Of course! "Phantom Of The Paradise" is a classic. "Carrie", "Blowout", "Scarface" are all part of an amazing run for him. Unfortunately his mid-90s and beyond work just didn't match his earlier stuff.
Yes he seems to have a creative slump for a while. He needs to do some more action films less of those femme fatale type movies.
I worked a little bit on Mission to Mars and Black Dahlia... terrible, terrible movies. Some of them are beautiful, but man, the acting and stories...
I like Sisters, The Fury & Carrie a lot. Obsession is the one I can watch repeatedly, but I think I'm in the minority on that one. I enjoyed most of his stuff when it came out until Scarface (which I hated from the git go), but watching Dressed To Kill, Blowout or Body Double now is difficult, just bad acting.
I think some of De Palma's movies are good - "Carrie", "Blow Out", "Untouchables" among them - but he's made a fair amount of meh to worse films...
Count me as one who thinks it's been all downhill since Carrie. There's something about the tone of his movies that's like sandpaper against my brain.
Good no region Blu-ray out of the UK for "Obsession". I like the movie even if it cribs from "Vertigo" with a creepier quality.
I'm a fan. Have been since 1976 Carrie The Fury Dressed To Kill Blow Out (Criterion) Scarface Body Double (Twilight Time) The Untouchables Carlito's Way Bruce Springsteen: The Complete Video Anthology 1978-2000
If you're still a member when I croak, keep an eye out for my son's Classified thread of my stuff. His member handle is Chrys.
Doh, you just reminded me of the nightmare of working on Body Double -- I did the 1990s remastering on that one. Horrible, horrible, horrible movie. I also did Casualties of War, which was extremely depressing. I like a lot of De Palma's earlier films -- I'm a huge fan of Carrie, The Fury, and Scarface -- but a lot of his films from the 1990s on leave me cold.
I continue to be undecided about 'Body Double'. It was quirky and I did not mind the 'voyeur' part of the story. Found the Melanie Griffith porn scenes distasteful but loved-loved-loved the music(ie Pino Donaggio, not Franky). Saw 'Casualties Of War' when it first came out, Sean Penn was a force of nature in that.
Pino Donaggio. A mixture of Herrmann/Legrand more ...euro-bent/unique. Though Hermann's score for Obsession could be the film that peeved Hitchcock. Always had a problem with Cliff Robertson's strange backcombed hair.
I can't think of anything past the early 80s that I've liked. He never let a chance to reference Hitchcock go to waste that's for sure.
I liked Mission To Mars up until the end, when it just seemed to quit. The sequence with the Tim Robbins drifting towards the atmosphere where he would burn up and Connie Nielsen trying to save him was really well done. Black Dahlia I found a total bore when I first watched it, but revisited it a few months ago and enjoyed it much more.
I was really looking forward to Dressed To Kill, but in spite of some really inspired visual sequences, I was left kind of like 'oh c'mon, are you serious? This has all been done before.' Untouchables, Blow Out, Obsessionand Scarface were enjoyable. Body Double had some great sequences (oh, that drill), but I found the story to be bland and the lead character was not that strong.
One of my favorite directors! Check out his new film Passion. Rachel McAdams plays a sexy role *swoon*.
