Obsession – The Film Debate

[Prince_Vajda]

Obsession had a very strange effect on me: I liked it, but I really didn't know why. If somebody asked me afterwards: how was this flick?, I would have said: Great. Why? Dunno.

Maybe sorcery!

Greetings!

[PaulD]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

I should really have given my two cents ages ago, so here goes:

knowing nothing about Obsession (apart from it was a homage to Vertigo) was quite good as I was able to watch the film with an almost open mind. The opening is very clever in establishing place, characters and relationships -- you almost know John Lithgow is up to no good from the get go as he's so wonderfully slimy! The daughter/wife transformation must have been a huge influence on Park Chan-wook when writing Oldboy except he took the relationship a few steps further than DePalma did!

It's strange how it develops without feeling particularly creepy or sleazy and the final scene with the repeated 360° movement is both extremely moving and technically brilliant.

Glad I wasn't the only one who thought of Oldboy when watching this.

Loved the music too; the Hermann score furthered the Hitchockian influence.


It's a great package from Arrow overall and I hope it sells well and they can put out more De Palma thrillers on Bluray (with Dressed to Kill out later in the year and the Criterion Blow Out already out I'd like them to do Body Double ideally) and I was very impressed with the quality of the booklet/film for a release that's really quite different to most of their stuff and which might not be seen as worth buying by the people who love Arrow mainly for the Italian horror/slasher stuff.

[James Morton]

De Palma has always been one of my two favourite directors
I have most of his films and just bought OBSESSION blu ray and Criterion's BLOW OUT - both excellent

He is a brilliant director especially when he films every cinematic trick in the book as in BLOW OUT with circular camera, split screen, etc much of which he has done before in many of his films, CARRIE, DRESSED TO KILL, PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE, SISTERS

BODY DOUBLE and FEMME FATALE are his most underrated films in my opinion

SCARFACE is my fave and can't wait for the steelbook blu ray coming soon

[Baseball Fury]

I really used to hate his thrillers/killer films when I was younger, because of the hack Hitchcock title. His other stuff (Casualties of War, Untouchables, Scarface etc) are great, but I couldn't stand them.

I've been reappraising them recently, and whilst I still don't really liked Dressed to Kill, Obsession, Blow Out and Body Double are all a lot better than I initially thought!

[Paul@TheOverlook]

I think it's far too easy for people who have a fondness for Hitchcock to dismiss De Palma's thrillers but I think rather than ripping off the master's style, the younger filmmaker just continued in his footsteps, creating a body of work that follows on nicely. Had Hitchcock continued to make films in the far less censorious times of the late seventies/early eighties I don't think they'd have been too dissimilar to the thrillers De Palma made, if FRENZY is anything to go by.



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[porcupine]

I enjoyed Obsession - it's stylish and entertaining, but De Palma would definitely get better - Dressed to Kill and Blow Out are his masterworks as far as I'm concerned. Oh, and Carrie - great film. I would say that Carrie to Blow Out represent his peak era, but then you've got The Fury inbetween, which is good, but no classic (final scene excepted, of course!).

Anyway, back to Obsession - fantastic opening sequence (great music and credit sequence), some lovely location work, solid performances.....it's just that it doesn't transcend in the way that De Palma's best stuff does. It's a decent enough thriller with added style and elegance. I liked it, but I don't love it.

[Paul@TheOverlook]

Obsession is a grower. Wasn't too impressed first time I watched it, probably because I was comparing it to his best work (Dressed to Kill and Blow Out, as Porcupine rightly pointed out) but on its own terms it's still a great film and well above average in the pantheon of US thrillers from the 70s.

[James Morton]

I only saw this excellent De Palma's thriller again on the Arrow bd the other night
It's a briliant and haunting mystery, with Herrman's equally haunting score, it's a shame the man, old and frail cried after seeing the film describing it as beautiful, but couldn't remember writing the music, only the chorus

OBSESSION was De Palma's biggest hit to date at the time and of course the next film was to put him on the map CARRIE

But his directing is superb, DRESSED TO KILL, BLOW OUT, SCARFACE, BODY DOUBLE, THE UNTOUCHABLES, CARLITO'S WAY, SNAKE EYES, FEMME FATALE

De Palma once said that when making mystery thrillers, that director whoever they may be, would be stupid in not paying homage to the original master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock as many films have the Hitchcock theme, as in VERTIGO, REAR WINDOW and PSYCHO, which of course has been done to death, pun intended, in 80's slashers showrer scenes

But Brian De Palma imo is the best at this and I would not call him a Hitchcock copycat which he has been wrongly described as
He is a director with his own style of script and direction

FEEME FATALE, BODY DOUBLE, DRESSED TO KILL for example have the VERTIGO theme but De Palma writes these films in completely different ways

OBSESSION is another classic example of VERTIGO but in his own clever style
and the version which he made is the better one as Paul Schrader's script wanted a 3rd act which would of prolonged the film and wouldn't of been as good