The Talks inteview
De Palma gives an interview to The Talks. He discusses violence in film, trying to get different ratings, and getting final cut.
We were very lucky in our generation. We got final cut. We were in the era of the director superstar. Very few directors have final cut today. Obviously Spielberg does and Scorsese, but there aren’t too many. And the new directors are constantly not getting final cut so you have to battle with the studios to make sure that they don’t alter your movie. You can’t make very controversial movies.
Passion
De Palma directs this neo-noir about sexual tension, jealousy and, eventually, violence, between a boss and her protégé in an advertising agency. Rachel McAdams, Noomi Rapace, and Karoline Herfurth star.
This is a relationship picture, and the girls came in to rehearse, and we sort of watched what they did and how they played with the material, and we adjusted the script to their interaction.
Redacted
De Palma directs this film based on a true story about American soldiers raping and murdering a young Iraqi girl during the occupation. The film is made using a pastiche approach, incorporating news reports and Youtube footage liberally. Patrick Carroll, Rob Devaney, and Izzy Diaz star.
I guess I’ve always been controversial.
The Black Dahlia
De Palma directs this film based on a novel by James Ellroy, which is loosely structured around the facts of the real life Black Dahlia murder case. When a woman is found cut in half, two cops try to solve the mystery. Josh Hartnett, Aaron Eckhart, and Scarlett Johansson star.
I tried to stay very close to the Ellroy book, and, if it got a little too complex, so be it. That’s the way he told the story. I did not try to straighten out any of the kinks or curves.
Mission to Mars
De Palma directs a science fiction adventure film about crew of astronauts on a rescue mission after the disastrous failure of a manned trip to mars. Tim Robbins, Gary Sinise, and Don Cheadle star.
Well I had to come up with a whole other way of doing things because of the weightlessness. And the whole thing about outer space is that there’s no up and down. So I had to think of ways to convey that to the audience.