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Home , American Buffalo (play), Art Linson, Billy Drago, Bill Pankow, Blow Out, Brad Sullivan

8, 2016 (XXXIII: 11) : THE UNTOUCHABLES (1987), 119 min.

(The online version of this handout has color images and hot url links.)

DIRECTED BY Brian De Palma WRITING CREDITS (written by), & (suggested by book) PRODUCED BY MUSIC CINEMATOGRAPHY Stephen H. Burum EDITING Gerald B. Greenberg and

Kevin Costner…Eliot Ness …Jimmy Malone …Oscar Wallace Andy García…George Stone/Giuseppe Petri … …Catherine Ness …Frank Nitti Richard Bradford…Chief Mike Dorsett earning Oscar nominations for the two lead females, Piper …Walter Payne Laurie and . His next major success was the Brad Sullivan…George controversial, ultra-violent film Scarface (1983). Written Clifton James…District Attorney by and starring , the film concerned Cuban immigrant Tony Montana's rise to power in the BRIAN DE PALMA (b. September 11, 1940 in Newark, United States through the drug trade. The film, while New Jersey) initially planned to follow in his father’s being a critical failure, was a major success commercially. footsteps and study medicine. While on his Tonight’s film is arguably the apex of De Palma’s career, studies he also made several short . At first, his films both a critical and commercial success, and earning Sean comprised of such black-and-white films as Bridge That Connery an Oscar win for Best Supporting Actor (the only Gap (1965). He then discovered a young actor whose one of his long career), as well as nominations to fame would influence forever. In 1968, de Morricone for Best Original Score, as well as Art Palma made the comedic film Greetings (1968) starring Direction and Costumes. After the success of The Robert de Niro in his first ever credited film role. The two Untouchables (1987), De Palma’s career was a series of followed up immediately with the film The Wedding Party peaks and valleys. He found success with Casualties of (1969) and Hi, Mom! (1970). After seven independent War (1989), the (1992), and the productions De Palma had his first success with Sisters Al Pacino and driven film Carlito’s Way (1972) and Obsession (1976) which featured his (1993). However, it was his box office bomb, Bonfire of -voyeuristic style. De Palma was offered the the Vanities (1990)—based on the popular chance to direct a film based on the Stephen King novel novel starring box office heavyweights and , and the 1976 film went on to major success, —that earned him two Razzie De Palma—THE UNTOUCHABLES—2 nominations. In fact, De Palma has the distinction of corruption. It is rumored that he uses a metronome during having been won five Razzies for worst director and was rehearsals to perfect the actors' delivery of the rhythmic nominated in 1991, but lost out to an even worse director nature of his dialogue. Mamet has written for 44 films that year. Yet, there is a phoenix-like quality to De and TV shows, some of which are About Last Night (2014, Palma: in the mid- he came out with his most well- based on play Sexual Perversity in ), Phil Spector known film, Mission: Impossible (1996) starring Tom (2013, TV Movie, written by), The Unit (2006-2009, TV Cruise. Since then his box office history has remained Series, creator - 68 episodes, 2006 - 2009), (2008. mixed: Passion (2012), Redacted (2007), The Black written by), (2005, play & screenplay), Hannibal Dahlia (2006), Femme Fatale (2002), Mission to (2001, screenplay), (2000, play – uncredited (2000) and Snake Eyes (1998). Still, there is no denying /written by), The Winslow Boy (1999, screenplay), Lansky that De Palma earned his place as one of the directorial (1999, TV Movie, written by), Ronin (1998, screenplay - mavericks of the . One as Richard Weisz), Wag the needs only to read Pauline Dog (1997, screenplay), The Kael’s unabashed praise of Edge (1997, written by), his talent after the success of (1996, Carrie (1976). Perhaps time play and screenplay), has softened his polarizing (1994, play and reputation. In 2016, Noah screenplay), Vanya on 42nd Baumbach and Jake Paltrow Street (1994, play co-directed De Palma a adaptation), A Life in the fascinating documentary on Theater (1993, TV Movie, one of Hollywood’s most play and teleplay), Hoffa controversial directors. (1992, written by), (1992, DAVID MAMET (b. play /screenplay), The Water November 30, 1947 in Engine (1992, TV Movie, Chicago, Illinois) is a Pulitzer play, written by), We're No Prize–winning playwright, The real Untouchables Angels (1989, written by), screenwriter and director Things Change (1988, known for Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), The written by), (1987, screenplay and story), Untouchables (1987) and Hannibal (2001). He wanted to Hill Street Blues (1987, TV Series, 1 episode), About Last be an actor as a young man but his attempts failed so he Night... (1986, play Sexual Perversity in Chicago), The turned to writing and directing in order to stay in (1982, screenplay), The Postman Always Rings industry. The ‘70s were the start of a prolific time for the Twice (1981, screenplay) and A Life in the Theater (1979, developing playwright, as he penned a number of TV Movie, play). He has directed 20 films, some of them productions, including The Duck Variations, Sexual sharing writing and directorial duties. Those where he Perversity in Chicago and American Buffalo, with the wore both hats include (1997), State latter project marking Mamet’s Broadway debut in 1977 and Main (2000), Heist (2001) and Spartan (2004). He and winning the Drama Critics’ Circle prize for eschews using a personal computer to write his Best American Play. With often hard-hitting, viscerally screenplays and plays, preferring to use his old-fashioned disturbing language, Mamet’s output soon earned him a typewriter. teaching position at Yale University and a 1978 return to Broadway with the radio-oriented /Mr. ENNIO MORRICONE (b. November 10, 1928 in Rome, Happiness, won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the Lazio, Italy) is perhaps the Susan Lucci of the Oscars, play Glengarry Glen Ross and was nominated for the having been nominated six times for Best Original Score, 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the play The yet never won until last year when he won for The Hateful Cryptogram. He was twice nominated for Broadway's Eight (2015). His other films include, Malèna (2000), Tony Award for Best Play: in 1984 for Glengarry Glen (1991), The Untouchables (1987) and Once Upon a Ross, and in 1988 for Speed-the-Plow. Although he Time in America (1984), Days of Heaven (1978). He won intended it as a deconstruction of ruthless business Golden Globes for Best Original Score for La leggenda practices and the nature of capitalism, many businesses del pianista sull'oceano (1998) in 2000 and in 1987 for have used the film Glengarry Glen Ross as a training The Mission (1986). He was also nominated an additional method and motivational tool for employees. Mamet is four times. He has also has been nominated for a Grammy known for rapid-fire dialogue studded with obscenities three times and won for Best Album of Original and explorations of power relationships and corporate Instrumental Background Score Written for his work on De Palma—THE UNTOUCHABLES—3 tonight’s film, The Untouchables (1987). A tireless space with Carl Sagan. In addition to tonight’s film, he has worker, Morricone has composed for over 527 films and collaborated with De Palma on seven films: Snake Eyes TV series, some of which are Voyage of Time (1998), Mission: Impossible (1996), Carlito's Way (1993), (Documentary, Post-production, 2016), La corrispondenza Raising Cain (1992), (1989) and (2016), Ripley's Game (2002), (2000), Mission to Mars (2000). He was nominated for an Oscar The Phantom of the Opera (1998), The Legend of 1900 for Best Cinematography in 1993 for the Danny Devito- (1998), Bulworth (1998), Lolita (1997), Who Killed helmed Hoffa (1992). Some of this 43 other Pasolini? (1995), A Pure Formality (1994), In the Line of cinematographer credits include Confessions of a Teenage Fire (1993), Bugsy (1991), Hamlet (1990), State of Grace Drama Queen (2004), Life or Something Like It (2002), (1990), Casualties of War (1989), The Untouchables Mystery Men (1999), Fathers' Day (1997), The Shadow (1987), The Mission (1986), Red Sonja (1985), Once (1994), Man Trouble (1992), He Said, She Said (1991), Upon a Time in America (1984), Sahara (1983), White The War of the Roses (1989), Arthur 2: On the Rocks Dog (1982), The Professional (1981), La cage aux folles (1988), The Untouchables (1987), Nutcracker (1986), 8 II (1980), Luna (1972), Corleone (1978), La Cage aux Million Ways to Die (1986), The Bride (1985), St. Elmo's Folles (1978), Days of Heaven (1978), Orca (1977), Fire (1985), (1984), Uncommon Valor Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), 1900 (1976), Salò, or the (1983), Rumble Fish (1983), Something Wicked This Way 120 Days of Sodom (1975), The Devil Is a Woman (1974), Comes (1983), The Outsiders (1983), (1982), My Name Is Nobody (1973), Bluebeard (1972), Duck, You The Escape Artist (1982), Death Valley (1982), The Sucker (1971), 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (1971), The Golden Moment: An Olympic Love Story (1980, TV Decameron (1971), Sacco & Vanzetti (1971), Two Mules Movie), The T.V. Show (1979, TV Movie), Land of the for Sister Sara (1970), Investigation of a Citizen Above Lost (1974, TV Series), No Way Out (1973), The Ann- Suspicion (1970), Machine Gun McCain (1969), Once Margret: From Hollywood with Love (1969, TV Special), Upon a Time in the West (1968), The Good, the Bad and Wild Gypsies (1969), Rodeo (1969, Documentary short), the Ugly (1966), Navajo Joe (1966), The Battle of Algiers and The Perils of Priscilla (1969, Short). (1966), For a Few Dollars More (1965), A Pistol for Ringo (1965), A Fistful of Dollars (1964), Eighteen in the Sun (1962), The Fascist (1961), and La signora delle camelie (1992).

