Line #6 Creator/BrianDePalma


1	[[quoteright:305:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/brian_de_palma.jpg]]
2
3	->''"The camera lies all the time; lies twenty-four times a second."''
4
5	Brian Russell De Palma (born September 11, 1940 in Newark, New Jersey) is an American film director and screenwriter of Italian descent.
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7	De Palma attended Columbia University in New York City, and made his first film, ''Icarus'', as a student there. After graduating in 1962, he spent some time at Sarah Lawrence College on a writing fellowship. In the mid-1960s De Palma began working on his feature-length debut with ''Film/TheWeddingParty'', released in 1969 and featured an up-and-coming actor named Creator/RobertDeNiro. De Palma’s career began to take off in the '70s with the horror film ''Film/{{Carrie\|1976}}'', based on a Creator/StephenKing novel. Often compared with legendary director Creator/AlfredHitchcock, De Palma has helmed numerous thrillers, such as ''Film/DressedToKill'' (1980), ''Film/BlowOut'' (1981), and ''Film/BodyDouble'' (1984). He also helped create one of Creator/AlPacino's most iconic roles: as Tony Montana, a Cuban refugee who climbs the criminal ladder to become a Miami drug kingpin in ''Film/{{Scarface\|1983}}'' (1983). In 1987, De Palma directed ''Film/{{The Untouchables\|1987}}'', based on the [[Series/TheUntouchables TV series]] about real-life federal agent Eliot Ness and his war against the Chicago bootlegging empire of UsefulNotes/AlCapone.
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9	More than the other UsefulNotes/NewHollywood directors, De Palma embraced the technical side of filmmaking, excelling at sophisticated camera moves (like the OrbitalShot) and editing techniques (like SplitScreen). It's not every director who cares enough about how his film is screened, and ''knows'' enough about how film projection works, to [[https://www.in70mm.com/news/2015/letters/pdf/the_untouchables.pdf send out a memo to theater managers with hints on how to best resolve screening difficulties]]. Also, many of his films have moments of intense self-reflectiveness about cinema: ''Film/BlowOut'', for example, has a sound editor (whose equipment assists his amateur investigation) as a protagonist; ''Film/BodyDouble'' has an actor (and a major plot point involving [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin body doubles]]); the beginning of ''Film/{{Femme Fatale\|2002}}'' takes place at Cannes; and ''Film/TheBlackDahlia'' has Hollywood culture in the 1940s as an important plot point.
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11	He's a BIG fan of Creator/AlfredHitchcock -- ''and it shows''! Many of his films have obvious allusions to Hitchcock's work, and a few are even considered loose remakes of Hitchcock films. This makes him controversial among cinephiles. He's either considered to be the person who carried on the Hitchcock legacy, or an untalented pretender [[FollowTheLeader prone to ripping him off]].
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13	He's also well known for having heavy doses of {{Fanservice}} in his films -- [[InterplayOfSexAndViolence often linked in some way with violence against women]], occasionally drawing some controversy for this. His response: "I'm always attacked for having an erotic, sexist approach -- chopping up women, putting women in peril. I'm making suspense movies! What else is going to happen to them?"
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15	He also had a small but important impact on ''Film/ANewHope''; he held joint auditions with his buddy Creator/GeorgeLucas for it and ''Film/{{Carrie\|1976}}'', because of the similar actor types needed for Carrie White/Princess Leia and Tommy Ross/Luke Skywalker. Then, when Lucas showed him the draft for his film's opening crawl, De Palma found it too long and too "gibberish". De Palma rewrote and edited down the crawl to the now-famous text audiences know and love that established ''Franchise/StarWars''.
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17	!!Films directed by Brian De Palma include:
18	[[index]]
19	* ''Film/MurderALaMod'' (1968): Little-known early film, finally re-released on Creator/TheCriterionCollection UsefulNotes/BluRay of ''Film/BlowOut''.
20	* ''Film/{{Greetings}}'' (1968): "Underground" indie known for featuring Creator/RobertDeNiro in his first major role and for being the first film ''ever'' to get an "X" rating (the MPAA later changed its mind, and rated it "R").
