1976 Directed by Brian De Palma
New Orleans businessman Michael Courtland’s life is shattered when his wife and daughter are tragically killed in a botched kidnap rescue attempt. Many years later whilst visiting Italy he meets and falls in in love with Sandra Portinari, who bears a striking resemblance to his wife.
Obsessão, De Vrouw die Twee Keer Leefde
I was enjoying this as an essay about itself/about remaking VERTIGO (and probably some other stuff I missed while in the bathroom), then that masterful final sequence hit and the needle went from 3 1/2 to four stars, because I realized I kind of cared about these tragic characters too.
If the critics and nerdlingers who decried this for being "nothing but a Hitchcock knock-off" only knew what the popular cinema landscape was like now, they would probably kill their own wife and daughter for something even remotely as technically well executed and idiosyncratic as this.
One of those hang my head in shame first-time watches for me. I have no idea why... I love DePalma and have seen nearly everything he's made. I enjoyed watching but have to agree with Hitchcock who thought this film was a "virtual remake of Vertigo."
Watched the Shout Factory Blu-ray
Special Features:
- Producing Obsession – An Interview With Producer George Litto
- Editing Obsession – An Interview With Editor Paul Hirsch
- Obsession Revised – Vintage Featurette Featuring Interviews With Director Brian De Palma, Cliff Robertson, And Geneviève Bujold
- Theatrical Trailer
- Radio Spots
- Still Gallery
When John Lithgow shows up in the opening scene talking about "New Awluhns" you know it's gonna be a good time
Builds up all of this methodical, structured plot then the finale abstracts and asburdifies (a word I made up for this very occasion, thank you very much) and reaches its operatic, Freudian zenith. Hoping to get a look at a better print/restoration of this at some point because Wilmos is absolutely crushing it here
A bit too slow for my liking, but the cinematography is beautiful, the score is amazing, the final act is bonkers and I now wish John Lithgow had a N’awlins accent in everything.
At the surface, the movie feels like a leaner, cleaner version of Vertigo, an ideal pulp remake of a bonafide classic. It builds upon what worked with Hitchcock's film, as the general narrative structure remains unchanged (aside from that twist) and Bernard Herrmann, dare I say, faithfully recreates his own score from Vertigo and manages to invoke a similar but grander ambience with this movie. The cast is also great, the cinematography is hypnotically Vertigo-esque (even though I feel the movie looks a bit muddied in some places), the editing is precise, and etc. From a technical standpoint, people can say that this is better than Vertigo and I wouldn't be asking them a single question.
Except here's the thing.…
One of those interesting experiments, like what You Were Never Really Here does with Taxi Driver, where a lot of your emotional response is coming from another film. If you’ve not seen Vertigo, Obsession will probably feel very slight. If you have seen Vertigo, Obsession will still feel very slight, because it is. However, you will have seen Vertigo.
To me this is pretty amateurish from both De Palma and Schrader. They rarely try to advance on the Hitchcock, and the additions they do make are needlessly lurid. Cliff Robertson tries a James Stewart impression and gives it up, Bernard Herrmann does a Bernard Herrmann impression and basically carries it off, although it shrivels up in comparison to the Taxi…
aka sicko mode Vertigo that doesn't go as far as it possibly could -- Schrader's last act would've slayed -- in terms of its sleaziness; it's a testament to the sheer brazenness of the twist that it pushes it that far, and into something does manage to play as a metatextual awareness from De Palma that he's using the framework of Hitchcock. Imagine a studio movie pulling a move like that today.
Might work better if Lithgow and Robertson swapped roles.
(And is that ending movement where Schrader got the idea of First Reformed's?)
Brian De Palma y Paul Schrader, que dupla del demonio.
- How did she die?
- I killed her.
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