Brian De Palma's films include mainstream box office hits such as Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission: Impossible, as well as cult favorites such as Sisters, Phantom of the Paradise, Blow Out, Casualties of War, and Carlito's Way.
25 Facts About Brian De Palma
2.
De Palma was a leading member of the New Hollywood generation of film directors.
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De Palma was born on September 11,1940, in Newark, New Jersey, the youngest of three boys.
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Brian De Palma was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire, and attended various Protestant and Quaker schools, eventually graduating from Friends' Central School.
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Brian De Palma had a poor relationship with his father, and would secretly follow him to record his adulterous behavior; this would eventually inspire the teenage character played by Keith Gordon in De Palma's 1980 film Dressed to Kill.
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Brian De Palma won a regional science-fair prize for a project titled "An Analog Computer to Solve Differential Equations".
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De Palma followed this style with various small films for the NAACP and the Treasury Department.
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Each of these films experiments with narrative and intertextuality, reflecting De Palma's stated intention to become the "American Godard" while integrating several of the themes which permeated Hitchcock's work.
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In 1970, De Palma left New York for Hollywood at age thirty to make Get to Know Your Rabbit, starring Orson Welles and Tommy Smothers.
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De Palma gravitated toward the project and changed crucial plot elements based upon his own predilections, not the saleability of the novel.
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Brian De Palma sought to adapt it numerous times, though the project would carry a substantial price tag, and has yet to appear on-screen.
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The film boasted a larger budget than Carrie, though the consensus view at the time was that De Palma was repeating himself, with diminishing returns.
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The Bonfire of the Vanities was a notorious failure with both critics and audiences but De Palma had subsequent successes with Raising Cain and Carlito's Way with Mission: Impossible becoming his highest grossing film and starting a successful franchise.
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Brian De Palma's ensuing films Snake Eyes, Mission to Mars, and Femme Fatale all failed at the box office and received generally poor reviews, though Femme Fatale has since been revived in the eyes of many film critics and became a cult classic.
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De Palma has expressed dissatisfaction with both the production of the film and the final product.
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Brian De Palma turned down the opportunities to direct Flashdance, Fatal Attraction, Schindler's List and Mission: Impossible 2.
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Brian De Palma has often produced "De Palma" films one after the other before going on to direct a different genre, but would always return to his familiar territory.
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De Palma has been married and divorced three times, to actress Nancy Allen, producer Gale Anne Hurd, and Darnell Gregorio.
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Brian De Palma has one daughter from his marriage to Hurd, Lolita de Palma, born in 1991, and one daughter from his marriage to Gregorio, Piper De Palma, born in 1996.
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De Palma is often cited as a leading member of the New Hollywood generation of film directors, a distinct pedigree who either emerged from film schools or are overtly cine-literate.
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Brian De Palma's contemporaries include Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader, John Milius, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, and Ridley Scott.
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De Palma has encouraged and fostered the filmmaking careers of directors such as Mark Romanek and Keith Gordon, the latter of whom collaborated with him twice as an actor, both in 1980's Home Movies and Dressed to Kill.
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Filmmakers influenced by De Palma include Terrence Malick, Quentin Tarantino, Ronny Yu, Don Mancini, Nacho Vigalondo, and Jack Thomas Smith.
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Yes, there are a few failures along the way, but look at the range here, and reflect that these movies contain treasure for those who admire the craft as well as the story, who sense the glee with which De Palma manipulates images and characters for the simple joy of being good at it.
25.
Brian De Palma's films have been interpreted as feminist and examined for their perceived queer affinities.