1984 Directed by Brian De Palma
After losing an acting role and his girlfriend, Jake Scully finally catches a break: he gets offered a gig house-sitting in the Hollywood Hills. While peering through the beautiful home's telescope one night, he spies a gorgeous blonde dancing in her window. But when he witnesses the girl's murder, it leads Scully through the netherworld of the adult entertainment industry on a search for answers -- with porn actress Holly Body as his guide.
Craig Wasson Melanie Griffith Gregg Henry Deborah Shelton Guy Boyd Dennis Franz David Haskell Rebecca Stanley Al Israel Douglas Warhit B.J. Jones Russ Marin Lane Davies Barbara Crampton Larry Jenkins Monte Landis Linda Shaw Ty Randolph Denise Loveday Gela Nash Ray Hassett Rick Gunderson Jerry Brutsche Michael Kearns Rob Paulsen Jeremy Lawrence Rod Loomis Gary F. Griffith Emmett Brown Show All…
Omicidio a luci rosse, Doble cuerpo, Der Tod kommt zweimal, Подставное тело, Дубльорката, 粉红色杀人夜, Dublê de Corpo, Alibi test, תעתועי גוף, ボディ・ダブル, Stand-in for mord, 침실의 표적, Świadek mimo woli, Sahte Vücutlar, Doble de Cuerpo, بدل, Dublura, Dvojník, Διχασμένο κορμί, მონაცვლე სხეული, Підставне тіло, Doble cos, Kuolema tulee kahdesti
USSR
Germany16
UK18
USAR
Netherlands16
Japan
France12
South Korea18
Netherlands16
UK18
Netherlands16
France
Germany
Japan
Netherlands
South Korea
UK
USA
USSR
"I should have known the moment you told me I had a terriffic smile! No real producer would have told me that in a million years!"
Recently, Steven Bauer recalled running into Martin Scorsese after the premiere of Scarface in 1983, and remembered him saying: “They’re going to hate this film in Hollywood…because it’s about them.” It's hard not to think about this quote while watching this film as well. Also it's important to remember that De Palma made this as a direct response to criticism of Scarface: Blow Out and Scarface both point into this direction, but on revisiting this, it seems now the clear peak of De Palma's ability as Brechtian ironist, and is so flawless in it's…
I believe scientists have confirmed that the Frankie Goes to Hollywood scene is the peak of 1980s cinema.
Perhaps not quite the best De Palma movie (I might give the edge to Carlito's Way or Hi, Mom!), but it is THE Brian De Palma movie. Split diopters, mirror surfaces, garish and distancing set design, intricate camera movements, and sexist depictions that viciously target the heart of mainstream cinema's inherent misogyny. It's all part and parcel of De Palma's techinque, and it's all pushed to the breaking point in this recursive Moebius Strip of exploitation. Scorsese said of BDP's Scarface that it was really about Hollywood. Body Double makes that point unmistakable. It all coalesces in one great sequence in which the post-New Hollywood, Reagan-era Hollywood is linked to MTV empty aesthetics and outright pornography through some tawdry art direction, music video edits-on-the-beat, and meta lapses. Also a withering critique of the misogyny of seemingly nice-guy protagonists as much as the violent villains from whom such men attempt to save women. Vicious stuff.
That joke about a medieval peasant being vaporized by listening to a single shoegaze riff but instead it’s a YA fiction scold being atomized by any single scene of this movie.
100
"Referencing Hitchcock while talking about Brian De Palma movies has always been a strange exercise. It’s like mentioning that water is wet. Such an obvious comparison says less about the filmmaker than any general comments. The fact that critics continued to either utilize it as a framework for faint praise or sly takedowns is less of a reflection of De Palma and more of an inability of the critic. It is what led to his non-traditional works to fly under the rug, such as the anachronistic Hi, Mom! or the blistering nightmare of Casualties of War, the joyous Phantom of the Paradise or the sci-fi beauty within Mission to Mars. By limiting a discussion of De Palma to Hitchcock,…
when the film blooms into a music video set to “relax” by frankie goes to hollywood (on a porn set!) i fell in love. funny, tense, pervy. had a blast watching this.
INSAAANNNNEEEEEEEEE !!!!!
i love u brian de palma !!!! i’m literally jumping out of my couch SCREAMING at every OUTRAGEOUS INSANE nonsense twist and turn. he made scarface right before this (a movie i LOATHE) and i think it’s funny that he doubled down on body double and went coo coo bananas on this one
vampires kiss forever , my dudes
“I like to watch”
De Palma’s most psychosexual thriller, dripping with every flourish he’s known for turned up to 11, erotic voyeurism, stylized violence, diopeter insanity, and sexed up Hitchcockian suspense—all framed within a 1980’s LA landscape with the sole purpose of fucking us hard with an absurd surreal Hollywood porn fantasy of obscured identities and obsessive excess.
This is it, the one that goes all the way. Body Double is my favorite De Palma film and one that I could watch at any given moment. I once described this as ‘Alfred Hitchcock, meet the 1980’s’ and I stand by that statement. A phenomenal score and the use of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s Relax left me so blown away when I sneak watched…
brian de palma really went and said "what if i remade both Rear Window and Vertigo at the same time, but, like, really really horny"
