drnix
New Member
Posts: 18
|
Post by drnix on Jun 12, 2013 6:03:18 GMT -5
Hi - My first De Palma film was The Untouchables which I bought on VHS back in my teens. I was frankly blown away at how visually stylish it was and the Station/Pram set-piece telling the story visually without dialogue was breathtaking compared to other blockbusters of its day. Since then I've been raiding De Palma's back catalogue and catching his films when I can at the cinema & dvd. I'm very much looking forward to seeing Passion, which I am hoping will be out soon in the UK. I've seen most of De Palma's films except for some of his earlier independently made ones (Murder a la Mod, the Wedding Party, Home Movies & Get to Know Your Rabbit) but it's De Palma's tricksy thrillers and epic crime drama's that I find most interesting.
|
|
drnix
New Member
Posts: 18
|
Post by drnix on Jun 12, 2013 3:14:21 GMT -5
Firstly, loving this forum and the De Palma A La Mod site in general.
Here's my belated list -
1) Carlitos Way 2) Blow Out 3) Femme Fatale 4) The Black Dahlia 5) Dressed to Kill 6) Body Double 7) The Untouchables 8) Carrie 9) Snake Eyes 10) Raising Cain 11) Scarface 12) The Fury 13) Mission To Mars 14) Sisters 15) Mission Impossible
Probably contrary to a lot of people's opinions I have a lot of love for Black Dahlia & Mission to Mars (both hugely underrated and warrant repeated viewings)
|
|
drnix
New Member
Posts: 18
|
Post by drnix on Jun 12, 2013 3:01:32 GMT -5
Hi - I'm new to this forum but I'm a big fan of De Palma's work over the years. I've tried to work out why I like his films so much and I think it's because he is an true auteur who keeps revisiting the same themes over and over again. I've tried to capture De Palma's most common themes & obsessions succinctly below... interested to know if anyone thinks I have missed anything...?
De Palma’s Most Common Themes & Visual Styles:
Pure Cinema - Visual Grammar/Visual Stylist Voyeurism & Film Technology - “Enamoured with the ‘flickers” / Film within Film / Cameras/Telescopes/Binoculars as plot devices Obsessions/Guilt/ Helplessness Film Noir Trappings Femme Fatales Imperfect Flawed/ Morally ambiguous Heroes/Antiheroes A love lost/A chance of Redemption/ Sentimentality/ Romantic Cinema Dreams/Blurred Reality/ Dreams within Dreams Operatic Balletic Violence / Bravura Style / Elegance Hyperbole Melodramatic Heightened Performances (deliberate exaggerations to create emphasis or effect) Overt Artificiality /Deliberate Tonal Shifts & Implausible Coincidences High Camp/ Kitsch/ Grand Guignol Suspenseful Psychological Sleazy Sexuality Fragmented/Multiple Personalities/Mirrors/ Doppelgangers/ glimpsing oneself in peripheral vision Darkly humorous/ Playful/ Cunning/ Deception -the camera lies, don’t believe everything you see Symbolic use of colours – Red, White, Black Regular use of film references/homages – Hitchcock (various)/Kubrick/Coppola/Antonioni/Eisenstein…& De Palma’s own back catalogue! Split-screens/Slow Motion/ Long single-tracking shots/ Canted Angle Shots/Split Focus Shots (Di-Opts), Gliding, swirling camera 360-degree pans/Soft Focus (dreamy)/P.O.V.
|
|