Brian DePalma has an interesting career, launching De Nero with two of his early works, sharing his casting of Carrie with George Lucas doing Star Wars, and mixing powerful personal projects like this film with major Hollywood money earning blockbusters like Mission: Impossible.
Written and directed by DePalma and released almost three years ago, this is one of DePalma’s most interesting Hitchcockian films, drawing on a range of the techniques that he has been using as far back as 1973’s Sisters, and notably in 1980’s Dressed To Kill. The beauty of this is that the film almost demands to be deconstructed in any film students essay.
Dividing the film up into three acts, the first including a 25 minute, beautifully stylised robbery to the tune of Bolero, absolutely littered with references to ways of looking. The second act is more dreamlike, making a game out of visual references to the first act. Wrapping up the film is the final act where our bad girl (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Mystique from the X-Men films) gets to make a choice that decides her fate.
This is a carefully detailed film, that even having seen it of DVD revealed so much more on the big screen.
Lady Beware – Focus on Female Gothic
This season of films runs at ACMI from Tuesday 14th April to Monday 25th April 2005