21	* ''Film/TheWeddingParty'' (1969)
22	* ''[[Film/HiMom1970 Hi, Mom!]]'' (1970): Semi-sequel to ''Greetings'', once again with De Niro. Features a long {{Mockumentary}} sequence about an avant-garde theatrical production called ''Be Black, Baby'' which has become famous in own right.
23	* ''Film/{{Dionysus}}'' (1970)
24	* ''Film/GetToKnowYourRabbit'' (1972)
25	* ''Film/{{Sisters\|1973}}'' (1973)
26	* ''Film/PhantomOfTheParadise'' (1974)
27	* ''Film/{{Obsession\|1976}}'' (1976)
28	* ''Film/{{Carrie\|1976}}'' (1976)
29	* ''Film/TheFury'' (1978)
30	* ''Film/HomeMovies'' (1980)
31	* ''Film/DressedToKill'' (1980)
32	* ''Film/BlowOut'' (1981)
33	* ''Film/{{Scarface\|1983}}'' (1983): Remake of the [[Film/Scarface1932 1932 film of the same name]].
34	* ''Film/BodyDouble'' (1984)
35	* ''Film/WiseGuys'' (1986)
36	* ''Film/{{The Untouchables\|1987}}'' (1987)
37	* ''Film/CasualtiesOfWar'' (1989)
38	* ''Literature/TheBonfireOfTheVanities'' (1990)
39	* ''Film/RaisingCain'' (1992)
40	* ''Film/CarlitosWay'' (1993)
41	* ''[[Film/MissionImpossible1996 Mission: Impossible]]'' (1996)
42	* ''Film/SnakeEyes'' (1998)
43	* ''FIlm/MissionToMars'' (2000)
44	* ''Film/{{Femme Fatale\|2002}}'' (2002)
45	* ''Film/TheBlackDahlia'' (2006)
46	* ''Film/{{Redacted}}'' (2007)
47	* ''Film/{{Passion}}'' (2012)
48	* ''Film/{{Domino\|2019}}'' (2019)
49	[[/index]]
50	----
51
52	!!Tropes Pertaining to Brian De Palma's films:
53	* AuteurLicense: Even in his more commercial films, De Palma retains a lot of creative control, retaining his particular style in all of his works.
54	* AuthorAppeal: His most consistent genres include murder mysteries, psychological thrillers, and crime films.
55	** Filmmaking is also integral to the plot of Film/BlowOut, and, being a filmmaker, makes this another example of this trope.
56	* BlackComedy: ''Very'' black.
57	* ColorMotifs: He really likes to use neon colors, particularly [[RedFilterOfDoom red]] and [[UnnaturallyBlueLighting blue]].
58	* RecurringElement: De Palma has been noted for his voyeuristic style, which he achieves through a particular assortment of filmmaking techniques and visual cues in his movies. All such techniques play a role in conveying information to the audience, enhancing the atmosphere, and building up tension. They include:
59	** AnInsert (Especially HandOfDeath)
60	** ColorWash
61	** DutchAngle
62	** ExtremeCloseUp
63	** TheOner
64	** OrbitalShot
65	** {{Overcrank}}
66	** SplitScreen
67	** TrackingShot
68	* InterplayOfSexAndViolence: His movies are both very erotic and very violent.
69	* ProductionPosse: Actors like Creator/RobertDeNiro, Creator/NancyAllen, Creator/AmyIrving, Creator/DennisFranz, Creator/JohnLithgow, Creator/GerritGraham, Creator/CharlesDurning, William Finley, Al Israel, Jennifer Salt, Gregg Henry, Creator/StevenBauer crop up a lot in his work. Behind-the-camera; his go-to cinematographers were Vilmos Zsigmond and Stephen H. Burum, Jerry Greenberg & Paul Hirsch & Bill Pankow as editors, and Music/EnnioMorricone, Pino Donaggio, and Music/RyuichiSakamoto as musical composers.
70	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: Very firmly on the cynical side of things.
71	* ShoutOut: Frequently references other filmmakers, particularly Creator/AlfredHitchcock, by recreating scenes and shots, or by reusing another movie's premise. It's so frequent that he is often accused of plagiarism.

Context Creator / BrianDePalma