THE LOVE STORY THAT WILL SCARE THE LIFE OUT OF YOU
Obsession. Def: A Compulsive, often unreasonable idea or emotion
High melodrama, creeping insanity and barely contained delirium abound in this dizzying tribute to the high tension thrillers of Alfred Hitchcock from director Brian De Palma (Carrie, Scarface, Dressed to Kill)
Michael Courtland is a Southern gentleman who seems to have everything - A successful business, a beautiful wife and an adoring young daughter until a botched kidnapping tears his world apart leaving him widowed, bereaved and bereft. Years later on a trip to Italy, he meets a woman with an uncanny resemblance to his late wife but all is not how it appears as a twisted conspiracy threatens to unhinge his mental shackles, sending him to the knife edge of MADNESS!
A master class in mounting unease and clammy palmed claustrophobia, Obsession is a classic 70s thriller with an evil twist that will leave you speechless.
CONTENTS
Brand new High Definition transfer of the film (1080p
Original uncompressed PCM Mono 2.0 Audio and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio options
Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Obsession Revisited [37 mins]: A documentary featurette including interviews with director Brian De Palma, stars Cliff Robertson and Genevieve Bujold and more!
Early Brian De Palma short films: Woton s Wake (1962) and The Responsive Eye (1966)
Original Trailer
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tom The Dude Designs Hodge
* Brand new High Definition transfer of the film
* Original LPCM Mono Audio and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
* 4 panel reversible sleeve with original and newly commissioned artwork
* Two sided fold out poster
* Exclusive collector's booklet featuring an essay on the film by critic and author Brad Stevens
* Available for the first time! Paul Schrader's original screenplay of the film in a perfect bound booklet. With the original title Déjà vu, Schrader's original script includes unfilmed sequences and sees the tripartite structure deal with the past, present and future of Michael Courtland.
* Obsession Revisited: Interviews with director Brian De Palma, stars Cliff Robertson and Genevieve Bujold and more!
* Early Brian De Palma short films: Woton's Wake (1962) and The Responsive Eye (1966)
* Original Trailer
* English subtitles for deaf and hearing impaired
Wow, that's a definite must buy. I was going to get it anyway for a chance to finally see the film in its correct aspect ratio (a must for a De Palma film) but that screenplay and the early shorts are more than I had expected.
Sorry tojoed, I just meant it would be the first time for me to pick it up in its correct aspect ratio - I've only got the film on a decade-old VHS here so this looks to be my opportunity to upgrade! Sorry for the confusion!
tojoed wrote:Beaver on Brian de Palma's Obsession.
Ordered! Pleasantly surprised to see that all of the supplemental content including the shorts are in 1080P. Between this, the Criterion Blow Out, and the just announced Blu of Dressed to Kill, it's a good time to be a DePalmaphile.
Not quite sure incredible is the superlative I would apply to Obsession, but it was a pretty decent treat. One of those like watching it for the first time treats. Certainly better than the old US DVD and it's no crumby BOD DVD either.
(Wish Criterion would get ahead of the Arrow curve on "their" titles; seems like more and more wait and sees and no announced forthcomings. Little Oskar is screaming out to me for yet another future double dip.)
Just saw Obsession. I'm actually not a fan of DePalma's work, despite enjoying a good number of his set pieces over the years if not an entire film, and this one does not change my views of his filmmaking. But despite a painfully derivative and an awkward story, the score does indeed make a difference and it's a beautiful marriage of music and character during many of the infatuation/courtship/love scenes.
I've not actually watched Obsession yet, but I saw Sisters quite recently and loved it - the Herrmann score is really effective! That film basically solidified him as a favourite filmmaker of mine, and I subsequently enjoyed that Baumbach/Paltrow documentary shortly after. Looking forward to Body Double arriving this weekend (coming from new UK label Indicator), and I also bought a copy of Phantom of the Paradise (and have Raising Cain finally arriving in January). Might even revisit The Untouchables again soon, which has some excellent sequences (scored by one of the greatest, Ennio Morricone).
