year's end." TheWrap's Joshua L. Weinstein, following up on Fleming's Deadline report, states that "with the De Palma deal closed, QED is starting to make offers to actors."

Harold has cited early Roman Polanski as one of his main inspirations for making films. Last year, he was signed to Tunnell's Safehouse Pictures to apply his talents to commercials as well as feature films. Safehouse is mentioned by Fleming as one of the companies involved in The Key Man. Harold has had his hand in many a project of late. At Safehouse, he wrote a treatment for the Meryl Streep/Tina Fey comedy Mommy & Me, which he is co-executive producing with director Stanley Tucci. He has also written Fountain City, currently in development at Safehouse with Andrew Adamson directing. After hiring Harold a few years ago to work on a draft of Zach Snyder's "ultimate zombie movie," Army Of The Dead, Warner Bros. more recently set Harold to rewrite an adaptation of Hiroshi Sakurazaka's time-travel space opera All You Need Is Kill, with Doug Liman attached to direct.


Posted by Geoff at 8:08 PM CDT
Updated: Thursday, August 18, 2011 8:15 PM CDT
Post Comment | View Comments (19) | Permalink | Share This Post
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
KEY GRIP 'DICKY' DEATS HAS PASSED AWAY
WORKED WITH ZSIGMOND & DE PALMA ON 'BLOW OUT' & 'THE BLACK DAHLIA'
Richard "Dicky" Deats, who worked as a key grip on Brian De Palma's Blow Out and The Black Dahlia (both with cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond), passed away July 14 at the age of 66, according to Below The Line. Just prior to working on Blow Out in 1981, Deats and Zsigmond built the first portable crane, which Deats called "the Little Big Crane," because it was lightweight and could be disassembled and carried around anywhere. The pair put it to good use on Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate (1980), and Deats later won an Academy Award for Technical Achievement in 1984 for the Little Big Crane's design and manufacture.

Posted by Geoff at 10:08 PM CDT
Updated: Tuesday, August 16, 2011 10:09 PM CDT
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Sunday, August 14, 2011
THE 'CARRIE' ROOM
DRAG QUEEN JACKIE BEAT TELLS FANGORIA ABOUT HER FAVORITE MOVIE

In a blog post announcing his interview with Sissy Spacek in the new issue of Fangoria hitting stands this month, Lee Gambin also quotes from drag queen Jackie Beat about her obsession with Carrie. The photo above shows Beat's office. "If I had to choose one movie that completely changed my life, it would have to be Carrie,” Beat told Gambin. “It was a low-budget horror movie for teens, so when its two stars, Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie, were each nominated for Oscars, it was almost as shocking as the movie’s often-copied ending!” Beat told Gambin that the film's celebration of the misfit "helped shape me into the person I am today: a writer and performer who, instead of setting people on fire or crushing them with a basketball backboard, kills ’em with my razor-sharp tongue!” The Spacek interview is focused on her role in Carrie.

Posted by Geoff at 9:00 PM CDT
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Tuesday, August 9, 2011


Posted by Geoff at 11:29 PM CDT
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Sunday, August 7, 2011
TRAILER FOR MARK COUSINS' 'THE STORY OF FILM'
15-HOUR 'ODYSSEY' WILL PREMIERE AT TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FEST NEXT MONTH

Posted by Geoff at 7:23 PM CDT
Updated: Sunday, August 7, 2011 7:31 PM CDT
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Thursday, August 4, 2011
THE STORY BEHIND SCRAPPED 'DANCING' VIDEO
SPRINGSTEEN WALKED OUT AFTER DISCUSSION WITH CINEMATOGRAPHER
Stephen Pitalo, a music video historian, has a terrific blog called The Golden Age Of Music Video. Today, he posted "The Untold Story Of Bruce Springsteen’s Original 'Dancing in the Dark' Music Video." Pitalo spoke with Daniel Pearl, the award-winning cinematographer who shot the abandoned footage, and also with Jeff Stein, the director. Stein takes absolutely no credit for directing this video, however, telling Pitalo, "I love Bruce, and I had nothing to do with it. I usually take the blame, but not for that (laugh).” And when you read Pearl's story, you'll understand why (click the link above to read the original story in all its glory-- I'm just going to kind of summarize it here). Pearl says that it was Stein's idea to have Springsteen dancing in a completely dark space. When Springsteen appeared, Pearl saw that he had been working out and looked very manly, so he lit him very hard, "and just really chiseled him with light," he told Pitalo. Springsteen, nervous about creating a hit after his sparse release Nebraska, suggested a big silk lighting filter that reminded Pearl of the way he had shot Stevie Nicks. According to Pearl, he told Springsteen, "You’re not a pussy, you’re quite the opposite. You’re super manly here. I can’t light you like I would light a woman." Springsteen responded that that was what he wanted, and Stein suggested trying it Pearl's way. After shooting a few takes, Pearl told Pitalo, Springsteen went to the green room and never came back. Pearl blamed himself, and for years and years, avoided working with Springsteen. But that story has a twist ending that I won't reveal here-- read it here.

