Docs triumph while fiction stumbles
De Palma K (out of 4) Documentary by Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow. Opens Friday at TIFF Bell Lightbox. 120 minutes. 14A
Self-criticism is rare in movie directors, who usually seek to make selflove seem like the most cherished of virtues.
Brian De Palma proves an entertaining exception in this straight-to-camera confessional doc, all the more so considering his rep as one of the most narcissistic, derivative and outlandish of auteurs ever to splatter the screen.
With indie-film admirers Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow at the helm, De Palma holds forth with bracing candour on his hits ( Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Mission: Impossible, The Untouchables), his misses ( The Bonfire of the Vanities, Casualties of War, The Black Dahlia) and his excursions in excess ( Scarface, Body Double, Murder à la Mod and much more).
He disputes the critical slam he’s a mere Hitchcock wannabe, although he admits to intense admiration. What the film emphasizes more than anything is De Palma’s gift for visuals. He always knows where to place the camera for maximum impact, from slashed throats to exploding proms.
De Palma looks back with mixed emotions about his anxious childhood (he snooped on his philandering papa), his New Hollywood heyday (“What we did in my generation will never be duplicated”) and his singular obsessions (“I hate car chases”). He reveals how he and buddy George Lucas jousted for the same actors when casting for Carrie and Star Wars. Guess who won — although De Palma’s choice of Sissy Spacek proved brilliant. He could go on for days with his war stories, and the doc makes you wish he would. De Palma launches the TIFF retrospective Split/Screen: The Cinema of Brian De Palma, running from Saturday until Sept. 3 at TIFF Bell Lightbox. Peter Howell