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Visual storytelling
Brian De Palma is easily my favourite of the so-called Hollywood Brats. De Palma's obvious intellectualization of film is admirable for at least two reasons: he focuses on what visual storytelling actually amounts to and he demands of his audience attention to detail that is equal, at least, to his. ¶ For some, Brian De Palma is the guy behind Scarface and Carlito's Way. To others, he is a Hitchcock hack. To still others, De Palma represents a definite and dying kind of filmmaking in Hollywood. ¶ De Palma is an intellectual filmmaker. This is why many confuse his supposed coldness with craftsmanship; they also miss the inherent warmth in craft (craft used to mean what we now mean by art: techne). The received opinion of De Palma is that he is a technically brilliant director but is inconsistent when it comes to delivering the story. Of course this may be true, but I'm not knowledgeable enough about film to comment intelligently on it. What I am prepared to say is that even if certain De Palma scripts have been lacking, he makes up for this in the obvious and unusually high level of care he takes in putting his pictures together. De Palma has an analytical mind and creates art objects. Between this balance lies craftsmanship: the ultimate ideal. ¶ Of course this praise should be tempered, but in battling against a general movement towards literally unengaging film I feel it necessary to speak so broadly. ¶ It seems to me that some of his greatest "misses" have been films worth watching (Mission to Mars, Raising Cain, and Bonfire of the Vanities). Now go and see Obsession (It's hard to find but well worth it for John Lithgow's performance alone). |