Posted by Geoff at 8:48 PM CDT
Updated: Thursday, August 4, 2011 8:48 PM CDT
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
SPRINGSTEEN 'DANCING' FOOTAGE SURFACES
REJECTED CONCEPT LED TO DE PALMA'S INVOLVEMENT

The above video shows three takes from an early concept for Bruce Springsteen's Dancing In The Dark video, directed by Jeff Stein. As Billboard reported back in 1984, Stein's concept was rejected by Springsteen, who then hired Brian De Palma to work on it. Note that the version prior to De Palma did not feature any scene where the singer picks a girl from the crowd to come up onstage and dance with the star. It seems likely that this was De Palma's idea, as he had wanted to include something along those lines, albeit more elaborate, in the unproduced Fire, a rock-themed film he had written around that time that was based on Jim Morrison. In De Palma's version of the video (see below), Springsteen keeps some of the Stein video's dance moves, which in the Stein version seem kind of like John Mellencamp channeling Olivia Newton-John by way of Loverboy. Really, though, I think Springsteen was attempting to channel some kind of Elvis spirit, and in the De Palma video, Springsteen's look seems to harken back to the fifties and sixties, with just a subtle silky hint of Prince, who was making it big with Purple Rain around the time the video was filmed in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Meanwhile, setting up the big dance scene at the end, De Palma throws in an early shot from the point of view of the girl (Courtney Cox). At one point, he shows Springsteen facing the camera with the crowd of thousands behind him. In keeping with the purpose of the genre of the music video, De Palma keeps the focus on his star, but can't help the subtle nod to the audience, even placing some of them behind the stage to cheer on this oddly cheerful Dionysian figure, maybe not starting fires, but working up a spark, nonetheless.


Posted by Geoff at 12:26 AM CDT
Updated: Wednesday, August 3, 2011 12:28 AM CDT
Post Comment | View Comments (3) | Permalink | Share This Post
Monday, August 1, 2011
'SCARFACE' TO HIT THEATERS AUGUST 31
ALSO: AMC INCLUDES THREE DE PALMA FILMS FOR MOB WEEK; BAUER TALKS

To hype up its upcoming Blu-Ray release of Brian De Palma's Scarface September 6, Universal will be delivering the film to theaters for one night only, on Wednesday, August 31st at 7:30pm (local time). The film will be preceeded by a 20-minute feature from the Blu-Ray package that includes interviews with filmmakers and other talent discussing the influence of Scarface. Tickets for the special theater event go on sale today, August 1st. To check on where the nearest screening will be, go to Fathom Events and put in your zip code (you may have to like the Scarface page on Facebook first.

Meanwhile, this week is "Mob Week" on AMC, hosted by Rudolph Giuliani. Three De Palma films will be included: The Untouchables (Wednesday, 8pm eastern), Carlito's Way (Wednesday, 10:45pm eastern), and Scarface (Thursday, 8pm eastern). Other films include The Godfather (Monday), The Godfather Part II (Tuesday), Donnie Brasco (Friday), GoodFellas (Saturday), and Pulp Fiction (Sunday).

STEVEN BAUER TALKS 'SCARFACE'
And that's not all. In anticipation of the upcoming Blu-Ray release of Scarface, Asylum UK's Oliver Jones interviewed Steven Bauer, who said that he is very proud to have been a part of the film. "Yeah," Bauer told Jones, "I mean of course, a film like Scarface, it became like this huge thing, bigger than anyone at the time could ever have really guessed. Was it like a curse for my career? In a way. At first people hated the film. Well, the critics I mean at least. They said this film is horrible, no-one who was involved with this film should feel any sense of pride, or goodness -- there isn't a single redeeming thing about this film. But then we had the fans. There were people coming out of the screenings going crazy. When something is that big, you become that person to them, and I guess it can be hard to become anything else -- which, you know, is what an actor does. Do I wish it had never happened? Not at all. I'm really proud of my role in the film and I'm really proud of the film as a whole, it was such a privilege to be a part of it."

Bauer also talked about working with Al Pacino. "I guess you could say Scarface set the tone for the rest of my career," Bauer told Jones. "In the film, I think when Tony kills Manny, it's like, he's gone past redemption, that's his point of no return. People still come up to me in the street and are like, I can't believe he killed you man. I can't believe it. When I came onto the set Al really took he under his wing -- he showed me that acting can be really instinctive -- you learn the script, you trust it. And you see how it comes out. I think we all knew we were part of something special. Me and Al sat there saying what are people going to think of this -- we were imagining where we'd be a year later." Bauer also briefly talked about how he and Pacino met with Cuban immigrants "about what it was like in Cuba. And they were tough guys. That was the thing that really struck me, how tough these guys were, how bad they had it, how few opportunities they'd had. That was so far from my experience, it really stood out to me. I grew up in America and I felt like I could do anything, I had lot of opportunities. That certainly had an effect on my character."


Posted by Geoff at 12:51 AM CDT
Updated: Monday, August 1, 2011 11:47 PM CDT
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post

Newer | Latest | Older