been watching older Brian de Palma movies.
Quite frankly his older stuff kicks ass! Deeply underrated, many of them completely forgotten
Phantom of the Paradise (1974) Depalma
Box office disaster, was on its way to being completely forgotten when it was rediscovered several years later and has now become a cult classic.
story is a mashup of Faust, Phantom of the Opera,and picture of Dorian Gray. It is a rock Opera about a genius musician who has his music stolen by a mysterious and powerful music producer named Swan.
The music, and the musical performances, absolutely top-notch! The music is in the same style as Jesus Christ superstar. The music was written by Paul Williams, one of the 70s most prolific songwriters. this is NOT cinéma vérité, it's told in more of a parable or fable type manner. this movie rocks, highly recommended.
Also if you're one of those illuminati conspiracy weirdos this movie is a veritable gold mine of symbols and themes, straight through to the ritualistic sacrifice at the end
Blowout (1981) Depalma
part Antonioni's 1966 film 'blowup' and part Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation. John Travolta is good, but not great, as a sound recorder accidentally recorded the tragic car accident of a presidential candidate. He comes to believe the accident was not an accident, but rather a assassination.
John Lithgow is great as a psycho killer.
But the real star here is Brian de Palma's camerawork. Absolutely fantastic!
Several beautiful overhead shots, multiple long tracking shots including one that starts on the eighth floor and winds up in the basement. This is de Palma at his filmmaking best. You can also see definite Hitchcock influences here. Makes me wonder what happened to him as he got older?
hhere's my favorite shot of the whole movie. Hopefully YouTube hasn't deleted this.
== SPOILERS====
John Travolta comes back to his recording studio to discover that all of his tapes have been erased. The incredible 360° camera rotation over and over and over adds to the rising panic that Travolta feels.
it should be queued up right to the scene. If not fast-forward to 1:01:19