De Palma and Femme Fatale

It's impossible to see everything.  And now that more movies are being produced per year than ever in the history of the medium, it's only getting harder.  Things slip through the cracks.  The noise gets us.  And we can't help but miss a couple here and there.

I've always been a huge fan of Brian De Palma.  No one can move the camera like he can; there's a sexiness (if I dare say) to his camerawork that I don't really think anyone can match.  Plus there's a real interest in telling the story "visually" as much as he possibly can.

I love Greetings, Phantom of the Paradise, Obsession, Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Blow Out, Body Double, Casualties of War, Carlito's Way, and Mission: Impossible.  Somehow I missed Femme Fatale when it came out (Actually, that's not totally true.  I walked out of the theater after the first thirty or so minutes.  Testament that sometimes we must revisit.)

Well I finally caught up with it and loved it.  It's absolutely pure De Palma -- playful, sadistic, exuberant, heavy on the melodramatic music, and masterful in its use of the medium.  It's by far my favorite of his films in a really long time.  And if you're a fan of Mulholland Dr, check it out.  I think De Palma might have really loved the Lynch film, too.


*Thanks to Jeremy Richey and his Moon in the Gutter blog.  He recently listed Femme Fatale as one of his favorite films of the decade.  I couldn't agree more and owe him for the revisit.