STEPHEN H. BURUM (b. November 25, 1939 in Visalia, ) was interested in building model airplanes and science as a kid and has described himself as a “great ‘gadgetier’”. Burum studied film at UCLA where was one of his classmates (he would go on to make many films with the director). Of his schooling, he has stated, “UCLA also had many elective motion picture courses, such as music, animation, special effects, documentaries, producing, and entertainment law. I took every one of these courses except for music. I shot a lot of student films. I also got a graduate degree from UCLA. By the time I graduated, I had shot around 70 student films, (b. January 18, 1955 in Lynwood, mainly in black and white. I think that only two of them California) moved around for much of his childhood and were in color.” His first break came when Ron Dexter was often the new kid in school. To off-set his lack of turned down a job traveling with Ann-Margret to Sweden, friends, he wrote poetry and created art. At 18, he built his and shooting 35mm film of her for a television special. He own canoe and paddled his way down the rivers that was busy and recommended Burum. Simultaneously, Lewis & Clark followed to the Pacific. Despite his present Burum was also shooting non-union slasher and horror height of 6’1”, he was only 5'2" when he graduated high films, such as Scream Bloody Murder (1973). He also did school. Nonetheless, he still managed to be a basketball, several PBS drama shows at KCET that were throwbacks football and baseball star—which would serve him well in to old playhouse ‘90s shows. He was working with the future acting roles. In 1973, he enrolled at California State MagiCam, a special technique for creating visual effects. University at Fullerton, where he majored in business. Known as “the MagiCam guy” for visual effects shots got During that period, Kevin decided to take acting lessons him work on Little House on the Prairie and the Mork & five nights a week. He graduated with a business degree in Mindy television series. I also shared an Emmy for visual 1978 and married his college sweetheart, Cindy Costner. effects on Cosmos, a PBS TV special exploring outer He initially took a marketing job in Orange County. De Palma—THE UNTOUCHABLES—4

Everything changed when he accidentally met Richard Hunt for Red October (1990), (1986), Murder Burton on a flight from Mexico. Burton advised him to go on the Orient Express (1974), and The Rock (1996). completely after acting if that is what he wanted. He quit Connery has been polled as "The Greatest Living Scot" his job and moved to Hollywood soon after. He drove a and "Scotland's Greatest Living National Treasure". In truck, worked on a deep sea fishing boat, and gave bus 1989, he was proclaimed "Sexiest Man Alive" by People tours to stars' homes before finally making his own way Magazine, and in 1999, at age 69, he was voted "Sexiest into the films. After making one soft core sex film, he Man of the Century". Before going into acting, Sean had vowed to not work again if that was the only work he many different jobs, such as a milkman, lorry driver, a could do. He didn't work for nearly six years, while he laborer, artist's model for the College of Art, waited for a proper break. That break came with The Big coffin polisher and bodybuilder. He also joined the Royal Chill (1983), even though his scenes ended up on the Navy, but was later discharged because of medical cutting room floor. However, after that came Costner’s problems. At the age of 23, he had a choice between big breaks in films such as (1989), Bull becoming a professional footballer or an actor, and even Durham (1988), No Way Out (1989). In 1990 he directed though he showed much promise in the sport, he chose and starred in his most well-known film, Dances with acting and said it was one of his more intelligent moves. Wolves (1990), which won 1991 Oscar for Best Picture No Road Back (1957) was Sean's first major movie role, and Costner was nominated for Best Director. He has two and it followed by several TV movies such as Anna additional director credits: Open Range (2003) and The Christie (1957), (1961) and Postman (1997). While Costner was white-hot in the (1961) and guest appearances on TV-series, and also films ‘90s, his star cooled a bit, especially after the especially such as Hell Drivers (1957), Another Time, Another Place after the underwhelming and over-budget film flop (1958), Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959), The (1995). Recently, he has returned with a Frightened City (1961). Connery's breakthrough came in series of strong performances including the TV-miniseries the role of secret agent . He was reluctant to Hatfields & McCoys (2012) and the DC comic Batman v commit to a film series, but understood that if the films : Dawn of Justice (2016). He has 57 acting succeeded his career would greatly benefit. He played the credits: Molly's Game (2017, pre-production), Hidden character in the first five Bond films: Dr. No (1962), From Figures (2016, post-production), Criminal (2016), Russia with Love (1963), (1964), McFarland, USA (2015), Black or White (2014), Draft (1965), and You Only Live Twice (1967) - then appeared Day (2014), 3 Days to Kill (2014), : Shadow again as Bond in Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and Never Recruit (2014), Man of Steel (2013), (2010), The New Daughter (2009), Swing Vote (2008), Mr. Brooks (2007), (2006), Rumor Has It... (2005), The Upside of Anger (2005), Open Range (2003), Dragonfly (2002), 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001), Thirteen Days (2000), Play It to the Bone (1999), For Love of the Game (1999), Message in a Bottle (1999), The Postman (1997), (1996), The War (1994), (1994), A Perfect World (1993), The Bodyguard (1992), JFK (1991), : Prince of Thieves (1991), (1990), Revenge (1990), The Gunrunner (1989), Amazing Stories (1985, TV Series), Say Never Again (1983). All seven films were Silverado (1985), Fandango (1985), Testament (1983), commercially successful. The The Big Chill (1983, scenes deleted), Stacy's Knights selected Connery’s James Bond as the third-greatest hero (1983), 1983 Table for Five (1983), Chasing Dreams in cinema history. James Bond's creator, , (1982), Frances (1982), Night Shift (1982) and Malibu originally doubted Connery's casting, saying, "He's not Hot Summer (1981). what I envisioned of James Bond looks", and "I'm looking for Commander Bond and not an overgrown stunt-man," SEAN CONNERY (b. , 1930 in Edinburgh, adding that Connery (muscular, 6' 2", and a Scot) was Scotland) is best known for portraying the character James unrefined. The actor whom Fleming embodied Bond in Bond, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and Fleming's mind was . Fleming's girlfriend told 1983. In 1988, Connery won the Academy Award for Best him that Connery had the requisite sexual charisma, and Supporting Actor for his role in tonight’s film. His career Fleming changed his mind after the successful Dr. No also includes such films as Marnie (1964), The Name of (1962) premiere. He was so impressed he created a half- the Rose (1986), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Scottish, half-Swiss heritage for Bond in the later novels. (2003), and the Last Crusade (1989), The Connery was forced to wear a toupee during each of the De Palma—THE UNTOUCHABLES—5

Bond movies because he had started balding at the age of success of the original, but he gained notice in The Buddy 17. This didn't prevent Connery from being cast in roles, Holly Story (1978), Never Cry Wolf (1983) and the although it became more noticeable in his later years. De successful Starman (1984). Smith has acted in 88 films Palma actually tried to get Connery for the role of Robert and TV series, some of which are Motive (2015, TV Elliott in Dressed to Kill (1980), but the actor had a Series), Leverage (2009, TV Series), Jack and Jill vs. the previously acquired commitment. He was made a Knight World (2008), Lucky You (2007), Drive (2007, TV Series), Bachelor in the 2000 Queen's Millennium Honors List for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2006, TV Series), Da his services to Film Drama. He was knighted by Queen Vinci's City Hall (2005-2006, TV Series), The Triangle Elizabeth II in an hour-long investiture ceremony at (2005, TV Mini-Series), Touching Wild Horses (2002), Edinburgh's in Scotland on July 5, 2000. Dead Heat (2002), Ally McBeal (2001, TV Series), P.T. Depsite his only Oscar coming from tonight’s film, Barnum (1999, TV Movie), The Final Cut (1996), Perfect according to a poll conducted by British film magazine Alibi (1995)The X-Files (1995, TV Series), Speechless Empire, he created the worst accent in the history of (1994), Northern Exposure (1994, TV Series), L.A. Law cinema in the movie The Untouchables (1987). Connery’s (1993, TV Series), (1993, TV Series), Tales list of 94 acting credits includes The League of from the Crypt (1993, TV Series), The Untouchables Extraordinary Gentlemen (1993, TV Series), Deep (2003), Cover (1992), The Experts (2000), Entrapment (1999), (1989), The Untouchables (1998), (1987), Trick or Treat (1986), The Avengers (1998), First The Twilight Zone (1985, TV Knight (1995), Just Cause Series), Starman (1984), More (1995), A Good Man in (1979), The Africa (1994), Rising Sun Story (1978), The (1993), Medicine Man Hazing (1977), No Deposit, (1992), Robin Hood: Prince No Return (1976), Rafferty of Thieves (1991), and the Gold Dust Twins Highlander II: The (1975), American Graffiti Quickening (1991), The Russia House (1990), Family (1973), Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973), Go Ask Alice Business (1989), The Presidio (1988), Sword of the (1973, TV Movie), Room 222 (1972, TV Series), The Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Culpepper Cattle Co. (1972), Monty Nash (1971, TV (1984), (1983), Five Days One Series) and The Brady Bunch (1971, TV Series). He also Summer (1982), (1981), Outland (1981), has 16 director and 6 writing credits. Cuba (1979), Meteor (1979), The Great (1979), A Bridge Too Far (1977), The Next Man (1976), ANDY GARCÍA (b. April 12, 1956 in Havana, Cuba) was (1976), The Man Who Would Be King born as a conjoined twin. His twin was no bigger than a (1975), (1975), The Terrorists tennis ball and was surgically removed. All that remains is (1974), (1974), (1973), The Anderson a scar on his shoulder. Born into an affluent Cuban family, Tapes (1971), The Molly Maguires (1970), The Red Tent when Garcia was two years old, Fidel Castro came to (1969), Male of the Species (1969, TV Movie), Shalako power, and the family fled to Miami Beach. Forced to (1968), (1966), The Hill (1965), work menial jobs for a while, the family started a Operation Snafu (1961), An Age of Kings (1960, TV fragrance company that was eventually worth more than a Series), Tarzan's Greatest Adventure (1959), Armchair million dollars. He dreamed of playing professional Theatre (1958, TV Series), Another Time, Another Place baseball. In his senior year, though, he contracted (1958), Hell Drivers (1957), No Road Back (1957), The mononucleosis and hepatitis, and unable to play sports, he Condemned (1956, TV Movie), Dixon of Dock Green turned his attention to acting. His first break came as a (1956, TV Series) and Let's Make Up (1954). gang member on the very first episode of the popular TV series Hill Street Blues (1981). His role as a cocaine CHARLES MARTIN SMITH (b. October 30, 1953 in Van kingpin in 8 Million Ways to Die (1986) put him on the Nuys, California) is an American film actor, writer, and radar of Brian De Palma, who was casting for his director. Born in , California, Smith was classic The Untouchables (1987). At first, the director discovered by a talent agent while acting in a school play, envisioned Garcia as Al Capone's sadistic henchman usually a rare occurrence. After a few years of working in Frank Nitti, but fearing as a gangster, Garcia film, he landed the role of Terry "The Toad" Fields in campaigned for the role of George Stone, the Italian cop 's1973 film, American Graffiti (1973). The who gets accepted into Eliot Ness' famous band of sequel, (1979), did not have the lawmen. Garcia's next notable role came in Black Rain De Palma—THE UNTOUCHABLES—6

(1989) by acclaimed director , as the partner ROBERT DE NIRO (b. August 17, 1943 in New York, of police detective . He then co-starred New York) is thought of as one of the greatest actors of all with in Internal Affairs (1990), directed by time. Born in , , New York . In 1989, Francis Ford Coppola was casting City, to painter and abstract for the highly anticipated third installment of his expressionist, Robert DeNiro Sr. Growing up in the Little "Godfather" films. : Part III (1990) Italy section of , his nickname was "Bobby included one of the most sought-after roles in decades, the Milk" because he of his slight frame and pale “milk” skin. hot-headed son of Sonny Corleone and mob protégé of He first discovered his love for acting at age 10 when he Michael Corloene, Vincent Mancini. A plum role for any portrayed The Cowardly Lion in a local production of The young rising star, the role was campaigned for by a host of Wizard of Oz. His first noteworthy performance was his actors from Val Kilmer, , Vincent Spano, role in Bang the Drum Slowly (1973), but it was his work Charlie Sheen, to even Robert De Niro (who wanted the in Mean Streets (1973), that solidified his talent, as well as role changed to accommodate his age). The up-and- his collaboration with Scorsese. De Niro has won many coming Garcia beat them all out for the part and his awards including receiving an Academy Award for Best performance earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Godfather: Part II Supporting Actor in 1991. Garcia has stayed true to his (1974) and received Academy Award nominations for Cuban heritage, but has never returned to his birth Best Actor in (1976), country. He has said, “I never applied to go back to Cuba. (1978), and Cape Fear (1991) and Silver Linings They did invite me to the Havana Film Festival, but I am Playbook (2012). He won the Best Actor award in 1981 opposed to the regime in Cuba. I'd have liked to go back for his portrayal of boxer Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull every day of my life. But in (1980). De Niro has acted honor of all the people who in 108 films and TV shows have died and suffered under some of which are Dirty that regime, I'm not able to Grandpa (2016), Joy make that leap.” Garcia has (2015), The Intern (2015), starred in 84 acting roles The Bag Man (2014), including Geostorm (2017, American Hustle (2013), post-production), True Last Vegas (2013), The Memoirs of an International Family (2013), Killing Assassin (2016, post- Season (2013), Killer Elite production), Headlock (2016, (2011), 30 Rock (2011, TV completed), Max Steel (2016), Series), Little Fockers Ghostbusters (2016), Kill the (2010), Arthur and the Messenger (2014), Let's Be Cops (2014), At Middleton Invisibles (2006), The Bridge of San Luis Rey (2004), (2013), Open Road (2013), City Island (2009), The Pink Meet the Fockers (2004), Shark Tale (2004), Analyze That Panther 2 (2009), New York, I Love You (2008), Ocean's (2002), Showtime (2002), Meet the Parents (2000), Thirteen (2007), Smokin' Aces (2006), The Lost City Analyze This (1999), Ronin (1998), Great Expectations (2005), The Lazarus Child (2005), Ocean's Twelve (2004), (1998), Jackie Brown (1997), (1997), Cop Modigliani (2004), Twisted (2004), Confidence (2003), Land (1997), Marvin's Room (1996), (1996), The Will & Grace (2003, TV Series), (2001, TV Fan (1996), Heat (1995), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Series), Ocean's Eleven (2001), For Love or Country: The (1994), This Boy's Life (1993), Mistress (1992), Backdraft Arturo Sandoval Story (2000, TV Movie), Swing Vote (1991), Awakenings (1990), Stanley & Iris (1990), (1999, TV Movie), Just the Ticket (1999), Desperate Jacknife (1989), Midnight Run (1988), The Untouchables Measures (1998), Hoodlum (1997), Death in Granada (1987), Angel Heart (1987), The Mission (1986), Brazil (1996), Night Falls on Manhattan (1996), Things to Do in (1985), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), The King of Denver When You're Dead (1995), When a Man Loves a Comedy (1982), True Confessions (1981), 1900 (1976), Woman (1994), Jennifer 8 (1992), Hero (1992), Dead The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (1971), Born to Again (1991), A Show of Force (1990), American Roulette Win (1971), Bloody Mama (1970), The Wedding Party (1988), Stand and Deliver (1988), (1969), Greetings (1968), Young Wolves (1968), and Presents (1985, TV Series), The Mean Season (1985), Three Rooms in Manhattan (1965). Additionally, De Niro Brothers (1984, TV Series), Murder, She Wrote (1984, TV heads his own production company, Tribeca Film Center, Series), A Night in Heaven (1983), Blue Skies Again and made his directorial debut in1993 with ; (1983), Archie Bunker's Place (TV Series) and ¿Qué pasa, he also directed The Good Shepherd (2006). This month, U.S.A.? (TV Series). De Niro will partner with four-time Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks in bringing A Bronx Tale to De Palma—THE UNTOUCHABLES—7

Broadway. Neither co-director is new to the material: All the King's Men (2006), Good Night, and Good Luck. Zaks directed the 2007 Broadway staging of the original (2005), Six Feet Under (2002-2005, TV Series), The one-man play, while De Niro directed the 1993 movie Dying Gaul (2005), Dogville (2003), Carrie (2002, TV version. This time around the directors are also partnering Movie), The Baroness and the Pig (2002), Heartbreak with the original book writer, Chazz Palminteri, for whom Hospital (2002), Far from Heaven (2002), Welcome to the life the story is partially based. The play opened last Collinwood (2002), Frasier (2001, TV Series), Wendigo weekend to glowing reviews. (2001), The Pledge (2001), Joe Gould's Secret (2000), Wonderland (2000, TV Series), The Green Mile (1999), PATRICIA CLARKSON (b. December 29, 1959 in New Wayward Son (1999), Simply Irresistible (1999), Playing Orleans, Louisiana) demonstrated an early interest in by Heart (1998), Murder One (1995-1996, TV Series), acting and took her basic college studies at Louisiana Pharaoh's Army (1995), (1995), Caught in the State University. She soon transferred to New York's Act (1993, TV Movie), Queen (1993, TV Mini-Series), Fordham University and graduated with honors in theatre Law & Order (1990, TV Series), Tune in Tomorrow... arts. Accepted into the prestigious Yale School of Drama (1990), Tales from the Crypt (1990, TV Series), The Old graduate program, she earned her Master of Fine Arts after Man and the Sea (1990, TV Movie), Everybody's All- gracing a wide range of productions including Electra, American (1990), Rocket Gibraltar (1988), The Equalizer Pericles, Twelfth Night, The Lower Depths, and La Ronde. (1986, TV Series) and Spenser: For Hire (1985, TV From there she took on New York City where she Series). attracted strong East Coast notice in 1986 for her portrayal . of Corrina in The House of Blue Leaves". However, it wasn’t until she was 28 that the husky-voiced actress decided to try her hand in Hollywood. Clarkson made her movie debut as Mrs. Eliot Ness in Brian De Palma's The Untouchables (1987) and the following year she gained attention for playing Samantha Walker in The Dead Pool (1988) opposite 's popular Dirty Harry character. In 2004, she earned glowing notice for her portrayal of Southern belle Blanche DuBois in the Kennedy Center production of A Streetcar Named Desire. On camera she was offered roles of marked diversity. From the heavier dramatics of a film like Pharaoh's Army (1995) to ’s light comedy in the TV-movie London Suite (1996). However it was her bleak, convulsive portrayal of Greta, a strung-out, heroin-happy German has-been actress, opposite a resurgent Ally From World Film Directors, Vol. II. Edited by John Sheedy in the acclaimed High Art (1998) that truly put Wakeman. H.W. Wilson Co., NY, 1988 Patricia on the indie map. In 2003, Patricia received a special acting prize at the for her DE PALMA, BRIAN (RUSSELL) superb work in three films: as a somber, grieving artist in American director and scenarist, born in Newark, New The Station Agent (2003), a jokey, get-with-it mom in All Jersey, the third son of Anthony De Palma and the former the Real Girls (2003), and a cold-hearted cancer victim in Vivienne Muti, grew up in . He says that as a Pieces of April (2003), which earned her an Oscar child he was ”thrust up against the reality of physical pain, nomination Best Actress in a Supporting Actress. She has disease, the terror of the operating theatre. My father was acted in 87 films and television shows, some of which are an orthopedic surgeon and I used to watch him operate. I The Bookshop (2017, post-production), The Party (2017, was fascinated by his complex and, at times, gruesome post-production), Delirium (2016, completed), American operations.” Broad City (2015, TV Series), Annie (2014), October An exceptionally able science student, De Palma Gale (2014), The Maze Runner (2014), Learning to Drive at first majored in physics at , where (2014), Last Weekend (2014), The East (2013), One Day he joined the university drama group, he Columbia (2011), Friends with Benefits (2011), Main Street (2010), Players. He wanted to direct rather than act but as a Easy A (2010), Legendary (2010), Shutter Island (2010), freshman was not allowed to, and decided to make his Cairo Time (2009), Whatever Works (2009), Vicky mark by involving the Players in a movie. He bought a Cristina Barcelona (2008), Elegy (2008), Phoebe in second hand 16mm Bolex for $150 and used his Wonderland (2008), Blind Date (2007), Lars and the Real allowance to finance what became a forty-minute film Girl (2007), Married Life (2007), No Reservations (2007), called Icarus (1960). Intending to serve as cameraman. he De Palma—THE UNTOUCHABLES—8 wound up as director. The result he describes as the Op Art exhibition at the . De “pretentious and disastrous, but, nonetheless, a Palma says of the latter that he “shot it in four hours, with beginning.” His second student movie was 660124. The synch sound. I had two guys shooting people’s reactions Story of an IBM Card. (1961), financed by the sale of to the paintings and the paintings themselves.” The film equipment he had won at science fairs; it as still and the Treasury Department documentary both made pretentious, he says, “but a little better, technically.” money and enabled De Pallma to make his second feature, De Palma’s interest in film grew more serious, Murder a la Mod (1968), written and edited by the and he switched his major director. from science to fine arts. According to De However, “I never became a Palma, the idea of Murder a real movie junkie like Martin la Mod “is that we go Scorsese and some of my through the same murder other friends. They have a from three different points terrific vocabulary. I sort of of view, the three principal acquired it as I went along. As characters. Each of the three a student at Columbia, he sequences is shot in a came under the influence of different style….For the New York television instance, the girl who gets documentaries—the prophets killed, her section is very of “direct cinema”—and of the French New Wave, much like opera, because her life is like that. Then especially Godard. And his discovery of Hitchcock “was we go through the murder a second time, from the point of like suddenly finding someone who is speaking your view of the guy, and we did that one like Hitchcock, very language and realizing that there is a vocabulary. You eerie, cinematic, suspenseful. The third one is done like a begin to be aware of a very grammatical use of the silent comedy because the character, a horror-film actor, camera….I began to realize why Hitchcock engages you played by Bill Kinley, is a deaf-mute. …It ends with the so strongly; your were in the same position as the discovery of who really did the crime. But it’s so character. You saw the same information the character complicated stylistically that people get lost in it real fast. saw.” Later he was fascinated by the films of Roman ...We couldn’t get get a distribution for that movie either. Polanski, especially Repulsion. We opened at the Gate Theatre in the East Village. The De Palma made one more student film before he Times gave it a good review. But it died.” graduated in 1962, an exploration of silent cinema styles Greetings (1968) was written by De Palma in called Wotan’s Wake. Featuring , who has collaboration with Charles Hirsch, who also produced the appeared in a number of De Palma’s pictures, it won film. Hirsch was then in charge of Universal’s new talent several prizes, and the admiration of . This program, but Universal was not interested in Greetings, success helped him to win an MCA writing fellowship to and De Palma and Hirsch went into debt to raise the , where he worked for two years $43,000 they needed. Ike Murder a la Mode, the film is in on his fist feature, The Wedding Party, He wrote, directed, three sections, each focusing on one of a trio of New produced and edited the film himself, with help form a Yorkers: Paul Shaw (Jonathan Warden), drafted for teacher(Wilfred Leach) and a wealthy classmate (Cynthia Vietnam, does his best to arrive for his medical Munroe) who also put up $100,000 of her own money. examination in a state of physical collapse and then, while The cast included and a young actor named waiting for the result, explores the dubious rewards of Robert De Niro, who walked in one day for a casting call. computer dating. Lloyd Clay (), obsessed Shot in black and white by Peter Powell, the movie has with the assassination of President Kennedy, traces the been described as “a display of film pyrotechnics: flashy trajectory of the fatal bullets across the naked body of his jump cuts between improvised scenes and frenetic girlfriend; Jon Rubin (Robert De Niro), an ardent voyeur experiments in camera movement and editing style.” and prophet of “peep art” winds up in Vietnam. Commercial distributors were not interested, and The Michael Pye and Lynda Myles wrote in The Wedding Party seems to have had only one public Movie Brats that this witty abd original film “brought De screening, financed by De Palma in 1969. Palma general recognition for the first time. With his crew of eight, who were friends and students from New York Back in New York City, De Palma meanwhile University, he managed to make a virtue out of the took what work he could find, including a documentary limitations under which he was worklng. made in Britain, another commissioned by the U.S. Purely for reasons of economy, he used very long Treasury Department. Legal Defense, for the NAACP, and takes. These tend to allow improvising actors to maunder the Responsive Eye (1966), which records the opening of on, but they also give the film a loose, episodic character De Palma—THE UNTOUCHABLES—9 that develops [into] an exhilarating picture of the something, you’re already losing the intimacy of the generation of 1968 and their particular problems and form.” obsessions. Just because it was shot while the worries At this point De Palma was invited to Hollywood were real, it has a raw edge that later reconstruction by Warner Brothers, who thought him the right man to cannot bring.” Another critic called Greetings “a loose direct a “crazy, lunatic comedy” called Get to Know Your and anarchic street film heavily influenced by Godard’s Rabbit. It stars as a market analyst who Masculin/Féminin which earned critical acclaim, a drops out to become a stage magician, achieves success distributor, one of the earliest ratings from the MPAA, a with the help of a master magician (), and is Silver Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival, and a lot of promptly taken over as a profitable property by his former money.” boss. “The idea,” De Palma says, “is that what America A good deal of that money did with the revolution was to make went into Dionysus in ’69 (1970), a it rich, and then completely castrate record of a participatory “total it.” The movie was almost finished theatre” production of Euripides’ when De Palma fell out with by Richard Smothers and was fired. Warners Schechner’s Performance Group. De gave the film to a project Palma made the film because he coordinator named Peter Nelson thought the production worth who, according to De Palma, “cut preserving. He used two cameras it, rearranged some scenes, directed and a split screen to follow both the a new sequence and put in other action and the audience scenes that I had decided to involvement in it—an extension Elliott Ness eliminate.” The result has its of what he had tried to do in filming viewers’ reactions in admirers, but De Palma is not among them. The Responsive Eye. The experiment was costly in The director turned down another picture because financial terms, but De Palms