--- description: One needn't suffer recurring Carrie nightmares or keep Scarface looped on the flat screen to have a good time at De Palma--a title that storms... title: De Palma Review: Director Brian De Palma Gets Interrogated image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Interrogating an Auteur in _De Palma_ by [John Anderson](/author/john-anderson/) ## John Anderson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 16, 2016 10:35 AM CUT by [John Anderson](/author/john-anderson/) ## John Anderson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 16, 2016 10:35 AM CUT One needn’t suffer recurring Carrie nightmares or keep Scarface looped on the flat screen to have a good time at _De Palma_–a title that storms across the screen in forbidding blood red letters before introducing a title character as comfortably rumpled and candid as any filmmaker on camera is likely to be. Interviewed by Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow, Brian De Palma (Dressed to Kill, The Untouchables, Sisters) names names, fesses up about where and why he shoplifted much of his style (mostly Hitchcock) and comes clean about less-satisfying efforts. (“There was no bigger disaster than Blow Out,” he says of the 1981 John Travolta vehicle. On The Bonfire of the Vanities, “It should have been tougher and harder, and it still bombed.” Re: Mission: Impossible–“I was ready to make a big hit.”) _De Palma_ is mostly a one-sided argument for its subject; he’s never quite pinned down, for instance, about violence and women. He’s allowed to ruminate, largely, and what’s revealed is an artist impulsively self-reflective, whatever side of the camera he’s on. –JOHN ANDERSON ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4371189/interrogating-an-auteur-in-de-palma/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4371189/interrogating-an-auteur-in-de-palma/"},"headline":"Interrogating an Auteur in De Palma","datePublished":"2016-06-16T10:35:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T22:38:45.586Z","description":"One needn't suffer recurring Carrie nightmares or keep Scarface looped on the flat screen to have a good time at De Palma--a title that storms...","url":"https://time.com/4371189/interrogating-an-auteur-in-de-palma/","keywords":["movies","review"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"John Anderson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/john-anderson/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4371189/interrogating-an-auteur-in-de-palma/","name":"Interrogating an Auteur in De Palma"}}]}] ```