Year: 2016
Director: Noah Baumbach
Country: US
Language: English
I'm slightly perplexed as to why Noah Baumbach would make a documentary about Brian De Palma. His sensibilities hardly suggest that of a De Palma student, since he’s mostly known for a string of blithe existential dramedies like Frances Ha (2013) and Mistress America (2015). The other director of this film, Jake Paltrow, doesn't borrow from De Palma either. Even Wes Anderson would have made more sense to be at helm, but it's rather interesting material nonetheless.
Brian De Palma, the great film writer and director, takes us, in his own words, through his professional life and a career that redefined film horror and suspense.
Co-directors Baumbach and Paltrow deliver a simple interview-style retrospective of the virtuoso filmmaker’s life and career. The entire interview was apparently shot in one sitting, as De Palma recounts his work in a linear progression with brief cutaways to the material mentioned. It isn't the most artistic avant-garde documentary made, but despite that it is engaging. We truly feel like we come to know who the man is by the end of the run-time.
Lesser pictures would avoid Hitchcock's influence on De Palma, but this documentary hits on the topic straight on from the beginning. De Palma talks about Hitchcock’s “influential” status, and he wonders why other filmmakers aren’t more closely following him. We see direct examples of how the man's passion projects took a queue from the "Master of Suspense".
Personally I wonder why more people aren't influenced by De Palma, he seems to be the forgotten middle child of his generation, which includes Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas. The filmmaker’s concerns with technical and formal storytelling are also rather engrossing. This is an easy film to sit through, albeit not the most engaging on a creative level. I could have read a book and got the same out of it, perhaps much more detail. Ultimately it's worth a watch, but it's very forgettable.
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