learned a great deal in the he was unhappy with the casting (Fuzz, with Burt year he devoted to editing the film. Reynolds and Raquel Welch) and then found himself A sequel to Greetings followed, called Hi, Mom! “really dead” in Hollywood. He was rescued by the And taking up the story of the De Niro character, Jon independent producer Edward Pressman, who got together Rubin, after his return from Vietnam. Once again De financing for a modest thriller called Sisters (Blood Sisters Palma organized his material into three parts—Jon’s in Britain). A woman reporter () witnesses a further attempt to make a “peep art” movie; a spoof of murder but can’t make anyone believe her story; the educational television, and a third section (later cut) in killing turns out to be the work of a repressed girl(Margot which a woman () living in a housing coop Kidder) who is the surviving member of a pair of Siamese films a “diary” of her own life. The television spoof twins. She is possessed by the murderous spirit of her purports to be a cinéma vérité account of a participatory dead sister and driven to kill whenever her own guilty theatre production in which black action (in whiteface) sexuality is aroused. The script, by De Palma and Louisa involved the radically chic white audience (in blackface) Rose, borrow openly from Hitchcock’s , in psychodramas that are sometimes alarmingly close to Psycho and Rope, as well as from Polanski’s Repulsion; the real thing. the music, by Hitchcock’s composer In De Palma’s own opinion, this “Be Black Baby” (tracked down by De Palma in London), incorporates episode, in which he had set out “to show how you lie passages from the scores of Psycho, Marnie, and Vertigo. with documentaries,” is so powerful that it “ran away with Michael Pye and Linda Myles regard Sisters as De the rest of the movie,” destroying its balance.” Perhaps for Palma’s masterpiece, “the film in which he integrated his this reason, Hi, Mom! Did not share the financial success taste for complex devices like split screen, his of Greetings, though it confirmed De Palma’s growing understanding of Hitchcock’s methods, and his ideas and underground reputation, especially with the young. his ambition to make a commercially successful film. Discussing the preoccupation with voyeurism that is so Sisters went out… as an exploitation film, sold on a strong an element in his film, the director has said that bloody, sensational line, but, like the best of exploitation “when you’re watching something voyeuristically, you films, it has a clear intelligence which allows the film to can watch the most insane things. You can watch a be at once a shocker and an exploration of voyeurism in woman ironing across the street and te key question is will the cinema, the fundamentals of the medium,…Split she go to the refrigerator and take out a sandwich?” For screen is the most striking of De Palma’s devices in De Palma “voyeurism is a direct link with a point-of-view Sisters…. But there are other devices, apparently shot,” and this is what the cinema can do that the theatre distancing, that punctuate the film and actually help the cannot—“if you start photographing people talking about suspense….De Palma refers constantly to forms of De Palma—THE UNTOUCHABLES—10 voyeurism—the reporter watching the apartment, the score—his last apart from Taxi Driver—and reportedly detective with the binoculars at the end….The homage to was responsible for a number of changes in the film’s Hitchcock helps tell the story. It is neither gratuitous nor conception. The result was an absorbing, mysterious, flashy. It is the essence of the film.” Richard Schickel romantic movie with a startlingly bleak and unsettling agreed, praising the “weirdly plausible and marvelously ending. Some critics found it ponderous, and excessively original plot,” the parodies (like one of a voyeuristic distanced and stylized, but it did unexpectedly well at the television game, the freshness of the New York location box office. work, and “the delicate balance between humor and De Palma still had not scored the sort of smash hit horror” that De Palma brings to his storytelling. that had bought creative freedom for such friends as De Palma’s next movie was also made for Scorsese and Spielberg, but he came close with his next Pressman. The Phantom of Paradise (1974) combines a film, Carrie (1976), adapted by Lawrence D. Cohen from tribute to another kind of horror film—the Lon Chaney a novel by Steven King. Sissy Spacek plays Carrie White, version of The Phantom of the Opera—and De Palma’s a plain, timid teenager with a repressed and fanatically fascination with a culture that has religious mother (). become increasingly voyeuristic and Disturbed by the onset of sadistic, finding its most intense menstruation, Carrie discovers that titillation in the endless media she has the power of telekinesis. coverage of the Kennedy When her schoolmates humiliate assassination. Placing these two her at the annual prom—electing themes in the context of the rock her prom queen and then drenching music business, De Palma came up her with pig’s blood—Carrie with a baroque story about a young unleashes her powers with terrible composer (William Finley), swindled, effect, bringing death to her framed, and disfigured by the evil tormentors, her mother, and herself. impresario whose auditorium he Al Capone At the end of the movie the most haunts, and the mogul’s even more abominable plan to sympathetic of Carrie’s schoolmates () takes stage the assassination of a rock star for prime-time flowers to the dead girl’s grave in a lyrical, soft-focus television. The degenerate impresario, who has sold his scene whose promise of peace is shockingly denied. soul to the devil in exchange for perpetual youth, is played Pye and Michaels found Carrie “a repellent film. by Paul Williams, who also composed the pastiche sixties A woman’s sexuality has often appeared ambiguous, even music. the mainspring of danger in De Palma’s films, but here it The film is full of De Palma trademarks—the split is unequivocally seen as both menacing and disgusting.” screen, the cinematic references, the final bloodbath, the David Thomason, likewise disapproving, called the film preoccupation with voyeurism (watchers being watched the work of “a glittering, callous surgeon who left his watching on closed-circuit television). This time, a knife in the body.” On the other hand, critics more number of reviewers thought the devices empty and self- interested in technique than content tended to share the parodic, though others were impressed. Richard Schickel views of Paula Matusa, who thought this “De Palma’s best called it “a crazy, savage film—iconoclastic and truly feature film to date. It strikes a pleasing balance between liberating,” and Pauline Kael wrote that De Palma creates plot line, character motivation, and visual style…[and De a new Guignol, in a modern idiom, out of the movie Palma’s] visual fireworks for the first time do not seem Guignol of the past.” Kael, who had not shared the general themselves obsessional and out of control.” enthusiasm for Sisters, maintained that De Palma had still There was an equally mixed response to The Fury not learned to do “the routine scenes that establish (1978), which addresses itself to similar themes. Scripted character relations and give a movie ‘heart,’” but thought by and with music by , it deals that he “thrives on frowzy visual hyperbole….His with two young people (Amy Irving and John Stevens) technique is inspired amateurism, his work resembles who have never met but who share immense psychic gifts what hundreds of student filmmakers have one, but there’s that enable them to communicate. The boy is abducted by a level of personal obsession which makes the material his a sinister government agency (headed by ) own.” to be used in mind-control experiments, and his father Returning to his Hitchockian fount, De Palma () sets out to rescue him. Like Carrie, the made Obsession (1976), a variation on the theme of film ends with the young people using their gifts to wreak Vertigo—the apparent reincarnation of the dead beloved— terrible vengeance on their enemies. scripted by and starring and It seemed to James Monaco that The Fury offered Genevieve Bujold. Bernard Herrmann again provided the some technically admirable scenes and some excellent De Palma—THE UNTOUCHABLES—11 performances, but that its “human relationships are George Morris in was outraged by the overshadowed by the supernatural gimmicks.” Many were favorable comparison with Hitchcock, saying that the delighted by the film, however, and it added to De latter rooted “the violence and terror of his films…in the Palma’s growing cult reputation. Pauline Kael in her psychological truths of character,” while Dressed to Kill review wrote that “no other director shows such clear-cut “lurches along from one set piece to another” with development in technique from film to film….What “nothing but dead space in between.” Richard Combs put distinguishes De Palma’s visual style is a smoothness the same point of view in different terms when he called combined with a jazzy willingness to appear crazy or the movie “the masterpiece of Brian De Palma’s campy; it could be that he’s developing one of the great gratuitous cinema” in which “there is no illusion that the film styles….The visual poetry of The Fury is sp strong movie connections connect with anything but the that its narrative and verbal inadequacies do no matter. No director’s yen for free-floating visceral Hitchcock thriller was ever so intense, went so far, or had excitement….Because DePalma’s suspense mechanisms so many ‘classic’ sequences.