Release Date: September 9th, 2015 (Venice Film Festival)
Directed by: Noah Baumbach, Jake Paltrow
Cast: Brian De Palma

Empire Ward Pictures, A24, 110 Minutes

Review:

I watched three of Brian De Palma’s neo-noir thrillers two months back when I was celebrating the month of Noirvember. It was the first time that I had seen Dressed to Kill, Blow Out and Body Double and all three of them instantly became favorites of mine but in different ways. But they also inspired me to give this documentary about the man’s work a watch. And since this had been in my queue for a few years, I felt it was long overdue.

Sometimes documentaries about director’s careers can be bogged down by talking head interviews and choppily edited insight that the documentary director is using to make their point. However, this one just features Brian De Palma talking about his films and because of that, this was a spectacular filmmaking documentary.

To start, I like the vast majority of the man’s films, especially his work in the ’70s and ’80s. And what’s really awesome is that he spends a good amount of time talking about each film in his oeuvre: going through the behind the scenes details, the casting, the story ideas and the inspiration behind his work.

De Palma is a charismatic and interesting guy and having just him in this was a treat. Sure, I’d like to hear from some of the actors he worked with, as well as his peers, but I’m sure there will eventually be another De Palma documentary that allows others to discuss the man and his stellar work.

As far as I know, this is the only real comprehensive piece about De Palma’s whole career but this is a damn fine film that accomplishes what it set out to do, as it shined a light on some of the greatest motion pictures of all-time.

Rating: 9/10
Pairs well with: other documentaries about other iconic filmmakers’ total bodies of work: Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick: A Life In Pictures and Magician: The Astonishing Life & Work of Orson Welles.