Rating: 
Summary: NOISSESBO
Review: Another excellent De Palma thriller, this time without the sex and violence. Even if you don't like his other movies like BODY DOUBLE, if you want an interesting and atmospheric thriller, get this. It is a much more subtle film some of ones that followed, partly a love story, partly a mystery and all class. I won't explain the story as it has already been explained here and elsewhere a million times, so on to the DVD.The picture is a bit grainy(some parts look better than others), but although I hadn't seen the film before I have read that it has always looked grainy and washed out ever since it was first released. Still apart from the grain the picture is still sharp. You get 5.1, 2 channel and mono english sound tracks and they sounded good to me. Also included on the disc is an excellent 35 minute documentary and a trailer(plus trailers of two other films).
Rating:
Summary: NOISSESBO
Review: Another excellent De Palma thriller, this time without the sex and violence. Even if you don't like his other movies like BODY DOUBLE, if you want an interesting and atmospheric thriller, get this. It is a much more subtle film some of ones that followed, partly a love story, partly a mystery and all class. I won't explain the story as it has already been explained here and elsewhere a million times, so on to the DVD. The picture is a bit grainy(some parts look better than others), but although I hadn't seen the film before I have read that it has always looked grainy and washed out ever since it was first released. Still apart from the grain the picture is still sharp. You get 5.1, 2 channel and mono english sound tracks and they sounded good to me. Also included on the disc is an excellent 35 minute documentary and a trailer(plus trailers of two other films).
Rating:
Summary: Obsession indeed
Review: As a fan of Brian De Palma and Hitchcock, this film just about does it to me. WOW!
Rating:
Summary: PALI(-N)MPS(-C)EST
Review: Based on a very smart screenplay directly written for the screen by Paul Schrader and Brian De Palma, OBSESSION is, in my opinion, the masterpiece of the director of MISSION IMPOSSIBLE. The movie can be read at several different levels but is primarily an excellent thriller treating of the guiltiness felt by a man who failed to rescue his wife and his daughter when kidnapped in New orleans. The key of OBSESSION lies in the scene of the first encounter between Courtland and Sandra, in the medieval church in which the hero married his first wife. Sandra is trying to restore old paintings that happen to have been themselves painted over older paintings. Asked by Courtland if the new paintings will be erased, Sandra answers that it's not useful to destroy them in order to bring into light the original ones. So OBSESSION is clearly an homage to Alfred Hitchcock's VERTIGO but is also a movie of its own who deserves credit. I remember that the sumptuous travellings of De Palma's camera were, in the seventies, rather unusual in the american production and generated numerous critics. One can only observe, 25 years later, that De Palma new aesthetics has inspired a whole generation of american filmmakers, like Steven Spielberg for instance, who has understood that a camera movement could produce emotions in the viewer's heart. Among the bonus features of this DVD, there is a very interesting featurette with recent interviews of the cast. A DVD zone your library.
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Summary: Obession of Vertigo
Review: Brian de Palma did a very good job with this movie. The story is similar to Hitchcock's Vertigo, a man who lost his wife, discovers one day a woman who looks like her. This is why we can consider Obsession like a brilliant hommage to Hitchcock. In fact, Brian de Palma borrows heavily from Vertigo and a little from Dial M for murder (whith the murder scene with the scissors). Obsession should be watched after Vertigo in order to understand the links between the two movies. Thus, the music is composed by Bernard Herrmann and is very reminiscent of Vertigo's music. Herrmann thought that it was one of his best movie music and we can agree with him. Obsession is one of the best movies of Brian de Palma, it is an hommage of a master to another. Full of cinematography inventivity, suspense, good acting and characters, Obsession is a true obsession for viewers. Watch it and you won't regret it !
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Summary: DePalma - The Greatest of the Film School Brats
Review: Brian DePalma directed a string of truly inspired films in the 1970s, from SISTERS to CARRIE, from the campy, baroque glam of PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE, to the decade-ending double shots of DRESSED TO KILL and BLOW OUT. In the middle, he directed OBSESSION, which upped the ante of perversity, beauty and lurid unpleasantness of Hitchcock's VERTIGO (with a dash of DIAL 'M' for good measure). What people dismiss as second-hand aping, I see as respectful homage, an updating of Hitchcock's perspective for the post-Vietnam, post-Beatles age. He was, after all, one of the leaders of the "film school brats" of the late 1960s (all members of which blatantly [copied]the masters of the previous generation), and, to my mind, was the most brilliant (at least technically), the most mature, and the most sensitive of his peers. Give me the twisted emotional and visual depths of OBSESSION over a malfunctioning mechanical shark or a juvenile "creature cantina" any day!
