Tony's Corner: A Fan's Notes
The Book (s) on Brian De Palma
"Well you know what Faulkner said, when asked what three novels he recommended:
'Anna Karenina, Anna Karenina, Anna Karenina.' If he were alive and reading, I'm sure he'd
be saying, 'The Real McCoy and the Forgotten Lamb, The Real McCoy and the Forgotten Lamb,
The Real McCoy and the Forgotten Lamb'!"
- P.R. Woman to Peter Fallow, in Brian De Palma's
THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES.
I love bookstores. All of them. Everything from those little, musty, out of the way, used
bookshops, that just might contain God only knows what hidden treasures, to even those
much-maligned superstores such as Borders, or Barnes and Noble. I can get lost in these
places for hours, just browsing and reading, while slurping at my usual vente cappuccino
with three shots of espresso. Invariably, my first stop is to the magazine rack, to check
out the latest movie-related periodicals, and then it's off to the Film/TV section, or
whatever it's called, where, as you might imagine, the bulk of my time is spent. Now, I'm
a lover of great literature, and reading a novel like ANNA KARENINA, is to me, still one
of life's great pleasures, but nothing warms the cockles of my heart more, than spotting
the latest edition of the TIME OUT Film Guide! My lucky #7, featuring the alluring face of
Lauren Bacall on the cover, currently at rest on my bedside table, is already torn and
frayed from almost daily use and abuse! This thick British tome, is easily the most
distinguished among the annual movie guides, and is also my personal fave. The capsule
reviews are everything Leonard Maltin's are not, well written, passionate, edgy, and both
genuinely thought-provoking, and challenging to the reader. These adjectives also
accurately describe David Thomson's Biographical Dictionary of Film, a really great,
completely idiosyncratic, and truly insightful book, though I don't always agree with him,
and though his take on De Palma is distressingly over simplified and dismissive, for the
most part, Thomson, like Pauline Kael, gives you the impression that he is every bit as
movie-mad as you are, and that that's alright. All of which is, a rather longwinded, and
roundabout way of introducing this week's main topic: The Book(s) on Brian De Palma.
The literature focusing on De Palma and his work is, while not exactly scant, hardly in
abundance either. In terms of both quantity and quality, and in comparison to the work
devoted to other filmmakers, there is plenty of room for improvement. To keep this at a
reasonable length, I'm restricting myself to a broad overview of the few De Palma books
that are available, to anyone willing to search them out. Most of these books, date back
to an earlier time in De Palma's career, when he was much more of a critical darling than
he is today. They do vary in quality, but for the most part, each is an important tool for
use towards an overall understanding of De Palma's methods, techniques, influences, and
his overall critical standing. Michael Bliss' imaginatively titled BRIAN DE PALMA, was
perhaps the first book-length study, and while it has dated somewhat, it's still very
useful as an introduction into De Palma's work. The chapter by chapter overviews of each
film, though marred by errors, are lucid and entertaining. By far the best, and
easily the most important part of the book, is the extensive interview with De Palma that
concludes it. Laurent Bouzereau's THE DE PALMA CUT, is very similarly structured, taking
one film at a time, and offering a brief account of the background, production, and
cinematic style of each, as well as their critical and commercial reception. It's also
(strangely) similarly rife with factual errors. On the plus side, it does offer several
meaningful and concise chapters on such perennial De Palma themes as voyeurism, doubles,
guilt, and aberrant sexuality. As with the Bliss book, THE DE PALMA CUT contains an
informative (though far shorter) interview with it's subject, conducted during a 1986
press junket for WISE GUYS.
There are sections devoted to De Palma in several other books, most notably, Joseph
Gelmis' THE FILM DIRECTOR AS SUPERSTAR, Michael Pye and Lynda Miles' THE MOVIE
BRATS, as well as in several other anthologies that focus on American directors. Two books
that focus on the actual making of De Palma films, round out the list. Susan Dworkin,
who'd written similar books on other films in the making, prior to her DOUBLE DE PALMA,
which as you might suspect, is an indepth study of the filming of BODY DOUBLE.
Unfortunately, Dworkin deploys a tabloid-like, gossipy style that contrasts starkly with
her intricately detailed account of every aspect of the film's production. Still in all,
this is an invaluable reference point, for those interested in getting a close up view of
De Palma at work. Which leads me, quite naturally, to Julie Salamon's THE DEVIL'S CANDY.
This painstakingly detailed account of the nearly two year struggle to bring Tom Wolfe's
THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES to the screen, is not only the best De Palma related book out
there, it's one of the best movie books ever, period. Salamon, a film critic at the Wall
Street Journal, was also a friend of De Palma's, his decision to allow her complete and
unfettered access to his film, from start to finish, would result in a warts and all study
of the making of one of the all time biggest follies in Hollywood history. De Palma's
well-intentioned miscalculation of Wolfe's book, and the compromises and corporate
gamesmanship that contributed to it's resounding failure, are all here. As are a by now
famous set of behind the scenes characters, some of whom continue to work with De Palma to
this day. Salamon is unflinching, but always fair. Her project, was to present as accurate
a portrait as possible, of how such a massive undertaking, a $45,000,000 production of a
best-selling novel, gets made in the Hollywood of the 1990's, and in this, she succeeded
magnificently.
Her book was published in 1991, and in the intervening decade, the well has virtually run
dry. No new studies of De Palma's work, to my knowledge, have appeared in print since
then. All of the books I've mentioned, are indeed now out of print, and not very easy to
find, although the advent of the internet, and sites like Amazon.com, has definitely
helped in that regard. It still stands, that in an era which has seen several
exhaustive, critical and personal biographies of a markedly inferior, albeit more
publicized, filmmaker such as Oliver Stone, no corresponding study of De Palma exists.
There is the great hope, that French film critic Laurent Vachaud's upcoming book of
De Palma interviews, will be the definitive statement we've all hungered for, but even
then, we'll have to pray that an American publisher is willing to pick up the rights, and
have it translated. I should also make mention, of a recently published, 100 page or so,
monograph from Great Britain, part of a series, called THE ESSENTIAL BRIAN DE PALMA, by
John Ashbrook. Having noted that, is it really possible that no serious American film
scholar working today deems De Palma a worthy enough subject of a full-scale critical
biography? I find that very hard to believe, and hopefully something will emerge on the
literary horizon before too long, to prove me right. Until then, we have the films of
course, study guides in and of themselves, and the internet, where we are all, consciously
or not, contributing to the largest ongoing collective study of the works of Brian De
Palma.
Just as a footnote, given the amount of space it would've taken, I chose not to
include detailed bibliographic information (i.e. publishers, dates, etc.) regarding any of
the above mentioned books. If anyone is interested in this material, please click on the
icon below, leave me your e-mail address, and I'll forward the information to you.
T o n y
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