Rank Brian DePalma's Films

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It was a dress rehearsal for his performance in Cliffhanger.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 16:59 (seventeen years ago) link

3 superior travolta performances

― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 17:07 (seventeen years ago) link

I still can't get much into Carlito's Way (I saw it three months ago and I can't remember ANY of it, except that it was okay--at least that's what my Netflix rating sez haha) but it probably should move up a spot or two on my list above.

I think Dressed To Kill is good and creepy all the way through (that STD letter, sheesh.)

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 17:22 (seventeen years ago) link

I've only seen Carlito's Way once, at least 10+ years ago, and while I liked okay at the time I remember a) disliking the begin-at-the-end trope and b) Sean Penn being pretty entertaining. I'd watch it again, but I doubt I'll prefer it over Scarface or Carrie...

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 17:36 (seventeen years ago) link

sean penn's jewfro alone is worth the price of admission.

― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 17:39 (seventeen years ago) link

Unhappy paint-by-numbers romance aside, you can pretty much tell who's going to die in the next scene throughout Carlito's Way. I'm sure BdP didn't give a damn about that.

Is Alfred jokily or unintentionally conflating Stallone and Travolta? Stayin' Alive trauma?

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 18:02 (seventeen years ago) link

yeah well the whole thing is doomed ovb, kinda the point.

― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 18:08 (seventeen years ago) link

Travolta's leg-warmer-encased lower thighs were Staying Alive's best performances.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 18:11 (seventeen years ago) link

Carlito's Way is the new Scarface, people.

― elmo argonaut (allocryptic), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 18:12 (seventeen years ago) link

I have to say, Carlito's Way is one of my favorite movies ever.

The Fury, however, is not.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 18:14 (seventeen years ago) link

yay!

― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 18:15 (seventeen years ago) link

what was wrong with the old Scarface? I haven't seen any super-ghetto Carlito's Way t-shirts at the swap meet lately...

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 18:15 (seventeen years ago) link

I haven't seen any super-ghetto Carlito's Way t-shirts at the swap meet lately...

I have, and quite recently. Only a matter of time before it's everywhere.

― elmo argonaut (allocryptic), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 18:17 (seventeen years ago) link

nothin's wrong with the Howard Hawks/Paul Muni Scarface. It's not even worshipped by illiterate gangstas.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 18:17 (seventeen years ago) link

carlito's way was sampled on the first ghostface album, but that's not exactly news.

― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 18:19 (seventeen years ago) link

(I hafta say the 'tragic' penultimate scene of Carlito is defused by the comedic cache of Leguizamo & Guzman. "You stay here!" *BANG* nyuk nyuk nyuk!)

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 18:20 (seventeen years ago) link

wow I totally forgot Guzman is even in the movie.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 18:24 (seventeen years ago) link

the drama is all in carlito's mind - everyone else realizes the whole scenario is completely mundane and hopeless. (we'll except for sean penn, but he's stupider than dirt.) hence leguizamo making bad jokes during a moment that carlito's getting all misty eyed over.

― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 18:25 (seventeen years ago) link

That must've been Luis Guzman's gateway role, predating Soderbergh et al.

Pacino's narration is one of the more successful of the last few decades. Just the right weary pitch.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 18:27 (seventeen years ago) link

"That must've been Luis Guzman's gateway role, predating Soderbergh et al."

eh, maybe - I think his dry spell didn't really end til "Boogie Nights" (which is also pre-Soderbergh)

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 18:32 (seventeen years ago) link

my dad and luis guzman at the supermarket

apparently guzman recently moved near my dad's rural vermont town and adopted a bunch of third world orphans - so they cross paths at the price chopper; my dad channeling his inner aging hippy say something like hey man, i like you and i like what you're doin' you're allll right!

no word yet on guzman's reply. (story relaying interrupted by me and my sister's uncontrollable laughter).

― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 18:33 (seventeen years ago) link

the first film i remember luis guzman in was 'q&a', with nick nolte

― gear (gear), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 18:37 (seventeen years ago) link

I saw that, but don't remember him. Man, he paid his dues in the '80s...

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 18:56 (seventeen years ago) link

I have to say, Carlito's Way is one of my favorite movies ever.

The Fury, however, is not.

How odd. The Fury IS my favorite movie ever. Or close enough, at any rate.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 19:19 (seventeen years ago) link

However, I clearly am not to be trusted on matters related to De Palma, as I only think Bonfire of the Vanities and The Untouchables aren't all that great.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 19:36 (seventeen years ago) link

(And The Wedding Party isn't so hot, either.)

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 19:36 (seventeen years ago) link

What's wrong with The Fury?