“ are so free of emotional content, they become enjoyable In 1978 De Palma returned to Sarah Lawrence simply as absurd conceits, more Dada than Hitchcock.” College, where he had made his first feature, to teach a There were similar but on the whole less extreme film workshop. The class project was released as Home reactions to (1981), another hit. It stars John Movies (1979), written by students but filmed by Travolta as a Philadelphia sound technician who witnesses professionals under De Palma’s direction. It is a cheerfully the assassination of a politician and its cover-up, and uses amateurish piece of nonsense set at “Now College” (where his special skills to unravel the mystery, Kirk Douglas teaches “Star Therapy”) and centering on plays a “hooker with soul.” Along the way the movie the wildly libidinous Byrd family (almost every member refers more or less directly to Rear Window, Psycho, of which is making some kind of movie). The reviewers Sisters, Dressed to Kill, and Antonioni’s Blow Up among found the humor generally sophomoric but were otherwise other films, and for Michiko Kakutani it represents reminded of the comic style of Greetings and Hi, Mom! “something of a culmination of techniques and Nancy Allen, who had appeared in Carrie and here plays a preoccupations examined in previous works. While its “reformed slut,” was married to De Palma in 1979. elaborate orchestration of terror and sophisticated De Palma’s next film, Dressed to Kill (1980), cinematic vocabulary have roots in such formalized works turned out to be the smash hit he needed. Written by the as Dressed to Kill the film’s overtones of Watergate and director, it is yet another homage to Hitchcock’s Psycho Chappaquiddick recall the director’s early, political (this time with a nod to De Palma’s own Carrie thrown in comedies such as Greetings and Hi, Mom!” several critics for good measure). plays a frustrated found a greater emotional density in this picture than in its middle-class New Yorker who discusses her sexual predecessors—were touched as well as scared— and on fantasies with her psychiatrist, Dr. Elliott (), that account thought it De Palma’s best film. goes to bed with a stranger, and is slashed to death by a Blow Out was followed by Scarface, an powerfully built blonde. The voyeuristic element is expensively budgeted, nearly three-hour-long movie provided by the dead woman’s teenage son (Keith written by Oliver Stone and suggested by the 1932 film of Gordon), an electronic genius who investigates the murder the same title. The original Scarface which starred Paul by filming Dr. Elliott’s surviving clients and is aided by a Muni, traced the rise and fall of a Chicago mobster good-natured girl (Nancy Allen). resembling Al Capone. In the De Palma version, the The reviews of Dressed to Kill showed a widening immigrant gangster is no longer Italian but Cuban, and he gap between De Palma admirers and his detractors. David makes his riches not in illicit prohibition booze but in Denby called it “the first great American movie of the cocaine trafficking in Miami. Scarface drew crowds to the eighties” and claimed that “even at his most outrageous, box office, but had mixed reviews, some of them Hitchcock could not have been as entertaining as this.” damning. Stanley Kauffmann, never a De Palma admirer, Peter Rainer said that it was “a brutal poetic classic” deplored the film’s overblown characterizations and which “draws us into the murder with such subversive narrative; and Jonathan Baumbach thought Scarface a glee that we, too, seem implicated in the crime.” Sheila “self-conflicted movie full of brilliant unassimilated Benson wrote that “the brilliance is apparent within ideas.” John Coleman emphasized the excessiveness of the seconds of its opening shot; a sustained work of terror— conception and of individual scenes that became elegant, sensual, erotic, bloody, a directorial tour de ”ludicrous.” For Pauline Kael, the performance of Al force.” Pacino as Scarface was exhausting without ever touching For the opposition, David Ansen called the film the viewer’s feelings, and the pace was numbingly slow, De Palma’s “most explicit exploration of the pornography played in a “stately pseudo-Godfather style.” of violence. It is decadent filmmaking in full flower: a De Palma’s next film, Body Double (1984) was a hothouse demonstration of style for style’s sake.” And thriller that played variations on themes of Hitchcock De Palma—THE UNTOUCHABLES—12 while spoofing them at the same time. Set in a decadent about something else—that the universe is totally absurd, , Body Double involves a young, out-of-work and I don’t really believe that. For me, the basic moral actor’s search for the killer of a young woman, after underpinning are there, although I tend to do it a little having witnessed the murder from his apartment window. excessively.” A number of reviewers were disturbed by the extreme gruesomeness of the murder scene (in which “intercourse” is enacted by the murderer with a huge electric drill!), calling the movie sadistic and sexist. found it a fault of the film tat it was impossible to tell whether De Palma meant to exploit violence against women or to offer a critique of it. Other critics felt that De Palma had orchestrated his voyeuristic theme with moderate success, but had already done it better in other films. More recently De Palma has parodied Mafia movies in Wise Guys (1986), an unambiguous comedy. Harry Valentini (Danny De Vito) and Moe Dickstein (Joe Piscopo) are bumptious underlings of a New Jersey crime boss who are forced into a painful situation when they lose $250,000 of the chief’s money at the racetrack. Walter Brian De Palma Interviews. Edited by Laurence F. Goodman called it an extremely funny movie, in which De Knapp. University Press of Mississippi, Jackson, 2003 Palma displays “a light touch that he has not used lately,” “Interview with Brian De Palma.” Geoff Beran, 2002; and David Denby noted that “gleeful, dirty-minded, and blessed with a spectacular sense of the visual possibilities GB: Was Morricone’s score for The of disaster, De Palma can’t help bring witty.” Pauline Kael Untouchables a conscious reworking of his score for The called De Palma’s direction “canny and smooth,” giving Battle of Algiers as one write has claimed? the picture a “consistent texture,” but was not won over by BDP That I can’t comment on because I’m not the movie’s humor, which she thought would appeal to an that familiar with that score. I know a lot of Moprricone’s “undemanding audience.” scores, and I may have heard it on one of the compilation De Palma himself said in 1981 that, giving been records that I have, but I can’t hum a little The Battle of “totally preoccupied with visual storytelling where form is Algiers for you. It’s not something tat immediately comes content,” he is now trying to deal with the content aspects to mind, such as, say, Once Upon a Time in the West. a little more.” Perhaps he is entering upon a new phase in Morricone wrote a tremendous number of scores. You his work—one that will be more to the liking of the critics know, I was listening to his score for Bugsy the other day, who condemn him for exchanging his early Godardian and it’s very similar to The Untouchables. radicalism for “bloody special effects and romantic melodrama and outrageous parody.” In one sense, in fact, GB: There’s this book called Afterimage, De Palma has never ceased to think of himself as a written by Richard A. Blake, a Jesuit priest. He has political filmmaker, though scarcely an optimistic one. He separate chapters on Scorsese, Capra, Coppola, says that he has “this real sense of the effects of the Hitchcock, Ford, and you, at the end. His idea of the capitalistic society in which everything is done for the “afterimage” is how the Catholic upbringing of these sake of profit. It’s totally attacked the moral fiber, and I’m directors is still there in the imagery of their movies. And very interested in how it affects the lives of people who go he uses you as a kind of a test case, because he says that up against it—Blow Out is very much about that. I don’t you’re probably the least Catholic among the bunch. Do think the system can be changed. It’s too strong and you think your Catholic background has affected your powerful—it just engulfs you.” movies in such a way? Along with De Palma’s political disenchantment BDP: Well, both my parents are Catholic, and goes an unexpectedly fundamentalist moral sense that my grandparents are all Italian-speaking Catholics on both tends to refute the accusations that this “flamboyantly sides. However, ironically, I was baptized Presbyterian, gifted director” is “cut off from conscience.” Michiko and I went to a Quaker school for 12 years. So that’s why Kakutani has pointed out how often in De Palm’s films (as I have all of this Catholic imagery, because it was always in Hitchock’s) sexual license is punished by death. And around me from my grandparents. You know, the funerals, the director does indeed believe that “basically, you reap the church services we’d go to occasionally, and the what you sow….I believe that you do pay for your moral family gatherings—just filled with all kinds of Catholic transgressions. If you have someone terribly innocent and images. However, I spent most of my time in a Quaker they get killed, then I think you’re making a statement school. So you get this whole other sort of restrained, De Palma—THE UNTOUCHABLES—13 religious framework that you’re brought up in. And that’s journalists were actually out there, seeing stuff and why I think you have this sort of strange mix with me…. recording it, shooting it. Not anymore.

