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Sisters - Criterion Collection

Sisters - Criterion Collection

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: De Palma's divine tribute to the art of Alfred Hitchcock
Review: A hard-nosed lady reporter witnesses a brutal murder, then learns that the girl she holds responsible for the crime has a seperated siamese twin sister. One of De Palma's best films, "Sisters" is definitely a tribute to the great Alfred Hitchcock with obvious references to PSYCHO and REAR WINDOW, as well as the bone-chilling score by Bernard Herrmann(Hitchcock's favorite composer), but De Palma proves to be a revolutionary filmmaker in his own right: His use of split screen to show two actions taking place at once is superb and quite unlike anything Hitchcock ever did. Also, I would note that the ending of this film is far more bizarre and unsettling than anything the master could concoct. In addition to putting De Palma on the map, "SISTERS" boosted Margot Kidder's career, and played a firm hand in revolutionizing the splatter movie genre(there are two great gory murders that you won't easily forget). If you love to be scared, SISTERS is one film you won't want to miss!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: De Palma's divine tribute to the art of Alfred Hitchcock
Review: A hard-nosed lady reporter witnesses a brutal murder, then learns that the girl she holds responsible for the crime has a seperated siamese twin sister. One of De Palma's best films, "Sisters" is definitely a tribute to the great Alfred Hitchcock with obvious references to PSYCHO and REAR WINDOW, as well as the bone-chilling score by Bernard Herrmann(Hitchcock's favorite composer), but De Palma proves to be a revolutionary filmmaker in his own right: His use of split screen to show two actions taking place at once is superb and quite unlike anything Hitchcock ever did. Also, I would note that the ending of this film is far more bizarre and unsettling than anything the master could concoct. In addition to putting De Palma on the map, "SISTERS" boosted Margot Kidder's career, and played a firm hand in revolutionizing the splatter movie genre(there are two great gory murders that you won't easily forget). If you love to be scared, SISTERS is one film you won't want to miss!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: In this Hitchcok style this is the best
Review: This film has many aspects to remark. The first of them lies in the style: the film reminds to a slow english picture, in the Hitchcock of the fifties, specially The rear window and the rope, there are many unforgettable shot angles , the sensation you breathe is amazing. You feel the claustrophobic mood and once more, the camera becomes before us once more as a device for making the viewer a real Peeping Tom.
The dual character played in both characters are brilliant played by Margott Kidder in his best rol to date and dazzling direction. The script runs organically , giving visible and suggestive clues. A brilliant psychothriller!.
De Palma made a little masterpiece, soon before one my favorite cult movie any age like Phantom of Paradise. De Palma was in the peak of his powers, undoubtly.
If you are a hard fan of the suspense, this film is for you.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Truly, Deeply Scary
Review: After all these years it's easy to forget just how revolutionary and exhilarating Brian De Palma was when he first appeared. His boldly stylish blend of sex, extreme violence, twisted humor and brooding cynicism seemed absolutely up-to-date for the disillusioned 1970's. He made some wonderful movies through the mid '80's. Some of us are still waiting for him to return to his early promise and make some more masterpieces. (His career has suffered during the Spielberg-dumbed-down and homogenized '90's.) "Sisters" is still probably his most consistently terrifying movie, although "Carrie" may be a hair's-breadth away.

Of course there are borrowings from "Psycho" and "Rear Window" but the true genesis of this movie was from an old "Life" magazine article about Soviet siamese twins which the Criterion Collection has included as an extra on the DVD. There is a haunting photograph of the real-life twins which De Palma actually uses in the film. Margot Kidder's performance is so intense as the killer(s) that there are moments where she seems genuinely disturbed (I'm sure this was just acting, and not related to her later real-life problems. Although the resonance is kind of eerie in a Kenneth Anger sort of way.) And there are times (especially the final hypnotic flashback) when it seems like De Palma has burrowed a pipeline into your very own worst nightmares. The director remains probably the most pessimistic mainstream moviemaker America has produced in recent decades (although he has mellowed with "The Untouchables" and "Femme Fatale.") This may account for the difficulty that many moviegoers have with him. But if you remind yourself "It's only a movie" and remember that bad dreams don't last forever (and can even be good for you) you can have a really fun time with "Sisters."

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: As racist as a Stephen King Short Story from the seventies
Review: This movie is the most balsy opaquely racist movie I've ever seen. But I'll get to that in a moment.

Margot Kidder is a bombshell in this movie. Every sinew, every muscle, every handful of glandular greatness, every strand of beautiful raven black hair on her Canadian brow is perfectly structured to reveal an untapped sex-goddess in her prime (25). Her French Accent is positevly genius and to die for along with the scenes where she is using her allure to distract the cops from growing wise to her homicide. What, pray tell, happened to Margot Kidder in the five years from Sisters to Superman. Her perfect mouth becomes somehow gaunt and the fortifying keratin tissue around her lips fades in an unattractive way. I cannot place exactly what it is, but something happened to Margot in those five years which took away much of her blossoming beauty.

But I digress. The reason this movie is racist is because when broken down it shows how a group of white people conspire together to kill a healthy, young, law-abiding, successful black man and don't get caught. They suffer no repercussions. Thus the subtext of the film acts to assert racist propaganda disguised as a thriller/horror picture.

