Happy 80th Birthday, Brian De Palma! Born today in 1940 as Brian Russell De Palma, this American screenwriter and director's career, spanning over fifty years, is best known for his work in the suspense, crime and psychological thriller genres.
De Palma has always insisted that he gained his fascination with all things gory by watching his father, an orthopedic surgeon, at work.
However, De Palma had a poor relationship with his father, and would secretly follow him to record his adulterous behavior.
It's more likely that the principal influence on De Palma's career was Hitchcock, a fascination he has claimed to have outgrown professionally.
This would eventually inspire the teenage character played by American actor and film director Keith Gordon in De Palma's 1980 American erotic thriller film 'Dressed to Kill'.
Born in Newark, New Jersey, De Palma, years later, built computers in high school. He later won a regional science-fair prize for a project titled "An Analog Computer to Solve Differential Equations".
De Palma later enrolled at Columbia University as a physics student. While studying there, he became enraptured with the filmmaking process after viewing Orson Welles' 1941 American black and white drama/mystery film 'Citizen Kane'.
This also included Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 American Technicolor film noir psychological mystery/thriller film 'Vertigo'.
De Palma subsequently enrolled at the newly coed Sarah Lawrence College as an alma mater graduate student in their theater department in the early 1960s, becoming one of the first male students among a female population.
Once there, influences as various as Hitchcock, Jean-Luc Godard, Michelangelo Antonioni, the Maysles Brothers, and Andy Warhol.
This also included Tony Award-winning American theatre director, set designer, film director, screenwriter, and professor Wilford Leach. He later impressed upon De Palma the many styles and themes that would shape his own cinema in the coming decades.
During the 1960s, De Palma began making a living producing documentary films.
An early association with a young Robert De Niro resulted in the 1969 American black and white farce film 'The Wedding Party'.
The film had been shot in 1963 but remained unreleased until 1969, when De Palma's star had risen sufficiently within the Greenwich Village filmmaking scene.
De Niro was unknown at the time; the credits mistakenly display his name as "Robert Denero." The film is noteworthy for its invocation of silent film techniques and an insistence on the jump-cut for effect.
De Palma later followed this style with various small films for the NAACP and the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
In 1970, De Palma left New York for Hollywood at age thirty. This was to work on bigger budget films.
Later that same year, the American black and white drama film 'Dionysus in '69' was De Palma's other major documentary from this period.
With De Palma co-directing, the film records The Performance Group's performance of Greek tragedian and Athenian playwright Euripides' 405 B.C. Greek tragedy "The Bacchae", starring, amongst others, American actor and De Palma regular William Finley.
The play is noted for breaking traditional barriers between performers and audience. The film's most striking quality is its extensive use of the split-screen. De Palma recalls that he was "floored" by this performance upon first sight.
The following year, De Palma made the 1972 American comedy/satire film 'Get to Know Your Rabbit'. It co-starred Orson Welles.
It also co-starred American comedian, composer, musician and half of the musical comedy duo the Smothers Brothers Tommy Smothers.
However, making the film was a crushing experience for De Palma, as Smothers did not like many of De Palma's ideas.
One year later, Del Palma recounted how he "began to try and figure out a way to capture it on film. I came up with the idea of split-screen, to be able to show the actual audience involvement, to trace the life of the audience and that of the play as they merge in and out of each other."
De Palma is notable in Star Wars history as the director of the first film of which he is best known. This was the 1976 American supernatural horror/mystery film 'Carrie'.
Since the pre-production process of the film coincided with that of 'Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope'), it was then simply titled 'Star Wars'.
After seeing a rough cut of 'Star Wars' in February 1977, De Palma reportedly disliked the six-paragraph opening crawl. He helped Lucas shorten and rewrite the crawl into the three paragraphs seen in the final release.
De Palma and George Lucas held joint auditions for the two films and, according to Carrie Fisher, De Palma interviewed the actors instead of Lucas.
It is frequently rumored that De Palma would have cast Fisher in the title role for 'Carrie'. However, she refused to do the required nude scenes. Fisher denied this in a review with Premiere magazine.
Many young actresses auditioned for the lead role of Carrie, including Melanie Griffith. Sissy Spacek was persuaded by husband, American production designer and director Bob Fisk, to audition for the role.
Fisk then convinced De Palma to let her audition, and she read for all of the parts. De Palma's first choice for the role of Carrie was Betsy Slade, who received good notices for her role in the 1974 American drama film 'Our Time'.
Determined to land the leading role, Spacek backed out of a television commercial she was scheduled to film, rubbed Vaseline® into her hair, left her face unwashed, and arrived for her screen test clad in a sailor dress which her mother had made her in the seventh grade, with the hem cut off, and was given the part.
Nancy Allen was the last to audition, and her audition came just as she was on the verge of leaving Hollywood. She and De Palma later married in 1979, but they divorced in 1984. This was four years after she had co-starred in 'Dressed to Kill'.
Upon release,'Carrie' had a significant influence on popular culture. The film became a critical and commercial success, grossing over $33.8 million against its $1.8 million budget.
The film is widely cited by critics and audience members alike as the best adaptation of the novel amongst the numerous films and television shows based on the characters.
King was twenty-six years old at the time and was paid just $2,500 for the film rights, but later added that he was fortunate to have this happen to his first book.
The following year, De Palma's 'Carrie' received two nominations for Best Actress (Sissy Spacek) and Best Supporting Actress (Piper Laurie). However, it did not win. This occurred at the 49th Academy Awards in late March 1977.
'Carrie' also co-starred Amy Irving, Nancy Allen, P. J. Soles, Betty Buckley, and John Travolta in supporting roles. The film is the first feature in the Carrie franchise.
