De Palma
Rated: R
Director: Noah Baumbach & Jake Paltrow
Producer: Noah Baumbach & Jake Paltrow
Studio: A24
After I walked out of the screening for De Palma in San Francisco, I wasn't sure what to think. Well actually, that's not true. I did think it was interesting. I thought it was very interesting, particularly as a film buff. But at the same time, I felt like I was (maybe?) underwhelmed a bit. I had to go back to the source of my documentary education and really think about it.
To provide some background: I have a degree in Communications, with an emphasis in Cinema Studies. I watched movies of various genres day in and day out when I was in college, to get an understanding of what was good and bad in film. In a class I took on documentaries, it was drilled into me that all documentaries have to be made in a certain type of way, that they have to be made by a specific code, and then be lumped into a particular category.
De Palma is a film that breaks those rules, and I loved that about this film. The directors, Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow, interview renowned filmmaker Brian De Palma about his career, from the early beginnings of his fascination of filmmaking when he was a child, all the way up to now. What's interesting and "rule-breaking" about this documentary, however, is that you don't see or even hear the interviewers. Hell, you don't even get any input from the other people he talks about in the film. You're literally sitting for two hours and getting told everything by the man himself. It makes this a unique type of documentary.
Brian De Palma's career spans a number of years, and a wide variety of films. Whether you've seen Carrie, Scarface, The Untouchables, or all of the above, you know his work, and the film is chock full of information about the making of each of these films. It's a great feature, and a chance for film nerds to nerd out and learn a little bit more about the man who brought some of the most iconic movies to life.
For more information on the film, as well as for movie showtimes, visit www.fandango.com.
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