Tony's Corner: A Fan's Notes
"DE PALMA'S WOMEN"
As the cameras continue to roll in France on FEMME FATALE, the 26th feature film to be
directed by Brian De Palma, and the first with a woman as the principal protagonist in,
well, in WAY too long a time; and with retrospective screenings of his classic films
popping up all over the place, reminding us of just how strongly the female form, as well
as a legitimate female perspective, has figured in his work, now seems like a good time to
take a look back at the women who have graced De Palma's movies over the past thirty-some
odd years. So, without any delay, come along with me on a highly personal, somewhat
selective, and hopefully thought-provoking journey through more than thirty years of the
feminine side of the films of Brian De Palma.
In the beginning: Jill Clayburgh is winsomely lovely and utterly charming as Josephine
Fish, the tentative bride-to-be, in her (and De Palma's) motion picture debut in THE
WEDDING PARTY, a film that is probably the talkiest damned movie that this director of
some of the greatest extended sequences of silence has ever made. THE WEDDING PARTY
consists entirely of loosely strung together vignettes of conversation in which everyone
seems to be talking and nobody appears to be listening. The first voice we encounter is
the one belonging to Valda Setterfield as Mrs. Fish. Her sing-song histrionics dominate
the proceedings early on (and again towards the end of the film), and yet, she is a
striking woman, reed thin, with a refined elegance, she bears more than a passing
resemblance to so many of the society matrons that dot the classic screwball comedies of
the 1930's. From what I could gather Ms. Setterfield is/was a ballerina of some renown,
with a limited amount of film acting credits, including a role as a member of the Greek
chorus in Woody Allen's MIGHTY APHRODITE. In any event, for some reason, whenever I think
of THE WEDDING PARTY it is her character, and her haughty vocal intonations, that comes
foremost to mind.
Bettina Kugel, or as she's no doubt better known, Tina Hirsch, is today a first rate
editor of films such as GREMLINS and DANTE'S PEAK, as well as TV's THE WEST WING. She is
also the first female president of the American Cinema Editors union (ACE), and the
sister-in-law of longtime De Palma editor Paul Hirsch (her husband Charles, was the
producer of De Palma's two '60's underground comedies). To me however, she'll always be
the cute, sexy co-ed film student who, as an employee in a photography studio, appears
briefly in GREETINGS to break the news to Gerrit Graham that the purported Kennedy
assassination photo he's sure implicates someone or something on the legendary grassy
knoll, is just another dead end. "Look, I saw BLOW-UP," she tells him, "I
know how this turns out, you can't see anything..." This is quickly followed by a
wonderful scene in which Jonathan Worden enjoys a sexual romp with a beautiful strawberry
blonde, who trips him, as he walks by, as she pretends to leaf through a copy of
Hitchcock/Truffaut! They are priceless moments, two of many similar others to be found in
both GREETINGS and HI, MOM!. GREETINGS may in fact be De Palma's horniest movie, there is
plenty of nudity and tons of pretty girls on display throughout. A reminder that the film
was actually rated X upon it's initial release.
Things sober up a little in HI, MOM!, which is still a very funny movie, but one with far
more serious underpinnings than it's lighthearted predecessor's take on many of the same
subjects. Tina Hirsch returns, if only briefly, as an image on a poster advertising
"Be, Black Baby," while Jennifer Salt makes an impression as Judy Bishop, Robert
De Niro's eager to please "computer date." Salt's earthy vulnerability is very
appealing here, as it would be again in SISTERS. But SISTERS really belongs to another
actress, one who like Jill Clayburgh before her, and Nancy Allen afterwards, was
romantically involved with her director during their collaboration. Margot Kidder is De
Palma's first true leading lady. Sexy, vibrant, bristling with intelligence and latent
(and sometimes not so latent) carnality, Kidder carries SISTERS, from the classic opening
scene, as a participant in the TV game show "Peeping Toms," to her nightmarish
encounters with, well, with her self actually, as she acts out the "dual" roles
of Danielle Breton and her murderous alter-ego/twin sister Dominique. It is an enthralling
performance, and is by far the best work of her entire career.
Jessica Harper is positively radiant, an ethereal hippie beauty with the voice of an
angel, and conversely, an unpretentious, tough-talking chick as Phoenix, the woman of
Winslow Leach's (and thousands of mid-seventies high school boys') dreams. Include me in
that group. From the moment she grabbed the mic and sang "Special to Me," I was
hooked. I fell hopelessly in love with her then, and I still fall in love with her every
single time I watch PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE.
Speaking of dual roles, Genevieve Bujold's turn as Elizabeth Courtland/Sandra Portinari
lends a distinctive gravity and a classic elegance to OBSESSION, De Palma's dreamlike
meditation on that ultimate film of romantic obsession, VERTIGO. Bujold is even convincing
as a small child in the film's climactic flashback sequence. OBSESSION is a deliriously
executed exercise in style, a key film in De Palma's rapidly developing career, and one
that I'm sure will finally get the recognition it deserves in the wake of it's upcoming
release on DVD.