But read any Stephen King short story in the mid seventies and you'll get the same thing. Apparently brian and stephen didn't think black people would ever attain the education or affluence to see their movies/read their stories.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Early DePalma Delivers
Review: Brian De Palma's first thriller is a low-budget, campy homage to Hitchcock. I was also reminded of Sam Fuller's "Shock Corridor." There's also a bit of Michael Powell's "Peeping Tom." The movie begins with a violent sequence (the blood looks fake, however) that keeps you glued to your seat. After the murder, things start to slow down and some of what follows is boring. But hang in there because the last half hour or so is out of this world and very innovative. If you don't mind sitting through some bad acting, a low budget/B-movie feel, and some illogical loopholes in the plot, "Sisters" delivers some truly awesome moments--you just have to wait for them. By the way, great use of split screen, a technique De Palma uses again in "Carrie" and "Dressed to Kill." Watch for some soon-to-be stars in small roles. Margot Kidder is excellent. If you like her, don't miss this one. Finally, the musical score by composer Bernard Herrmann (who did the music for "Psycho") is terrific. In my opinion, it's his best work. Fans of the band Thrill Kill Kult will recognize the score from CONFESSIONS OF A KNIFE (namely, "The Days of Swine and Roses"). Overall, "Sisters" is worth watching, though De Palma went on to much bigger and better things.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: As racist as a Stephen King Short Story from the seventies
Review: This movie is the most balsy opaquely racist movie I've ever seen. But I'll get to that in a moment.

Margot Kidder is a bombshell in this movie. Every sinew, every muscle, every handful of glandular greatness, every strand of beautiful raven black hair on her Canadian brow is perfectly structured to reveal an untapped sex-goddess in her prime (25). Her French Accent is positevly genius and to die for along with the scenes where she is using her allure to distract the cops from growing wise to her homicide. What, pray tell, happened to Margot Kidder in the five years from Sisters to Superman. Her perfect mouth becomes somehow gaunt and the fortifying keratin tissue around her lips fades in an unattractive way. I cannot place exactly what it is, but something happened to Margot in those five years which took away much of her blossoming beauty.

But I digress. The reason this movie is racist is because when broken down it shows how a group of white people conspire together to kill a healthy, young, law-abiding, successful black man and don't get caught. They suffer no repercussions. Thus the subtext of the film acts to assert racist propaganda disguised as a thriller/horror picture.

But read any Stephen King short story in the mid seventies and you'll get the same thing. Apparently brian and stephen didn't think black people would ever attain the education or affluence to see their movies/read their stories.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "You are not a doctor"
Review: nancy drew (jennifer salt) would kill to get off of staten island and become the maverick of NYC journalism. the only problem is that all she has done to this point with her 'little job" is write about rampant police corruption, isolating herself even further from the big city. what she needs is a break, and witnessing a murder, (especially a depalma split-screen murder) appears to be her ticket, if she can get anyone to listen.

nancy drew on acid

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Truly, Deeply Scary
Review: After all these years it's easy to forget just how revolutionary and exhilarating Brian De Palma was when he first appeared. His boldly stylish blend of sex, extreme violence, twisted humor and brooding cynicism seemed absolutely up-to-date for the disillusioned 1970's. He made some wonderful movies through the mid '80's. Some of us are still waiting for him to return to his early promise and make some more masterpieces. (His career has suffered during the Spielberg-dumbed-down and homogenized '90's.) "Sisters" is still probably his most consistently terrifying movie, although "Carrie" may be a hair's-breadth away.

Of course there are borrowings from "Psycho" and "Rear Window" but the true genesis of this movie was from an old "Life" magazine article about Soviet siamese twins which the Criterion Collection has included as an extra on the DVD. There is a haunting photograph of the real-life twins which De Palma actually uses in the film. Margot Kidder's performance is so intense as the killer(s) that there are moments where she seems genuinely disturbed (I'm sure this was just acting, and not related to her later real-life problems. Although the resonance is kind of eerie in a Kenneth Anger sort of way.) And there are times (especially the final hypnotic flashback) when it seems like De Palma has burrowed a pipeline into your very own worst nightmares. The director remains probably the most pessimistic mainstream moviemaker America has produced in recent decades (although he has mellowed with "The Untouchables" and "Femme Fatale.") This may account for the difficulty that many moviegoers have with him. But if you remind yourself "It's only a movie" and remember that bad dreams don't last forever (and can even be good for you) you can have a really fun time with "Sisters."

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: a disturbing film with some intense scenes.
Review: This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

The story is about a recently seperated conjoined twin who has moved to Staten Island in New York. She later falls in love with a man who she subsequently kills. A woman next door witnesses the murder through her window and tries to track down the killer.

The movie has several shots of the World Trade Center which was still under construction at the time of filming. The film's soundtrack is a very impressive electronic score performed on the Moog Synthesiser. There are several violent scenes in the film but the stage blood is very fake looking. There are some scenes that are disturbing in other ways including a woman who is forcibly put under hypnosis and scene of the same woman having a nightmare that she is one of the conjoined twins during the seperation surgery.

The poor acting of some characters is expected for a film with a budget of only $500,000 Some actors play their part well though.

The Criterion DVD has several special features including an extra essay in the liner notes on the film's music. There is also a theatrical trailer, over 200 production and publicity photos and stills, a text interview with director Brian DePalma, there is also a Life Magazine article on conjoined twins which inspired the film, and reproduction of the orginal press book.

This is one of the films which I think was not worthy of the Criterion treatment, but it is not as bad as many other films I have seen.


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