562 Blow Out

[domino harvey]

Which reminds me, Criterion please rescue Mr. Jealousy from its (apparently recently OOP) Fox Lorber DVD purgatory.

Is in my Top 5 Dream Criterions, no doubt

And heh I guess De Palma's next film is getting a bad review now from Armond White!

[Thomas Dukenfield]

At an hour is this going to become one of the longest De Palma interviews available? And I'm particularly curious to find out whether it will be focused just on Blow Out or on his whole career.

The only other De Palma interview that I can recall at the moment is the BBC Scene By Scene programme that Mark Cousins did with the director in the late 90s, which he prefaced by saying the De Palma never liked to do interviews and was only talking with Cousins as part of the publicity surrounding the then new in cinemas Snake Eyes!

There's a great interview with De Palma on the French disc for Dionysus 69. He talks about his 60's work, inspirations, and political views, and also mentions how the JFK assassination was an inspiration for Blow Out. It runs 24 minutes and it's from 2002 (maybe originally made for French T.V., I don't know). There are also plenty of De Palma interviews on the special edition DVDs, some of which are pretty good, but obviously focused on the individual film at hand for the most part. I'll try to throw the french interview up on Youtube, although the voiceover is French only with no subtitles.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

I'm not a Tarantino fanatic and his inarticulate fanboy hyperbole can get annoying at times (Z Channel is a good example), but am I the only one who is tremendously disappointed there is nothing by Tarantino here? Even a few minutes of him talking about the film or a write-up might be fun for this release.

[Jeff]

I'm not a Tarantino fanatic and his inarticulate fanboy hyperbole can get annoying at times (Z Channel is a good example), but am I the only one who is tremendously disappointed there is nothing by Tarantino here? Even a few minutes of him talking about the film or a write-up might be fun for this release.

Well, there's still "More!" coming. It's got to be something contingent on the schedule of Travolta, Zsigmond, or Tarantino since surprisingly none of them have been included in the supplements listed thus far.

[mfunk9786]

Oh, this film!! Took in a viewing of the best DVD release I could find, having been sucked in by the recent Criterion announcement and, therefore, the first time I ever bothered to read a synopsis on this one. I figured I'd get around to it eventually, but with my interest expedited, I got to work.

The first act works incredibly well, and Travolta's performance draws the viewer into the protagonist's perspective better than I ever thought a Travolta performance could ever be capable of. De Palma keeps things moving along quickly, making even the most otherwise benign sequences of dialogue chunky bits of meat on which the viewer is invited to feast. I will never see Nancy Allen's appeal, but she doesn't have much of an opportunity to offend my sensibilities here. Lithgow rivals the shark in Jaws in the context of this film - he deserves his own brooding theme music. His performance is genuinely terrifying and remarkably effortless, each scene that he's in strikes me as not requiring many takes to get right - he just seems at ease with this character and doesn't waste a line of dialogue. As a Philadelphia-area native, I have never seen the city look more pulpy and seedy (and I've wandered through it at night without my cell phone or any foreseeable destination - long story). Just a great film all the way, it worked for me even in its zaniest moments. Can't wait to add this to my collection.

[jbeall]

Count me among those who doesn't get Nancy Allen's appeal (outside, perhaps, of the Robocop flicks), but then again, I'm not the one who was married to her. Even though it stars Allen, I recommend Dressed to Kill as a sleazy good time w/some really cool visual angles.

There are some really great shots here, the one where Travolta discovers that all his tapes have been erased as a standout. One that was a little heavy-handed, but which I found hilarious, was when Travolta crashes his jeep into the shop window, causing a mannequin w/a noose around its neck to fall down. I've always thought De Palma was underrated as a director in part because he's drawn to such pulpy and trashy material, but his visual style is so unique.

Interesting that they woulda been filming this during the '80 presidential campaign, when Ted Kennedy, who'd had his own vehicular issues, was going up against Carter in the Dem primary.

[stwrt]

De Palma wasn't under-rated as a director back in the 70s/80s, it was the run of poor movies he turned out after (say) Scarface and the Untouchables that has caused his reputation to plummet.

[colinr0380]

That seems rather an offhand way to dismiss Casualties of War, Calito's Way and Femme Fatale at the very least, not to mention kicking off the Mission: Impossible series (and I would certainly make a case for Raising Cain, Snake Eyes, Redacted and The Black Dahlia as well).

