Murder À La Mod 1968 Written and directed by Brian De Palma. It's Brian's first feature length film, he'd directed a half a dozen shorts between 1960 and 1968. That's Brian and William Finley in the photo, the movie introduces William to the world. Some might know William from Phantom Of The Paradise which Brian directed in 1974. That's the first film of Brian's I've seen and that goes for William too. I've seen a good half of Brian's work but never got to be a fan. I only have 3 or 4 on DVD, most of them aren't what I want to watch once, let alone again.
According to the Wikipedia the film played in one theater, and disappeared. It was thought to be lost but reappeared in 2011 just in time to appear on the Criterion Blu-ray of Blow Out. A better De Palma film but one I don't feel any need to revisit.
The film's synopsis on the Wikipedia is one that's been copied onto several review sites. Here it is: Karen is a naive young lady who wants to help her boyfriend Chris, who is a struggling amateur filmmaker, to raise money to divorce his wife. Meanwhile, a jolly psycho prankster named Otto is stalking the building where Chris is shooting a low-budget adult movie to make ends meet.
Seems pretty straightforward, huh. Not so much. It's a jumble of images and sounds, sometimes jarring, not all of them moving. It's like Brian's read a book on film effects and styles and decided to use as many as possible in each scene. It's hard to describe the complexity, you can see for yourself on YouTube, the link is in the title.
I did not think it was groundbreaking or anything. It reminds me slightly of The Monkees movie Head, but in B&W. I certainly was more receptive when I saw Head as a teenager, on seeing it 30 plus years later, not really that interesting anymore. You might like it more than me, it's certainly a curious thing.
Comments