Directed by: Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow

One of the most talented, influential, and iconoclastic filmmakers of all time, Brian De Palma’s career started in the 60s and has included such acclaimed and diverse films as Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Blow Out, Scarface, The Untouchables, Carlito’s Way, and Mission: Impossible. In this lively, illuminating and unexpectedly moving documentary, directors Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow engage in a personal and candid discussion with De Palma, exploring not only his life and work but also his singular approach to the craft of filmmaking and his remarkable experiences navigating the film business, from his early days as the bad boy of New Hollywood to his more recent years as a respected veteran of the field. In the end, what emerges is a funny, honest, and incisive portrait of a truly one-of-a-kind artist, and an exhilarating behind-the-scenes look at the last 50 years of the film industry through the eyes of someone who has truly seen it all.

I saw DE PALMA today. I liked it a great deal. I’ve always run hot and cold on his work, usually more cold than hot. But even when I didn’t like the films, I admired the filmmaking. He’s always had a great love for creating shots, lining up the camera, putting something interesting on screen, composing, staging, etc., something I don’t see much in the CGI era outside of Tarantino and a few foreign filmmakers. And he even addresses this when he decries “previsualization.” I enjoyed listening to him talk about his films and seeing clips of his films and those that influenced him, including, but not limited to, Hitchcock. He’s an interesting guy and I liked him. The film moves at a fast clip, with little in the way of transition from one film to the next. There was less time devoted to some of the films I particularly like (e.g. SISTERS and THE FURY), while more time went to such later films as CARLITO’S WAY and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE. I’m not asking for less time for the later films, just more time to the earlier ones. Perhaps a DVD release could include more of the interview footage. I can understand now why he didn’t participate in HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAUT, a film that suffers a bit from his absence, although I’d sure like to hear from him why he chose not to participate. I wonder how film students would react to this. It certainly evokes a certain era in film in a way that’s unique to this film. One commenter on IMDB complains that he uses nicknames and first names for a lot of famous people from that era that no one knows anymore, e.g. “Benny” for Bernard Herrmann. Certainly, the filmmakers could have made a more diligent effort to cut to photos of those people and add their names, something that’s done a few times but not consistently. I’m guessing that film students who haven’t seen the films would want to seek them out, at least in some of the cases. And certainly seeing the young Robert De Niro would be quite a revelation to them.