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Summary: DePalma's love of Hitchcock at it's fullest
Review: Brian DePalma started his career by immitating Hitchcock's style. His love of all things Hitchchok are never more present than in Obsession. This film is not just done with a Hitchcock flair, it is more of an ode to Hictch and some of his most famous films. The second act is pure Vertigo, the third act is Rebecca, and the fourth goes out of it's way to use in the most famous scene from Dial M For Murder. This is not a simple homage, this is almost duplication. But that is not a bad thing. This is a great little film and DePalma obviously created it out of a labor of love for the Master of Suspense. If you are fan of Hitch or DePalm I highly recommend Obsession. However I urge you to watch Vertigo, Rebecca and Dial M For Murder before watching this film so you can understand what DePalma was up to when creating this movie.
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Summary: 'OBSESSION' is a worthy homage to 'VERTIGO'.
Review: De Palma is famous for directing many 'homages' to Hitchcock but lately i have tired of his 'homages' but when De Palma first started out he really did make good homages to Hitchcock instead of tired ones and this was a very worthy one indeed. It's about a successful business man (Cliff Robertson) who has everything: money, a beautiful and loving wife, good friends, and a daughter. But one night a group of kidnappers kidnapp his wife and child and in exchange for the safe return of his family they ask for money. He agrees but the police decide to try another method to try and catch the kidnappers which goes horribly wrong and the car in which the wife and child are supposed to be in crashes and explodes. For more than 15 years the man lives in constant mourning until he takes a business trip with his best friend and business partner (John Lithgow) to Italy. While he is there he visits the church where he and his wife were at once and there he sees a young italian woman (Genevieve Bujold) who looks exactly like his late wife. Soon after he starts to become obsessed with her and a relationship insues but soon after there follow many plot twists which i won't spoil. De Palma's direction is very Hitchcockian. It's very much like Hitchcock's direction in VERTIGO. He gives the film a surreal and haunting feeling by constantly having reminders of the dead family around and by using gothic settings. The writing is actually quite good. It has many twists and it develops the relationship between Cliff Robertson's character and Genevieve Bujold's character very well. It keeps a constant tension by making the audience wonder about this and that most of the time. The acting is quite good too, especially Miss Bujold who plays two roles. She is elegant and sophisticated in what little screen time she has as the wife and she has no dialogue in that part so she uses her face and eyes to convey the happiness and terror that her character feels. And as the young lady she is totally the opposite of her other character. She is more youthful and has a naive quality and an earnestness she does not show in her other character. Cliff Robertson plays his part well enough though he can't hold a candle to Jimmy Stewart's portrayal of his essentially similar character in VERTIGO but his performance stands on it's own. He chooses to mask his feelings instead of making them more apparent. You be the judge of whether that is a smart idea or not. All in all this is a worthy homage to the master (complete with a Bernard Herrmann score that sounds like the one in VERTIGO) and it never dissappoints. But i prefer to stick with the real thing.
Rating:
Summary: Minor flaws (like the re-written ending), yet great film!
Review: DePalma's first 'big' like production (Sisters and Hi Mom were more independent 'looking') is a look back to Hitchcock's Vertigo and was a nice break from the Jaws and disaster pics permeating the scene of the mid-70's. Robertson and Bujold are great in the leading roles as husband/father and wife/daughter/mystery woman. Without a doubt memorable for it having one of Bernard Herrmann's last scores (giving him a two score nomination by the acadamy along with Taxi Driver) as Herrmann himself put it "a sort of Faustian painting like feel to it", the scene's in Florence are especially well filmed and the ending with the reunited husband and daughter is fitting.
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Summary: Most Haunting thriller score ever!!!
Review: I have to admit i love this film for it's unbelievable Bernard Herrmann score. It rivals all his other film scores and seems to be an homage to all of them together as well. I recall when i first saw this film on tv as a kid, i was only interested in Brian Depalma's reputation as a horror director(Sisters, Carrie etc. i was a big fan) But i was totally blown away by the breathtaking action and heartbreaking storyline of this film. However it was ultimatly that powerful score with it's haunting chorus that did me in. Most especially at the film's absurdly surreal finish, where it resonates like a macabre waltz echoing the films tragic 'love' story(And the dvd carries an excellent 5.0 surround sound track that sounds like the orchestra itself playing in your home) If you like Depalma, this is like his ultimate Hitchcock film, and especially if you like Herrmann this is arquably his best score ever. Such a shame classy stuff like this 'minor' Depalma get over looked while his in your face 'Scarface' gets all the attention. This film is impeccable in it's content. It is tastefully done with very mild profanity, and no vulgarities(a breath of fresh air) Yet it's very adult theme still haunts long after the film ends, as does it's powerful score.
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