I don't disagree - John Fogerty made good music after Creedence, but good isn't great and things like Body Double and Untouchables were perfectly watchable, but they didn't scale peaks.
I'm in your camp. I like the camera showoff moves - the long tracking shots, the circular spinarounds....the hitchkockian ripoffs...the titillating use of beautiful women (sorry but I'm a guy with a a guy's visual cortex no matter how crass things might be). Although I think Femme Fatale is a confusing mess, it has some (pant) incredible shots of Rebecca Romijn, and some interesting camera tricks. I haven't seen every DePalma movie, some I like (Sisters, Body Double, Blow Out, Carrie, Carlito's Way, and Scarface), others not so much (Snake Eyes, Passion, Bonfire of the Vanities, Raising Cain). Thanks to this thread I am going to to check out some more though.
Oh, but I really, really like Carlito's Way. I think it ranks with his best, which isn't something I can say about Fogerty's solo work in relation to CCR.
I'd love to see what De Palma would have done with Gone Girl. I like Fincher's version, but I think I'd love De Palma's.
Yeah, I keep hoping that De Palma will come back. I had high hopes for both Black Dahlia and Passion, but alas...
I really like Carlito's Way, I think it's one of his better films. I was also impressed with the incredibly long opening take in the movie Snake Eyes, but sadly I didn't think the rest of the film lived up to that promise.
Yeah, that opening scene in "Snake Eyes" is the one good thing about it. After that, though, pure dreck.
Been listening non-stop to Herrmann's brilliant soundtrack to Obsession (there is a new 2cd edition out by Music box Records. Awesome!). Last night I finally watched Obsession (Columbia, 1976) and wow I was floored. Of course the mesmerizing score by the Master dominates but De Palma is masterful in his tone and direction. Like a dream, it's utter nonsense but once you accept it you are transfixed. The performances are excellent (well Lithgow is way over the top) and the locations are great. This really is an underrated classic that deserves to be seen (I do agree with an earlier post about Cliff Robertson's hair though XD). For the rest of the oeuvre, I've always loved Body Double. Yes, me and the main character of American Psycho agree lol. Not my go to vid now but I love the blatant Hitchcock ripoffs ( I mean homages), over-the-top performances, the great Donaggio score, and just that 80's vibe (say hello Frankie!). Scarface is friggin' timeless and should be in the National Film Registry. Those are my stand-outs. Next tier: the early stuff of course: Carrie, Blow Out, Sisters, Dressed To Kill. Liked The Untouchable, Carlito's Way. Walked out of Snake Eyes...unwatchable. Haven't tried to watch any newer ones.
Snake Eyes will never be considered one of De Palma's better films, although I do think that if they had been able to use the originally-planned ending, the film might be a notch or two higher on the watchability scale.
"Sisters" is on TCM right now. I've only ever seen this in a ratty VHS recording (that I still have) of a Late Movie broadcast of this from KOMO TV in Seattle, circa 1984, from a 16mm tv print. Point being: I've always liked this movie, even from that old, cut-up, bad-looking version, but I'm amazed at how much was cut from the first half-hour or so to make this "tv friendly" back in the 80s! Now it makes more sense? Maybe? Nice to see it in widescreen, with good picture quality. (Oddly, the opening credits were 4:3.)
There is a new documentary called "De Palma" directed by Noah Baumbach and Gwenyth's brother, Jake Paltrow. It's very good. It's basically De Palma talking about his entire filmography. It played in Toronto's documentary film festival Hot Docs recently; not sure if it will get a theatrical release or go to VOD or Netflix. I think De Palma is my favourite director. When I was in high school, I studied Spielberg and especially Scorsese's films religiously. But De Palma's films are the ones I keep returning to. They're sexy, dirty, visually dazzling, great scores, and even though they sometimes can be trashy, I like that about them. To me, his films are exciting. I can watch them over and over again and discover something new. The only other director I feel that way about is Kubrick. Body Double is probably the one I find the most "trashy" but I've come to love that film. The random Frankie Goes to Hollywood video of Relax in the middle of the film just makes it that much more audacious. I don't think that film could ever be made today with a leading man who is basically a stalker and the second lead who is a porn star. One of the most interesting things I learned from the documentary was that Sidney Lumet was originally going to direct Scarface. I don't know why I didn't know that before. And De Palma was actually going to direct Cruising but William Friedkin ended up directing it.
I saw this on the Criterion DVD from 2000. I thought it was... okay. Too predictable and too much of a Hitchcock knock-off for me, though!
TOTAL knockoff, right down to being scored by Bernard Herrmann in full-on Psycho and Vertigo modes, but pretty well done. I love the split-screen stuff, and could do without much of the blood and gore.
I've never seen this one before but its been on my "to watch" list for some time, so I was happy to see it on TCM's schedule. I DVR'd it and will watch it soon.
Mission To Mars was pretty decent. Blowout was a bit hard to swallow. When Travolta synchronized the magazine photos to the sound recording of the blowout and the sound of the blowout corresponded to a flash in one of the photos, I stopped watching. Insane.
Even bad De Palma films have at least one amazing moment in them. Always worth watching, particularly when he goes to parallel storytelling (split-screens, crosscutting, etc.). Yes, style over substance, but what style! 70s were his best films, but to me he owned the 80s. For instance, lots of what I imagined of L.A. came from Body Double.