I'm looking forward to screening this. Fine review, Tony. One point, though. You mentioned:
"And the postwar neo-noir, The Black Dahlia (2006), should have been a slam dunk for a director who's always shown an ease for crime stories, but instead, it felt oddly inept at delivering its admittedly sprawling, complicated plot."
IMDB and others have brought this aspect up in regard to that theatrical cut:
"Brian De Palma's initial cut ran at roughly three hours and was a faithful adaptation of the book, with more time dedicated to Bucky's psychological breakdown during the investigation and his obsession with avenging the Dahlia. James Ellroy was shown a print of this version and wrote an essay praising it; entitled "The Hillikers," it was published in re-issued prints of the novel which were released before the film premiered. In the interim between Ellroy's having seen the director's cut and the publication of his essay, the film was significantly edited. After seeing the theatrical cut, Ellroy refused to comment on it, except to tell the Seattle Post-Intelligencer "Look, you're not going to get me to say anything negative about the movie, so you might as well give up." "
If the studio had let De Palma's DC of 'The Black Dahlia' stand, fans and critics may remember more fondly than it is now. His follow up with 'Femme Fatale' certainly proved he hadn't lost his touch. It's great to hear he's back with this, however.
Thank goodness - I was a huge fan of Femme Fatale in the theater, and was the only one. I cant believe De Palma didn't save a director's cut of the Black Dahlia - everyone's doing it these days, jeeeze.
Having read 'The Devil's Playground' I've come to know (in my head) De Palma pretty well, and he shines when his budget is low and his material is super pulpy, and he has the right music, of course. He should have a stipulation in his contract where he can only use music made by Italians.
September 19, 2012 at 12:37 PM
Anonymous said...
Yes. Thank christ. I'm not the only one that liked this movie.
le0pard13, I had a hunch THE BLACK DAHLIA was tampered with, but since I've never heard anything about De Palma's director's cut until now, and I haven't seen it myself, I can't really absolve the man of any guilt just yet.
"...he shines when his budget is low and his material is super pulpy, and he has the right music..."
Amen, Erich.
whocaresreviews, my friend Glenn sat 2 seats away from me at the screening, and he liked it too. Maybe it was our vantage point.
September 19, 2012 at 11:08 PM
by Tony Dayoub
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Twenty years since their last collaboration, director Brian De Palma and composer Pino Donaggio reunite in their latest work, Passion. The reunion both recalls the virtuosic filmmaker's best period—the late 70s/early 80s—and revitalizes the career of a master, whose recent filmography's quality has been spotty at best. Redacted (2007) was an interesting experiment in utilizing found footage to tell a story about the Iraq war that collapsed under the weight of its propaganda-like liberal agenda (and I say this as someone who leans considerably to the left). And the postwar neo-noir, The Black Dahlia (2006), should have been a slam dunk for a director who's always shown an ease for crime stories, but instead, it felt oddly inept at delivering its admittedly sprawling, complicated plot. Not since 2002's Femme Fatale has De Palma manipulated his audience so boldly or so wittily as he does with Passion.
For the first half of Passion, the plot adheres pretty closely to its source material, Alain Corneau's Love Crime (Crime d'amour)(2010), the story of two women—a corporate director and her up-and-coming protegee—who backstab each other as they race to the top. With De Palma free from preoccupying himself with a premise that was successfully executed once before, he concentrates on laying the visual groundwork for Passion. Using mirrors and reflective surfaces throughout indicate how closely the ice blonde, Christine (Rachel McAdams), and the earthier brunette, Isabelle (Noomi Rapace), reflect each other in ambition if not in appearance.
[Image]
De Palma once again employs his trademark split screen effects, not just in a flashy central setpiece ostensibly following the dual actions of the film's rivals but even in subtler methods that recall Redacted. One pivotal scene has Isabelle receiving a Skype call from her boyfriend Dirk (Paul Anderson), a man that she has also shared with her boss. When she answers the call she's surprised to find Christine on the other end—a self-loathing Dirk by her side—as a video of Dirk fucking Isabelle plays in the background on a flatscreen TV. For one moment—in a shot of Isabelle's laptop screen—we can see the video, wicked Christine snickering in delight and a small window framing Isabelle's horrified face. Cut to the next shot: a single take following Isabelle from her office into the elevator and back out to the building's parking garage as she frantically dives into her car.
