In Defense of Brian

You may have heard that Criterion is releasing their restoration of director Brian De Palma's 1981 thriller BLOW OUT in the next few months. This is good news, and you can be certain that a) I will be purchasing it and b) there will be a review here.

De Palma was dogged for years with charges of his plagiarism of Alfred Hitchcock. It is true that many of De Palma's earlier films borrowed heavily, even utiliziing Hitch's composer, Bernard Herrmann. We'll discuss this at length. For now, let me repost a Facebook rant from a fan who's tired of everyone's complaints.....

Listen. Please listen good. Anyone who perpetuates De Palma as a con artist, be it ripping off Hitchcock or Antonioni, is first and foremost a shallow thinker, hung up on blanket statements that have little bearing on any sort of analysis relating to De Palma's incredibly unique sense of decoupage. If all you can notice from De Palma is that he, indeed, uses Hitchcockian narrative elements or appropriates Antonioni here and there, premise wise, then you are unable to notice what really matters in cinema: the fucking form

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