GB: In your films, as we were discussing GB: I did see a story on the Internet a couple before, you strive to go a step beyond every time, to of weeks ago where somebody was trying to release a advance the cinema. And yet, especially in the earlier video or film they shot of President Bush on a plan, in days, your films have a sort of immediacy about them, And some kind of party atmosphere. But the administration it seems that throughout your career, you’ve kept a certain was trying to block the release of it. sort of tension between being visionary, and at the same BDP: That[‘s fantastic. I think that[‘s great. time, creating something of the moment. That’s the hope of the Internet, you know if the BDP: You know it’s always amazed me—I government won’t clamp down on it. But absolutely-why think the most startling thing that’s happened in the last aren’t we able to see what goes on in the corridors of couple of decades is that there is no sort of objective power any more? You know, we’re all surrounded by reporting anymore. And it’s kind of amazing when you doctors and public relations people, telling us what think of how light and portable happened, video equipment is. We were always stunned by the The Friday interview: documentaries made in the Ennio Morricone, Adam beginning of the , with Sweeting • Thursday 22 the lightweight 16-millimeter February 2001, The equipment. The Drew Guardian associates and the Maysles Among the many Brothers were following extraordinary achievements people around, recording what in Ennio Morricone's career, was happening, and we were two in particular stand out. seeing things we had never Firstly, he has composed the seen before. I would assume scores of more than 400 now that it would be infinitely films, including several of easier. Yet we see nothing like the best-known ever written. that, ever. Which is kind of Secondly, he has never won perplexing to me. an Oscar. Maybe that will change this year, with You know, do you think they could ever get Morricone's nomination for his score for Malena. But, somebody to follow Donald Rumsfeld around with a video since he's up against the likes of Gladiator and The camera today? It’ll never happen, even though it’s the Patriot, he isn't holding his breath. easiest thing in the world to do now. It’s amazing, that Quite how the Academy has managed to overlook with this new technology, we’re not able to expose the a man who has been one of the defining influences on film sort of machinations of what’s ever going on with the music for the past 40 years must remain as bewildering as powers that be, Which means that, of course, it’s all its determination to equip with a shooting controlled now with all of these infomercials of whatever gallery of statuettes; but Morricone wasn't the only one they want us to believe. Which is the death if truth, in a who felt that his luck must surely be in on Oscar night way. Because, you know, the reporter was always that 1986, when his score for The Mission was nominated. struggling guy who works for nothing, who fought to get "I definitely felt that I should have won for The the story. Now they all have talk shows and multimillion Mission," he declares, holding court in the classical dollar publishing contracts. So the purity of a guy trying to splendour of his spacious Rome apartment. "Especially find out “what happened” is kind of lost. when you consider that the Oscar-winner that year was And we’ve become very doubtful of our Round Midnight, which was not an original score. It had a information sources, because they’re all controlled by very good arrangement by Herbie Hancock, but it used these huge mutilateral corporations and, of course, when existing pieces. So there could be no comparison with The we see something on television, it’s there because they Mission. There was a theft! But, of course, if it was up to want us to see it. They’re selling us something. You know, me, every two years I would win an Oscar." if we’re seeing starving kids in North Africa this week — Settling back on his sofa in a woollen sports shirt, they’ve always been there. Suddenly, why are we seeing it tortoiseshell glasses and slip-on loafers, Morricone this week? And that’s always bothered me a lot about appears to be a fragile 72-year-old; but since he's capable what’s happening in American journalism. The last sort of of launching into passionate outbursts, during which he “ray of light” was during the , when semaphores with his arms while bouncing enthusiastically De Palma—THE UNTOUCHABLES—14 up and down, this may be an elaborate disguise. The the Bad and the Ugly, I used animal sounds - as you say, maestro's tone is ironic, and I'm having his conversation the coyote sound - so the sound of the animal became the translated to me from Italian, so it's difficult to gauge the main theme of the movie. I don't know how I had this precise extent of the outrage he feels towards the cloth- idea. It's just according to your experiences, and following eared Californians. Maybe if he'd been content to keep the musical avant-garde." running variations on A Fistful of Dollars, or his A childhood aptitude for music earned Morricone agonisingly beautiful score for Once Upon a Time in the a place at Rome's Santa Cecilia Conservatory when he West, there would now be a row of Oscars on his was 12. With some musical theory duly drummed into mantelpiece instead of the tasteful array of blue-and-white him, he found himself working as a trumpeter, frequently ceramic vessels. But he has prided himself on evolving his playing on recording sessions for film scores. "Most of music over the decades, and would die of shame rather these scores were very ugly, and I believed I could do than resort to becoming a cluster of soundbite cliches. better than this. After the war, the was quite Morricone long ago made the decision that he strong here in Italy, and the New Realism in Italian would remain rooted in Rome, where he was born in 1928. cinema was really wonderful, but these new realistic More decisive still has been his courteous but firm movies didn't have great music. I needed money and I determination not to speak English, a considerable (and thought it would be a good thing to write film scores, but I impressively perverse) accomplishment, considering he never asked anybody in the film industry for work. I has worked for so long in an American-dominated thought, 'A film-maker must call me because he thinks industry. So, however often he may have collaborated what I write is fine.' So it happened that a director called with Brian de Palma, or , he me, then again, and then again, and again. At last people has made sure he has done so from a European realised that I was good and my career was rising. That's perspective. what happened, and now they keep on calling me." "I was offered a free villa in Hollywood, but I said Although he had first met Sergio Leone when they no thank you, I prefer to live in Italy," he reveals. "You were both eight and attending the same school, it wasn't can see my decision as either a distinctive factor or as a until 25 years later that their professional partnership limitation. I don't feel it is a limitation." Apart from began. In the meantime, Morricone had cut his anything else, he would find it hard to live in a town professional teeth by scoring a string of Italian films, where movie composers routinely farm out their pulling together his tastes for jazz and popular music with compositions to batteries of professional arrangers. To a solid grounding in the intellectual rigours of the avant- Morricone, this is an outrageous abdication of professional garde. Quiz him on his musical roots and he tips his hat to responsibility. "I invented the formula of 'music some of the most uncompromising figures of 20th-century composed, arranged and conducted by Ennio Morricone'," music, including Boulez, Stockhausen, Luciano Berio and he stresses. "Bernard Herrmann used to write all his scores Luigi Nono. Not that he has set out to terrify his listeners by himself. So did Bach, Beethoven and Stravinsky. I with atonal atrocities. It's more a matter of absorption and don't understand why this happens in the movie industry." evolution. It was his work on the "spaghetti westerns" of "From my faith in experimental and avant-garde Sergio Leone during the 1960s that turned Morricone into music, I have consolidated this into a different way of a household name almost on a par with Leone's stone- composing which takes account of what has happened in faced star, Clint Eastwood. The composer's daring music in the last 50 years, and which can communicate juxtapositions of sounds, from surreal whistling noises to something to the audience," he suggests. "This is a normal spine-rattling electric guitars and ghostly soprano voices, process. People who are in a revolution and constantly became an inseparable part of Leone's fevered re- changing go back to normality after that, so things change, imagining of the . Morricone also seized then they calm down and become normal again." upon real-life sounds and loaded them with ominous Morricone's success with Leone's films meant that meaning, like the coyote-howl motif from The Good, the he risked becoming known as a specialist composer who Bad and the Ugly, and the deafening tick of the pocket- scored cowboy movies. "This was a serious mistake," he watches counting down the climactic shoot-out of For A points out, "because I have scored 400 films and only 30 Few Dollars More. He didn't conceive his scores as of them are westerns. If you scroll through all the movies something to play over the pictures but as growing I've worked on, you can understand how I was a specialist organically from the fabric of