7.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A biographical feature celebrating the entirety of film director Brian De Palma's filmography.
Starring: Brian De PalmaDocumentary | Insignificant |
Biography | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
UV digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
It probably won’t come as any huge surprise to either fans or detractors of Brian De Palma that De Palma begins not with a clip from one of the director’s own films, but with that iconic opening sequence from Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, with Jimmy Stewart clinging precariously to a rooftop rain gutter while a policeman tragically falls to his death. Anyone who has paid even cursory attention to De Palma’s career probably knows the undeniable imprint Hitchcock’s own films have left on De Palma, something that this documentary celebrates in its own way. De Palma makes no bones about the influence Hitchcock has had on him, relaying the story of how he saw Vertigo as a kid when it played at Radio City Music Hall, and how his life was forever changed by the experience. Some quick intercutting shows the fruits of that influence, including some now fairly famous “references” to Hitchcock’s oeuvre that are sprinkled throughout De Palma’s own filmography. De Palma is an ingratiating if not especially deep look at the surprisingly varied work of one of the perhaps underappreciated founders of what was once called “New Hollywood.” In fact one of the most interesting sidebars in De Palma is its recounting of De Palma’s earliest efforts, quasi-student films that offered some of the first screen credits to then unknowns like Robert De Niro and Jill Clayburgh. While Martin Scorsese, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg (as well as Francis Ford Coppola) have for whatever reason taken the lion’s share of attention given to this club of (then) youngsters who more or less marauded into the waning studio system to establish themselves as the new big men on campus, De Palma was there all along, and could even be seen as blazing the trail for the others (with the possible exception of Coppola). De Palma takes a more or less chronological tour through the director’s vast array of credits, with interstitial comments by De Palma himself.
De Palma is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer (largely) in 1.85:1. The IMDb lists the Canon EOS Mark II as the camera of record, which I assume means for the contemporary interview segments with De Palma, since the rest of this documentary is comprised of film clips. Many of the clips look at least decent, though it does appear that some at least were not sourced from high definition material, and older clips in fact look like they were sourced from old videotape. There are occasional compression issues on some of these clips which may be "baked in" or are otherwise ported over from the source (see screenshot 6). With that understandable variability taken into account, the overall look of this piece is solid if never really at "wow" levels. It appears that De Palma's entire interview was shot at one time (as evidenced by his clothes and the setting), and the palette, while subdued, looks natural, with very good detail levels.
De Palma's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is probably a bit of overkill, achieving intermittent and sporadic surround activity courtesy of some of the film clips' soundtracks, as well as one sequence devoted to Bernard Herrmann's music. Otherwise, this is simply De Palma speaking, and as such there's not much opportunity for overwhelming immersion. De Palma's reminiscences are all rendered very cleanly, with no problems whatsoever.
The only so-called "Extras" on this disc consist of trailers (not even for De Palma films!) and bookmarks, neither of which I consider a "scorable" supplement.
Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow might not seem like likely suspects to craft such a genial documentary about a sometimes divisive figure in modern cinema, but their own love for filmmaking and obvious respect for De Palma help them to deliver an interesting, if sometimes too generalist, overview of De Palma's work. De Palma himself makes for an ingratiating tour guide as he looks back over the triumphs and tragedies of his now long career. Recommended.
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