Other entries include 'The Rage: Carrie 2' (1999), 'Carrie' (2002), and 'Carrie (2013), starring Chloë Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore. In the 1999 entry, Amy Irving was the only returning character from the original film..
The main plot from Hitchcock's 1954 American Technicolor mystery/thriller film 'Rear Window' was used for De Palma's 1984 American neo-noir mystery/crime erotic thriller film 'Body Double'.
The film also used elements of Hitchcock's 'Vertigo'. 'Vertigo' was also the basis for De Palma's 1976 American psychological thriller/drama mystery film 'Obsession'.
De Palma's 1980 American neo-noir slasher thriller/mystery film 'Dressed to Kill' was a note-for-note homage to Hitchcock's 1960 American black and white psychological mystery/slasher horror film 'Psycho'.
This also included such moments as the surprise death of the lead actress (Angie Dickinson) and the exposition scene by the psychiatrist (Michael Caine) at the end.
'Carrie' has significantly influenced popular culture, with several publications regarding it as one of the greatest horror films ever made.
The film's prom scene has had a major influence on popular culture and was ranked eighth on Bravo's 2004 program The 100 Scariest Movie Moments.
In 2008, 'Carrie' was ranked 86th on Empire's list of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time. It was ranked 15th on Entertainment's Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies, and 46th on the American Film Institute's list AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills.
Three years after 'Dressed to Kill', De Palma directed the second film of which he is vest known. This was the 1983 American crime/thriller drama film 'Scarface'.
Sidney Lumet ('12 Angry Men', 'Serpico', 'Dog Day Afternoon', Network') was initially hired to direct the film but was replaced by de Palma, who hired Oliver Stone ('Salvador', 'Platoon', 'Wall Street', 'JFK', 'Natural Born Killers') to write the script.
De Palma has an uncredited part in the film as Man Reflected in a Mirror in Babylon Club.
With a runtime of almost three hours and on a budget of $23.5–37 million, 'Scarface' only earned back a mere $66 million at the box office.
Upon its release, critics have reappraised 'Scarface', and it is now considered by some to be one of the best films in the crime genre.
In the years that followed 'Scarface' was considered to be one of the greatest remakes ever made. This was fifty-one years after Howard Hawks' 1932 American pre-Code black and white gangster crime/drama film 'Scarface: The Shame of a Nation'.
Screenwriters and directors such as Martin Scorsese have praised 'Scarface', and it has been referenced extensively in pop culture.
This had been especially noticeable in hip hop music as well as comic books, television programs, and video games, although over the years, 'Scarface' has been regarded as a cult classic.
Four years later, De Palma directed his third and final film of which he is best known. This was the 1987 American crime/thriller film 'The Untouchables'.
The film is loosely based on American Prohibition agent Eliot Ness and American sports writer and author Oscar Fraley's 1957 autobiographical memoir of the same name.
This also includes the American black and white crime drama television series The Untouchables (1959–1963) and the real-life events it was based on. However, most of its plot is fictionalized.
On June 28, 1997, "The Rusty Heller Story" (S02E10) ranked it at #99 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All-Time list. Starring Elizabeth Montgomery, the episode had aired on October 13, 1960.
The following year after the release of 'The Untouchables', the film was nominated for four Oscars but won one award.
This was for Best Supporting Actor (Sean Connery). This occurred at the 60th Academy Awards in mid-April 1988. On a budget of $2f million, 'The Untouchables' had grossed $106.2 million dollars.
Among his other credits, De Palma is also known for directing 'Sisters' (1972), 'Phantom of the Paradise' (1974), 'Casualties of War' (1989), 'Carlito's Way' (1993), 'Mission: Impossible' (1996), and 'Femme Fatale' (2002).
De Palma is often cited as a leading member of the New Hollywood generation of film directors. His directing style often makes use of quotations from other films or cinematic styles, and bears the influence of filmmakers such as not only Hitchcock but Godard as well.
The films of De Palma have been criticized for their violence and sexual content but have also been championed by prominent critics such as Roger Ebert and American film critic Pauline Kael.
According to De Palma's trademarks and styles, the themes of his features can fall into two categories: his psychological thrillers and his mainly commercial films.
He has often produced "De Palma" films one after the other before going on to direct a different genre, but would always return to his familiar territory.
Because of the subject matter and graphic violence of some of his films, they are often at the center of controversy with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), film critics and the viewing public.
De Palma is known for quoting and referencing other directors' work throughout his career.
These included Michelangelo Antonioni's British/Italian Metrocolor drama/mystery thriller film 'Blow-Up' and Francis Ford Coppola's 1974 American neo-noir drama/mystery thriller film 'The Conversation'.
The shoot out in the train station during the finale of 'The Untouchables' is a clear borrow from the Odessa Steps sequence in Sergei M. Eisenstein's 1925 Soviet silent black and white drama/history film 'Bronenosets Potemkin' ('Battleship Potemkin').
According to De Palma's camera shots, film critics have often noted his penchant for unusual angles and compositions throughout his career. He regularly frames characters against the background using a canted angle shot.
Split-screen techniques have been used to show two separate events happening simultaneously. To emphasize the dramatic impact of a certain scene, De Palma has employed a 360-degree camera pan.
Slow sweeping, panning and tracking shots are often used throughout his films, often through precisely-choreographed long takes lasting for minutes without cutting.
Split focus shots, often referred to as "di-opt", are used by De Palma to emphasize the foreground person/object while simultaneously keeping a background person/object in focus. Slow-motion is frequently used in his films to increase suspense.
De Palma has been active from 1960–present.
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