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 19:41 (seventeen years ago) link

Don't ask me, it even has more men with guns than The Untouchables and Scarface.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 19:42 (seventeen years ago) link

I notice no one has defended Bonfire. I remember it being truly awful.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 19:44 (seventeen years ago) link

Inside line has it the Bonfire review for the Slant feature will be (gasp) a positive one!

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 19:54 (seventeen years ago) link

anyone else read that bonfire making-of book? It was awesome and i have neither seen the movie nor read the wolfe! the devil's candy i think it's called.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 19:57 (seventeen years ago) link

Took The Fury out of the library today for my first viewing. I just became aware of Charles Durning as a recurring BdP actor in the last year.

Has de Palma commented on why he stopped working with d.p. Stephen Burum after eight films? I see Burum is almost 67, and his last credit is a Lindsay Lohan vehicle.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 20:18 (seventeen years ago) link

Maybe Burum dislikes French people.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 20:21 (seventeen years ago) link

You people are coming dangerously close to forcing me to rescreen Carlito's Way.

The Fury has one of John Cassavetes' best performances -- he's the actor/fraud of Rosemary's Baby 10 years after Damian exacted his revenge.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 20:32 (seventeen years ago) link

How about that endless scene in which Kirk Douglas holds that family hostage, develops an elaborate disguise, only to get his cover blown five seconds after he hits the streets?

― Alicia Titsovich (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 20:39 (seventeen years ago) link

not to mention leap frogging over the EL in his boxer shorts

― Alicia Titsovich (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 21:06 (seventeen years ago) link

So far, I still think he excels at frosting more often than cake.

Not that I'm doubting your commitment toward embracing the light here, but what exactly constitutes cake in this context?

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 7 September 2006 06:08 (seventeen years ago) link

Maybe Femme Fatale? ie, achieving 'substance' by just doing a series of setpieces instead of interrupting them with more overt actorish soul-searching?

I was thinking of the Hitchcock quote "Some films are slices of life, mine are slices of cake." (Let's assume he was being disingenuously modest, as I generally find more life in him than in, say, Kazan.)

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 7 September 2006 12:44 (seventeen years ago) link

The Fury, otoh, is perhaps the dumbest bloody cream pie ever thrown. Did Andrew Stevens, Amy Irving or Kirk Douglas get any golden toilets from Harvard for that?

And it killed my TV set!!!

(Sorry Eric ... I wish one of my bourgeois faves, like Babette's Feat, on you and Armond White for this one.)

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 13:49 (seventeen years ago) link

^FeaSt

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 13:50 (seventeen years ago) link

anyone else read that bonfire making-of book? It was awesome and i have neither seen the movie nor read the wolfe! the devil's candy i think it's called.

I read it in college and I need to do it again.

― Zwan (miccio), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 14:04 (seventeen years ago) link

Ever notice how DePalma saves his most over-the-top, complex shots for throwaway scenes like phone conversations?

― Dr. Alicia B. Titsovich (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 14:53 (seventeen years ago) link

HMMMMMM. not always. Sometimes it's Al Pacino playing hide&seek in Grand Central.

“anybody who can’t see the wit and impressive morality of The Fury really has no business in this profession, and I absolutely do believe that anybody who can’t see it in The Fury doesn’t really like movies.”

-Armond White (ok, he is completely kerrraaazy sometimes)

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 15:06 (seventeen years ago) link

There's one shot in Carlito's Way that starts on Central Park West full of 70s period cars for a few seconds, then pulls back through a window, over Sean Penn's head sitting at his desk making a phone call. How much did that shot cost??

― Dr. Alicia B. Titsovich (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 15:17 (seventeen years ago) link

I have passes to see Black Dahlia on Thursday. EXCITED!

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 15:23 (seventeen years ago) link

and the one where Penn's walking to the Rikers barge and there's a pullback of 300 yards+ over the water. To which I say SHOWBOAT.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 15:48 (seventeen years ago) link

No problem, Morb. I know you don't really like De Palma... or movies.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 16:05 (seventeen years ago) link

Spielberg aside, I think you and I have completely opposing sensibilities and it's a miracle we even talk to each other.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 16:06 (seventeen years ago) link

and wrt Babette's Feast, wild horses couldn't drag me to watch that one, so I at least give you credit for trying to watch movies you knew full well beforehand you would loathe.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 16:08 (seventeen years ago) link

c'mon, I expected to loathe Carlito's Way and didn't!

I hafta say I find Andrew Stevens kinda repulsive, even before he starts to speak (and while polevaulting).

What's most intriguing about The Fury is that most of the 'horror scenes' are strangely funny (tho I didn't laugh once), and the 'comedy scenes' are vaguely horrific (Mother Nuckells).

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 16:14 (seventeen years ago) link

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