As for the finalised Raising Cain specs, I'm very happy we're getting everything the Shout Factory disc got plus an interview with the composer, a video essay, and a booklet (possibly even a slipcover too if recent 'upgraded' releases are anything to go by). Be interesting to see if Arrow use a dual-layered or single-layered disc for the Director's Cut disc - I'm thinking they will use BD-50 to match the Shout release, but they have gone BD-25 before (e.g. Bride of Re-Animator). Guess it depends how comfortable they are with the authoring and whether they actually need to save a few pennies or not (this version now being limited to 3000 copies, but many people have pre-ordered it at the very reasonable HMV/Amazon price of £12.99, though I dunno if that makes much difference to Arrow).
I watched a bit of Obsession again, and I have to say, this may be the De Palma film for deep skeptics of his work.
It's not his most technically accomplished film, but it may embody his work better than anything else he's done, in a way that can be seen as critical of his vision (or lack thereof).
De Palma's harshest critics claim he thinks he's Hitchcock, and that he isn't because he lacks the genuine fascination with human behavior (or what makes us human). Some claim he's more interested in duplicating Hitchcock's films than creating anything personal himself.
One of De Palma's favorite films is of course Vertigo, and Obsession is obviously heavily inspired by it. The harshest critics say it's De Palma just trying to remake Vertigo, just as Sisters was a pastiche of other Hitchcock films.
If you believe there's a lot of truth to that, I would say that even though Obsession may be repeating the same approach, the context makes it much more engaging. Mirroring Scottie's relationship to Madeleine, here is De Palma fixated on a film that he not only adores but is compelled to reproduce as closely as he can, short of a straight up remake. If it seems too close to a rip-off, that's the point - it's not lack of imagination so much as a perpetual compulsion on De Palma's part, telegraphed by a scene in Obsession when one of the main characters is working on an art restoration - she wonders if she should try holding on to an original element of the work that is very degraded, and her suitor tells her to "hold on to it." The character is obviously echoing his own inability to let go of the wife he's lost (and will try replacing with a lookalike), but this spells out De Palma's modus operandi with Obsession. De Palma even gets Herrmann again to do the score (and to drive the point home, he used Vertigo's score as a temp track in order to convince a producer to let him hire Herrmann).
At worst, if you were really dismissive of this work, you can say it sounds like a pathetic exercise in trying to replicate a film that De Palma could never approach, giving us a hollow thriller instead of a profound, disturbing masterpiece with a deeply felt tragedy. Scottie trying to revive Madeleine through another woman could be thought along the same terms - that is, what's going on between Scottie and Judy is necrophilia instead of real love. But I think both assessments (of Obsession and of Scottie & Judy) are ultimately wrong. Judy really is in love with Scottie and there's a terrible yet honest sadness in how she allows Scottie to do something so awful to her. I'm not moved by Obsession the way I am by Vertigo, but I find it compelling for what it sees in Vertigo and what it regurgitates. That is, it may not come close to reaching the same heights as Vertigo, but its reach is fascinating.
And thanks to Herrmann, Obsession does have real feeling - as I mentioned in an earlier post, his score articulates beautifully what's going on between the two romantic leads. The best is when Robertson goes back and follows her after work. Not a word is exchanged, he stays behind her. It builds to a marvelous peak, when she goes into her home and he comes out on the street. Watch as he walks and pulls up, and how the music shifts and subtly augments that moment. His back's to you and he's in long shot, but with that bit of walking in synch with that perfect music, you can feel Robertson's heart begin to flutter. And then the killer is when we fade to a shot that drifts down from a ceiling to Robertson, who's in the foreground of a deep focus shot. As that camera floats down, listen to those soft, stray notes plucked on the soundtrack. When we finally land on Robertson (seen in profile, deep in thought), you can feel his mind miles away, thinking only of her.
Watch that scene alone and without music - what's going on is still clear, but you don't feel the intoxicating pull that's swallowing him up. It could be a cold case of stalking that elicits no empathy. That changes with Herrmann's score.