the movie. in westerns, love stories, political movies, action thrillers, "I come from a background of experimental music horror movies and so on. So in other words, I'm no which mingled real sounds together with musical sounds," specialist, because I've done everything. I'm a specialist in he explains, "so I used real sounds partly to give a kind of music." nostalgia that the film had to convey. I also used these Paradoxically, a film composer must be able to realistic sounds in a psychological way. With The Good, conceive strong musical ideas for a score while remaining De Palma—THE UNTOUCHABLES—15 receptive to the director's wishes. The potential for Algeria after that. It was good to be at the director's side conflict is clear. "I have to see a definitive cut of the film and to feel sympathetic for what was right. With another before I even start thinking about the music, let alone score I composed, Novocento, for , a writing it," asserts the maestro. "After seeing the movie I theme from this became a national hymn for Spanish tell the director what my feelings are and what I would socialists. Films don't really have a political effect, but like to do. He accepts what I say, or discusses it, or people understood the message of the music." destroys it. Eventually we have to find a compromise. If But since scoring films must always be a the director has no musical creativity, he always imagines collaborative venture, it is in his non-cinematic work that something he has already heard, so I have to convince him Morricone has been able to work out more abstract to leave his ideas aside. I have to trust a director and he musical ideas. At his Barbican concerts in March (his has to trust the composer. You have to like each other, first-ever concert performances in Britain) he will conduct otherwise it won't work." a pair of concert works alongside a selection of his scores. You'd hardly expect it to click perfectly every Fragment of Eros features soprano, piano and orchestra, time, and it doesn't. In 1975, Pier Paolo Pasolini recruited while Ombra Di Lontana Presenza uses viola, recorder Morricone to work on arrangements for the soundtrack to and strings. the "It's notoriously chamber music, obscene Salo but it's not really (120 Days of all that strange," Sodom). he promises. "I Morricone want people to didn't like the know about all music he was the kinds of given to work music that I with, and write. Some Pasolini didn't believe I just want to show write film him the whole scores, which is film, apparently because he feared Morricone would be not true. With a film score, it is really for the film-makers horrified and walk off the project. "I eventually saw the and the audience. This other music is what the composer movie in a theatre and I didn't like it," the maestro reports, feels, and it's more personal." firmly. "It wasn't to my taste." Considering his age and his track record, you'd Morricone has had much happier experiences with imagine Morricone might fancy putting his feet up. "You Brian De Palma, a director he likes and respects. His go back to what Bach composed and how much Mozart percussive, staccato score for The Untouchables earned an wrote in 33 years, and you see I am unemployed Oscar nomination in 1987, but even so, the project wasn't compared to this," he chortles. "I would like to relax a bit, without its moments of anguish. "De Palma is delicious!" but this is not the right year to do it." Morricone says. "He respects music, he respects composers. For The Untouchables, everything I proposed Brian Roan: ‘The Untouchables’: Brian De Palma’s to him was fine, but then he wanted a piece that I didn't Definitive Prohibition-Era Drama, Filmstage.com: like at all, and of course we didn't have an agreement on that. It was something I didn't want to write - a triumphal Prohibition’s legacy will always be a period of nearly piece for the police. I think I wrote nine different pieces unprecedented crime. What began as an experiment meant for this in total and I said, 'Please don't choose the to cure the social and moral ills of a beleaguered nation seventh!' because it was the worst. And guess what he turned into a reason for the worst of human nature to run chose? The seventh one. But it really suits the movie." wild in the streets. Deception, corruption, violence, and Morricone has grown skilled at fulfilling the vice ruled the day. As with any such moment in history, professional requirements of his trade, but some projects certain figures became elevated to the level of myth, and are naturally closer to his heart than others. His music for totems from the time became cultural touchstones that Gillo Pontecorvo's classic exposition of revolutionary would endure for ages. Al Capone. Elliot Ness. Tommy struggle, The Battle of Algiers, seemed especially guns. Fedoras. Each of these brings up a specific idea in personal, and the music accompanying the freedom- the mind of the populace and can, by itself, set the fighters has echoes of Bach's Passions. "It was a movie imagination on fire. about freedom of people when Algeria was under French Who better, then, to create the definitive modern power. France recognised it too, because they abandoned tale of the Prohibition Era than the director who has turned De Palma—THE UNTOUCHABLES—16 so many other people and items into pop culture totems? Potemkin. In doing so, and in couching the scene within a Brian De Palma has spun gold out of the hay that is film of such brilliance, De Palma actually becomes Carrie White at prom, Tony Montana with an assault rifle, this sequence’s new owner, to the point that most people and dangling on a wire. He revels in taking who parody or pay homage to the “pram rolling down raw elements and turning them into the kind of set pieces steps” idea nowadays probably believe themselves to be and moments that become cultural shorthand. To see him aping The Untouchables. work with elements that had, by that point, already been Even an auteur director is a collaborator with the made into icons is thrilling, because unlike others, who artists around him, though, and in that way The would use those symbols to coast, De Palma makes them Untouchables stands as De Palma’s most fully realized his own. collaboration. Every member of its cast shines, from Andy In a story that couldn’t be more perfectly aligned to Garcia as the young hothead to Charles Martin Smith as De Palma’s interests, we see Treasury Officer Elliot Ness the nebbish accountant. Of course, the foremost among (Kevin Costner) attempt to battle Chicago’s bootleg these actors is Sean Connery, who received his only liquor industry. This city is rotten to its core and everyone Oscar for his role as the veteran beat cop who gives one of seems to be on the take. Al Capone (Robert De Niro) the most famous pieces of advice in motion picture history runs his business with ruthless efficiency and a violent when he tells Ness, “They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He temper. To make any progress in his crusade against the sends one of yours to , you send one of his to crime and corruption, Ness has to collect a rag-tag group the morgue.” Those words, of course, were written by of misfits and turn them into a crack team of barrel- David Mamet, and through the accolades given to that busters. performance and the way that those words have entered De Palma’s greatest asset as a director is his ability and taken root in the popular consciousness, we most to take any story and bend it to his particular will. One can perfectly see the value and the skill of De Palma as a see this particular skill most clearly in the way he takes a director. script by one of Hollywood’s most recognizable writers, It is easy now to think of Brian De Palma as a fairly David Mamet, and somehow makes it pure De Palma. fringe director, someone who creates small, shocking Even in The Social Network felt like a co- films that drip with style but somehow lack the necessary author with , and Mamet is the only components to reach popular culture. The Untouchables screenwriter with more eponymous-isms than Sorkin. Yet, stands as a testament to when De Palma was at the height somehow, the director overwhelms the scribe’s trademark of his popular powers and could meld various elements dialogue and fits his characters into a stylized world that is perfectly with his own distinct style to create something now and always will be singularly De Palma’s. that would appeal to everyone — not because of The clearest example of this is the phenomenal and a mundanity, but due to its very specific aesthetic and much-discussed shoot-out on the steps of the train station. craft. For a brief moment, we were all on board for exactly Cribbing as only a master can from the giants who have what De Palma was doing, and the history of cinema is come before, De Palma turns the violent confrontation richer for this. between cops and into an homage to Battleship

ONLY FOUR MORE IN THE FALL 2016 BUFFALO FILM SEMINARS XXXIII: Nov 15 Norman Jewison Moonstruck 1987 Nov 22 Andrei Tarkovsky The Sacrifice 1986 Nov 29 Alfonso Arau Like Water for Chocolate 1992 Dec 6 Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck The Tourist 2010

CONTACTS:...email Diane Christian: [email protected]…email Bruce Jackson [email protected] the series schedule, annotations, links and updates: http://buffalofilmseminars.com...to subscribe to the weekly email informational notes, send an email to addto [email protected] cast and crew info on any film: http://imdb.com/ The Buffalo Film Seminars are presented by the State University of New York at Buffalo and the Dipson Amherst Theatre, with support from the Robert and Patricia Colby Foundation and the Buffalo News.