CARRIE is a film that is positively overflowing (I know, sorry) with great female
performances. From the stunning, panic-inducing work of the Oscar-nominated leads, Piper
Laurie and Sissy Spacek, as mother and daughter, respectively, to the surrounding
supporting cast that includes Betty Buckley as a profane and well-intentioned gym teacher,
an angelically ringleted Amy Irving as the ambiguously well-meaning good girl, Sue Snell;
her counterpart, a diabolically sexy, even slutty Nancy Allen, as Chris Hargenson, with
her blonde curls and her Betty Boop mouth, Chris is a vengeful ball-breaker of the highest
order, she is, to paraphrase Humphrey Bogart, "The stuff that wet-dreams are made
of." Spacek's performance is of course, the central one of the picture, and she comes
across as a very sympathetic figure, not the monster a lesser director might have made of
her. She is the tragic little girl lost, the ugly duckling who only wants to fit in. She
would finally win her Oscar a few years later for COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER, but I'd still
take her performance here and in Terrence Malick's BADLANDS, over any of her impressive
subsequent work. In an astounding return to the screen after an absence of fifteen years,
following her heartbreaking turn in THE HUSTLER, Piper Laurie is truly terrifying as the
epitome of twisted evil laced with an evangelical fervor as Margaret White.
THE FURY belongs to Amy Irving the way that SISTERS was Margot Kidder's movie, and CARRIE
belonged to Sissy Spacek. I love THE FURY, it's one of De Palma's great mad adventures in
form, and it's really his movie all the way, yet the picture is all but unthinkable
without the tremulous beauty and fierce intellectual intensity of Amy Irving as Gillian
Bellaver. Like Nancy Allen in the films that follow, Irving's poetic, abstract, yet
startlingly emotional portrayal, is all of a piece with De Palma's work as the director.
With THE FURY and later in BLOW OUT De Palma displays a mastery of form and cinematic
technique the likes of which few directors have before or since. His vision is helped
along immeasurably by the total commitment of his female leads. THE FURY is another film
that's teeming with fine performances by women, including, especially, Carrie Snodgress as
Peter Sandza's ill-fated lover. Fiona Lewis is also a remarkable presence in THE FURY. As
Dr. Susan Charles, her methods are very questionable, but I had no trouble believing that
she could sway Robin Sandza as easily as she does, that is, of course, until her untimely
and very unforgettable demise.
With HOME MOVIES, DRESSED TO KILL and BLOW OUT, we now enter the Nancy Allen portion of
our little essay, and well, when one thinks of Brian De Palma, and the erotically-charged
thrillers that made him famous, the name Nancy Allen can never be to far behind. A gifted
comedic actress, as she proved in her work with and without her husband, it was as the
female lead in that triumvirate of films from the early 1980's that still stands as her
best work. As I stated earlier, her acting can best be described as being at one with De
Palma's overall thematic and formal intent in each of the three films. She literally
personifies the wanton, teasingly playful sexuality of DRESSED TO KILL, the more than
slightly off-kilter, downright goofiness of HOME MOVIES, and most importantly, she is the
mournful, soulful center of De Palma's darkest exploration of all his thematic obsessions
up to that point, in the masterful BLOW OUT. Her performance in that film went far beyond
even her terrific work in DRESSED TO KILL. She took amazing risks, and suffered the scorn
of a lot of foolish critics, but a look back at BLOW OUT reveals that her work there is
every bit as vital to the overall success of the movie as any other aspect of it is.
Unfortunately, her career took a definite downward turn in the years following her divorce
from De Palma, but she was still as beautiful and charming as ever in her lovely cameo in
1998's OUT OF SIGHT.
I'm not going too far out on a limb when I say that Michelle Pfeiffer is one of God's
greatest personal accomplishments. She is a stunningly gorgeous woman, who made her first
big splash as the wonderfully named Elvira Hancock in SCARFACE. Granted she isn't required
to do very much beyond look great for most of the film, but she does that practically
better than anyone alive, and in fairness, is really quite effecting in several key
confrontations with Al Pacino's Tony Montana. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio was another
apparent De Palma discovery. She had the Ann Dvorak role to Pfeiffer's Karen Morley part
from the Howard Hawks original. As Tony's sister, and the real object of his twisted
obsessions, after Elvira's departure, she brings a feverish intensity to the film's
closing section.
BODY DOUBLE can count Melanie Griffith, Deborah Shelton, and even B movie scream queen
Barbara Crampton, and a couple of actual adult film actresses in bit parts, among it's
many attributes. Griffith is the cutest, most tremendously appealing porn star you'll ever
meet, while Shelton is the perfect unattainable object of most men's fantasies. However,
BODY DOUBLE will always be most intriguing for me for a bit casting that didn't come
about. De Palma's original choice for the role of Holly Body was adult film legend Annette
Haven, a woman who is featured throughout Susan Dworkin's excellent 'making of' book,
DOUBLE DE PALMA. I just think it would have been a bold masterstroke for De Palma to have
pursued this angle all the way, despite the seemingly insurmountable difficulties it
presented. There's no way of knowing now, if BODY DOUBLE would be a better film with
Annette Haven in it, instead of Melanie Griffith. In all likelihood, probably not, Haven
simply did not possess the acting skills that Melanie obviously did, but it sure would
have been interesting to find out.