De Palma tweaks Corneau's original story by changing Isabelle's passive aggressive male assistant to the more comely female, Dani (Karoline Herfurth), a lesbian whose crush on Isabelle assures she'd do anything to cover for her superior. This simple change allows the film to depart in quite a different direction for its conclusion, much more satisfying than the procedurally complicated one of Corneau's film. Again De Palma lets his camera speak for him, drastically changing the lighting scheme from a flatter high-key setup to a more expressionistic, noirish one once stressed out Isabelle begins popping pills to cope with Christine's machinations.
[Image]
This sets the stage for Passion's impressive climactic sequence, driven by Donaggio's score in much the same way the dreamy epilogues for Carrie and Dressed to Kill owed something to the composer's creepy scoring in those picture. De Palma, a formalist more attuned to the visually technical and emotional than to the plot-driven or intellectual, fashions a tag for the story that many may find outrageous and nonsensical given the leaps in logic required. But it demonstrates the confidence the reinvigorated director has in his abilities—and Donaggio's—to sweep the viewer up in Passion's phantasmagoric conclusion. Brian De Palma is back.
Passionis playing at the 50th New York Film Festival at 9 pm Saturday, September 29th at the Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, 1941 Broadway (at 65th Street), New York, NY 10023; at 9 pm Saturday, October 6th at the Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th St (north side between Broadway and Amsterdam, upper level), New York, NY 10023; and at 3:15 pm Thursday, October 11th at the Elinor Bunin Monroe Film Center's Francesca Beale Theater, 144 West 65th St (south side between Broadway and Amsterdam), New York, NY 10023. For more ticket information go online here, or call (212) 721-6500.
Update 9/30: Last night's premiere of Passion apparently ran into some technical issues and was cancelled. A new screening was added for 1 pm tomorrow, October 1st. It's tough to see how the same kind of audience that would attend a Saturday night showing could manage to make a Monday afternoon show, a fact the NYFF concedes given the change from the massive Alice Tully Hall to the more modest Francesca Beale Theater. But given the logistics of running a festival such as this, it's good to see that the festival organizers made some kind of effort.
"UPDATED: NYFF50 Review: Passion (2012)"
4 Comments -
I'm looking forward to screening this. Fine review, Tony. One point, though. You mentioned:
"And the postwar neo-noir, The Black Dahlia (2006), should have been a slam dunk for a director who's always shown an ease for crime stories, but instead, it felt oddly inept at delivering its admittedly sprawling, complicated plot."
IMDB and others have brought this aspect up in regard to that theatrical cut:
"Brian De Palma's initial cut ran at roughly three hours and was a faithful adaptation of the book, with more time dedicated to Bucky's psychological breakdown during the investigation and his obsession with avenging the Dahlia. James Ellroy was shown a print of this version and wrote an essay praising it; entitled "The Hillikers," it was published in re-issued prints of the novel which were released before the film premiered. In the interim between Ellroy's having seen the director's cut and the publication of his essay, the film was significantly edited. After seeing the theatrical cut, Ellroy refused to comment on it, except to tell the Seattle Post-Intelligencer "Look, you're not going to get me to say anything negative about the movie, so you might as well give up." "
If the studio had let De Palma's DC of 'The Black Dahlia' stand, fans and critics may remember more fondly than it is now. His follow up with 'Femme Fatale' certainly proved he hadn't lost his touch. It's great to hear he's back with this, however.
Thanks.
September 19, 2012 at 10:31 AM
Thank goodness - I was a huge fan of Femme Fatale in the theater, and was the only one. I cant believe De Palma didn't save a director's cut of the Black Dahlia - everyone's doing it these days, jeeeze.
Having read 'The Devil's Playground' I've come to know (in my head) De Palma pretty well, and he shines when his budget is low and his material is super pulpy, and he has the right music, of course. He should have a stipulation in his contract where he can only use music made by Italians.
September 19, 2012 at 12:37 PM
Yes. Thank christ. I'm not the only one that liked this movie.
September 19, 2012 at 6:23 PM
le0pard13, I had a hunch THE BLACK DAHLIA was tampered with, but since I've never heard anything about De Palma's director's cut until now, and I haven't seen it myself, I can't really absolve the man of any guilt just yet.
"...he shines when his budget is low and his material is super pulpy, and he has the right music..."
Amen, Erich.
whocaresreviews, my friend Glenn sat 2 seats away from me at the screening, and he liked it too. Maybe it was our vantage point.
September 19, 2012 at 11:08 PM