And Nancy Allen could degauss my tapes anytime, and I wouldn't hold it against her!

[stroszeck]

Haven't watched this one in years but I do recall Nancy Allen using a particularly shrill, annoying voice for her part in Blow Out.

[mfunk9786]

Spoiler

Great scream, though.

[TomReagan]

Haven't watched this one in years but I do recall Nancy Allen using a particularly shrill, annoying voice for her part in Blow Out.

I met Ms. Allen a few months ago and she was kind enough to discuss Blow Out with me for a few minutes (she was also coy enough not to mention the upcoming Criterion release*, even though she was signing an original Blow Out poster of mine!) I told her that I always viewed her performance as essentially comedic, and that the particularly atrocious vocal marriage of Noo Yawk by way of Betty Boop was instrumental to that effect. She told me the DePalma wanted that level of cacophony and overall pitch to her performance, and that the producer was so concerned about it when the initial dailies were viewed that he begged her to stop using it.

(She also mentioned that she loved working with Soderbergh and that Albert Brooks is even funnier and more neurotic (!) in real life.)

* I also met Theresa Russell that same night, and she was coy enough not to mention the upcoming Insignificance, even though she autographed my copy of Bad Timing (which, incidentally, she views as her favorite performance and film to date) and I specifically asked her about that and Ken Russell's Whore. She also told me that the Criterion crew were both wonderful to work with and quite generous with their swag.

[stroszeck]

Wow. Where exactly did you get to meet those lovely actresses and in one night???

[TomReagan]

Wow. Where exactly did you get to meet those lovely actresses and in one night???

As much as Ms. Reagan and I would love to say in our private quarters circa 1985, it was, alas, at the Chiller Theater convention this past Halloween in lovely Parsippany, NJ. We also met Seka, Ginger Lynn, and Traci Lords (among many others), so as far as an 80's coming-of-age flashback overload is concerned, it should remain pretty tough to beat.

[jbeall]

Wow. Where exactly did you get to meet those lovely actresses and in one night???

As much as Ms. Reagan and I would love to say in our private quarters circa 1985, it was, alas, at the Chiller Theater convention this past Halloween in lovely Parsippany, NJ. We also met Seka, Ginger Lynn, and Traci Lords (among many others), so as far as an 80's coming-of-age flashback overload is concerned, it should remain pretty tough to beat.

Hopefully this won't get moved to the criterion porno thread, but I've gotta ask: how are those last three actresses holding up nowadays?

[ccfixx]

It looks as if the "More!" on Criterion's page has been revealed.

No mention of Tarantino, but...

- Interview with star John Travolta from a 1982 French television news broadcast
- Murder à la Mod, De Palma’s 1967 feature film

[JMULL222]

"Murder a la Mod"? Sick!

[Jeff]

That's one hell of a "More!" Here's to Criterion continuing the recent trend of including entire early features as supplements.

[John Edmond]

Agreed. I'll take an additional feature (or short) over a documentary or commentary any day.

[Crab Society North]

and it's a done deal. If I wasn't already so excited the inclusion of Murder just sent me through the roof

[mfunk9786]

Yet again though, we've got a feature film and at least 3 hours of HD supplemental material. I have a sneaking suspicion that the bitrate of the main attraction begins to suffer at a certain point.

Agreed. I'll take an additional feature (or short) over a documentary or commentary any day.

Let's not go crazy here.

[John Edmond]

Agreed, but I would guess that testing how much Blow Out would suffer is the main reason for the delay regarding details. Together the two features only add up to three hours, and I'm guessing the interviews, even in HD, can be wrung through compression that much harder without suffering too much.

ok, 99% of shorts beat documentaries.

[mfunk9786]

Even if that's your opinion, if a film is released on Criterion, supplemental materials pertaining to said film should always be the highest priority.

[justeleblanc]

Oh come on! This film is already available on DVD from Something Weird Video. Most De Palma fans already own it. I'd much rather have seen his filming of Dionysus or some of his shorts as a student. This is a waste.

[JMULL222]

That may be true, but I highly doubt Criterion is just sitting on said material for no reason, and I doubt you have any reason to think they are either. It's not an either/or situation, I don't see any reason to paint it as such except to be negative. And to be honest, as a pretty big De Palma fan myself, I don't think I'd ever shell out even $10 for "Murder" but I'd be more than happy to take it as an extra on one of my favorites.

[SpiderBaby]

I would of liked to have seen Woton's Wake finally.