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.
Cliff Robertson Geneviève Bujold John Lithgow Sylvia Kuumba Williams Wanda Blackman J. Patrick McNamara Stanley J. Reyes Nick Kreiger Stocker Fontelieu Don Hood Andrea Esterhazy Tom Felleghy Nella Simoncini Barbieri Thomas Carr John Creamer Regis Cordic Loraine Despres Clyde Ventura Fain M. Cogrove William Finley
Obsessão, De Vrouw die Twee Keer Leefde, Painajainen
Thrillers and murder mysteries Intense violence and sexual transgression film noir, femme fatale, 1940s, thriller or intriguing cops, murder, thriller, detective or crime horror, creepy, eerie, blood or gothic marriage, drama, family, emotional or emotion thriller, psychological, suspense, twist or disturbing Show All…
When John Lithgow shows up in the opening scene talking about "New Awluhns" you know it's gonna be a good time
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.
Yes, the plot is lifted pretty heavily from Vertigo (even more than Body Double), but in many ways this really is post war Hollywood melodrama done through giallo's distorted lens. So, a way of thinking about how a certain form of painting with emotion can be turned into another. Hermann's wonderful score actually feels like the movie organizing principle more than Schrader's script, De Palma's images just act towards giving the music a physical presence. Bonkers and delirious perverse, Pretty much a catholic madman movie. De Palma was lucky he did Carrie around the same time as I could easily imagine this sending him to movie jail. Lightow and Bujold are wonderful as well. Also, because Hermann convinced De Palma to eliminate Schrader's even more insane third act, this is fascinating almost experimental structured.
"I don't just like movies like this; I relish them. Sometimes overwrought excess can be its own reward." One of my favorite Ebert quotations, and a feeling I carry with me through movies that don't necessarily "work" but work on me.
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
De Palma: I’ve got this great script, totally original and probably Schrader’s best work.
Producers: Brian, you know this is a lot like Vert-
De Palma: I’ve also got some ideas for some great shots. You know that scene in Godard’s Le Mépris when they’re having a conversation and the camera is gliding back and forth between both characters whenever it’s their turn to speak? Well, this scene here I think will be perfect for it.
Producers: But Brian, what made that shot so effective in Le Mépris is the fact that the characters actually had something meaningful to say, whereas your characters aren’t really getting beyond small-talk, so what if-
De Palma: After this, we can really get into it.…
Not so much a remake of Vertigo as an echo of it, or maybe a memory. Even Vertigo, when you boil it down to its generic plot skeleton, is a detective mystery about a guy figuring out a complex murder plot, but this goes even further by running on pure emotion - Cliff Robertson's hero never solves anything, and spends virtually the entire movie in a transfixed, wet-eyed torpor. By the end, this emotion has blossomed into possibly the best protracted slow-motion climax of De Palma's career, and maybe (if you're paying attention) his most disturbing ending.
About that: I noticed here a motif that recurs a few times in the De Palmaverse, the repetition of a certain word or phrase to end the movie on a note of trauma - "there was no body because there was no murder" in Sisters, "Daddy" here, and "it's a good scream" in Blow Out. Any others?
mentally freezing the protagonist in 1959 is a great way to start this, showing how out of time and tragically regressive the vertigo conceit is. he even talks about returning to the graceful values of the old south before the traumatic inciting incident occurs. every deviation from the template set by hitchcock's original is a further twisting of the knife, with the third act fully indulging in the sleaze that his later vertigo riffs would have on display from their opening scenes. the textures of zsigmond's gauzy photography of the film, particularly in the italian segment, lend themselves to de palma's movement to create a dream-like free and floating camera rather than the more rigid tracking shown in some of his other films. i'm sure the accent police have already remarked upon john lithgow's southern twang, but i found his caricature to be an effective stand-in for the evil industry that made him and cliff robertson obscenely wealthy.
Obsession. 1976. Directed by Brian De Palma.
Paul Schrader and Brian De Palma’s Obsession is heavily inspired by Vertigo. The psychological depth and mystique distilled into Obsession is why it is such a memorable film for me. Cliff Robertson, Genevieve Bujold, and John Lithgow make up a main cast that has the acting skills to perform and dispel one’s disbelief. Just as Hitchcock utilized psychological manipulation in Vertigo, Brian De Palma employed similar techniques on Cliff Robertson’s character (Michael Courtland). The manipulation of Courtland by characters I cannot mention (it would ruin the entire film) is vindictive. Nevertheless, if you are a fan of Vertigo, this film doesn’t have the bright sun and beauty of California. But, it has Vilmos…