In CASUALTIES OF WAR, De Palma went deeper into the "heart of darkness" than he
had in any film since BLOW OUT. If BLOW OUT ends in a scream of nihilistic despair, then
CASUALTIES adds to that despair the tragic human dimensions of life in a combat zone. Once
again, he was aided immeasurably on this journey by the performance of a young actress, a
woman named Thuy Thu Le. It is to my mind, one of the bravest, most courageous, and one of
the most heartbreakingly real pieces of acting that I've ever seen. CASUALTIES is hard
film to watch, it was intended to be so. One of the main reasons why this is, is that
despite the intolerable suffering that Thuy's character Oahn endures, her emotional
intensity (her's is for all intents and purposes, a silent performance) keeps us riveted
to the screen. This is a movie of searing power, of blistering emotion, and raging
despair, the outstanding performance of Thuy Thu Le is central to it's success, and to
it's standing as one of the greatest war movies ever made.
RAISING CAIN features a very alluring Lolita Davidovich as John Lithgow's (quite
understandably) straying wife. Fiercely protective of her daughter Amy, and a woman who
won't back down from a physical confrontation with her husband, she is somewhat of a new
kind of De Palma heroine. Not entirely sympathetic but yet very proactive and assertive,
she is very much a woman of her times, the hustling and bustling 1990's. A doctor, a
mother, a wife, and a lover, she is typical of many modern women, who strive valiantly to
balance both career and family.
Penelope Ann Miller as an actress, is way cute in CARLITO'S WAY. I'm being a little
facetious here, in truth Ms. Miller interacts very touchingly with Pacino in this, his
second turn as a Latino gangster for De Palma. Could reports that the two were an item off
screen at the time, have had something to do with their undeniable chemistry on it?
Kristin Scott Thomas should not have been killed so early on in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE. I
repeat, Kristin Scott Thomas should not have been killed so early on in MISSION:
IMPOSSIBLE. Although her demise did save her (and us) the sordid indignity of a potential
love scene with Emilio Estevez. On a more positive note the welcome appearance of the
always impressive Vanessa Redgrave is a pretty good indication that De Palma has never
completely gotten over his obsession with BLOW-UP, and Emmanuelle Beart is quite obviously
God's way of surpassing himself, and his own creation of Michelle Pfeiffer. Her Claire,
could in many ways be, based on the scant information we have so far, something of a
prototype for the character that Rebecca Romijn-Stamos is playing in FEMME FATALE. Claire
is a beautiful, duplicitous woman who's shifting loyalties and deceptive nature, mask a
complexity we as viewers, and even Ethan Hunt himself, can't begin to comprehend. She is
the classic film noir femme fatale, and perhaps a sign of things to come.
Which brings us to SNAKE EYES and the wonderfully spirited performance of Carlo Gugino as
Julia Costello (currently turning up the heat in two wildly divergent roles as a sexy mom
in SPY KIDS and as a very sexy stripper in Wayne Wang's CENTER OF THE WORLD). In SNAKE
EYES she portrays a sexy defense worker who sets the film in motion with her efforts to
expose a conspiracy in the ranks. First as a Hitchcockian blonde in disguise and then as a
more natural, and more vulnerable, short-haired brunette, her brave stance is eventually
what leads Nicolas Cage's eternally-flawed cop Rick Santoro to finally make his own honest
stand.
Connie Nielsen in MISSION TO MARS is another of De Palma's new style self-assured,
strong-willed women. An equal to every male member of the flight crew in a professional
capacity, and a no nonsense woman of science, she is still able to project both a
passionate love for her husband, and a wonderfully comfortable sense of her own sexuality.
As I stated at the outset, the reason for all this backward glancing, is the film
currently shooting in Paris. When FEMME FATALE was first announced a series of well-known
actresses quickly became attached, and just as quickly unattached to the project: Uma
Thurman, Jennifer Lopez, Sharon Stone, Emily Watson, and Isabelle Adjani are but some of
the names that have surfaced. Needless to say it was quite a surprise, to myself, and no
doubt to others, when it was officially announced that model-turned-actress and celebrity
wife Rebecca Romijn-Stamos had been chosen for the eponymous lead. Obviously not the
seasoned actress that some of the others who were considered are, she nevertheless must
have had something that caught De Palma's eye. She did in fact acquit herself admirably in
last summer's X-MEN, and will soon be seen opposite Al Pacino in SIMONE, and she looks
absolutely fantastic in some of the stills that have surfaced from the location shoot. It
may not be as bold a step as working with Annette Haven in 1984 would have been, but I
think the selection of Ms. Romijn-Stamos, indicates a confidence by De Palma in his own
material, as well as his ability to shape it into something special.
I for one, cannot wait to found out.
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