Passion

Being a DePalma fan must make one a bit of a masochist. I await each new film with so much anticipation and always become bereft and defensive when the inevitable critical pounding ensues. I simply need to accept that DePalma will likely never make a film embraced by all and should rather embrace the fact that he's still making films and also unapologetic about his style. Passion sounds like a film for his fans and therefore I could not be more excited. Still, it's not easy seeing some of the hate out there. I'm just glad to see that after some initial knocks, other more positive reviews and comments have emerged.

Also, all the films you mentioned did indeed have a mix of accolades and detractors, except for Carlito's Way. That film was either met with positive or mixed reviews. It never drew the sharp distinctions of some of his other films.

From Cinephiliacs via De Palma A la mod: " PASSION IS A FILM ABOUT WOMEN MANIPULATING EACH OTHER VIA DIGITAL IMAGES. "

This is exactly what I needed to hear in order to firmly place this film within the realm of De Palma's exploration of the politics of the visual image: one of De Palmas life-long projects has been to critique the skepticism of and suspiciousness of the images as less real than "real" things. There's a fascinating discussion of this in Becoming Visionary.

Wow I've just seen Passion and I was blown away. Here's my brief review of the film with a couple of mild spoilers...

This is an exquisite film. Passion is playful pure cinema, full of De Palma's common themes and visual styles (voyeurism, technology, obsession, manipulation, deception, guilt, beautiful femme fatales, heightened performances, overt artificiality, deliberate tonal shifts & stylistic flourishes). Whilst the first half of the film plays as a seemingly straightforward corporate drama, replete with corporate backstabbing (and a brilliant, but frankly bonkers Pino Donaggio softcore score). All is not as it seems however, and the second half of the film takes on a completely different direction and moves into the realms of dreams within dreams and German expressionism with a trademark and quite wonderful split screen section involving Mallarmé's/Dubussy's 'Afternoon of the Faun' ballet linking the poem/ballet to a key character and murder of another. There are images and adverts of the ballet shown prior to this, and the story behind Mallarmé's poem (the awakening of a faun and the faun’s encounters with several nymphs in a dreamlike oration) is central to both to the plot of the story & the character & motivations & transformation of Isabella. (Donaggio’s score too transforms to riff’s on Bernard Hermann’s dramatic strings).

Like so many De Palma films, this gets even better with multiple viewings as you realise and understand more what about what you have and haven’t seen, what is and isn't real, & what is a dream or a re-awakening.

Hi Christian, I'm glad you enjoyed Passion too. I've seen it three times now and it is amazing how many things and little tricks that you miss on first or second viewing. I only figured out on later viewings what was a dream and what wasn't (at least I think!) and that's all part of the fun. By "overt artificially" I meant that De Palma rarely makes any attempt to make his films seems "real." By this I mean that you always know you are watching a movie as this is De Palma`s style, he is obsessed with the images of film. By "heightened performances", I meant that De Palma always has an air for the theatrical, his films are high drama. You picked a perfect example with the "how about you call me....never" quote, and, another example I felt was when Isabelle was humiliated at the works party when Christine replayed her car accident accident and Isabelle breaks down hysterically. To me this almost verges on camp. I meant neither as a criticism, it is what I like about De Palma and along with his visual style is what sets him apart from other directors and what makes the film memorable. You always know when you are watching a De Palma film. I agree too that the ending was quite wonderful and was a great way to wrap up the film.
Best regards
Trevor

It's interesting that you mention James Cagney, as I believe heightened theatrical performances are definitely a feature of noir of which Passion is definitely noir-ish. This is also particularly true of De Palma`s the Black Dahlia and the performances of Hilary Swank, and in particular Fiona Shaw as Ramona Linscott. Many critics hated her performance for being over the top, but to me it is darkly humerous and perfectly apt. Her final scene even takes place in front of what looks like a stage curtain and De Palma is playing games with convention.

Going back to Passion one other thing that that later struck me is the minimalist clean style and approach that De Palma uses uses in this film. I don't recall seeing that so much as a feature in his other works.

I kinda see (or maybe not) the 'minimalist clean style' you ascribe to some or many scenes. Could you point one out in particular to see if we're on the same page?
Thanks!