Biography of Brian De Palma
Prince of the thrill
September 11, 1940Today evoke the name of Brian De Palma has the flavour of the re-enactment Hitchcockian challenge I can say. Now recognized by all as the worthy heir of the master of the thrill Alfred Hitchcock, in fact, De Palma did not only revisited worthily the styles and ways of his great predecessor but also contributed with his work at maintaining a genre, thriller, suspense and narrative technique that makes its strengths (away, I mean , contains those effects that so often infect the titles like that). Born in Newark, New Jersey (USA) September 11, 1940, Brian Russell De Palma spent his youth in Philadelphia where his family moved when he has just 5 years. His main interests are initially turned to science and technology, perhaps influenced by his father, excellent orthopaedic surgeon. In the family De Palma lurked another boy genius, his brother Bruce, who performed after brilliant studies in physics, while the third, Bart, is passionate about painting.
Even her mother, opera singer, is not far behind in this exceptional family, though, to follow the family, they will forfeit their almost entirely to its artistic ambitions. In high school the last born of the family De Palma is considered by teachers a student from innate talent for electronics, while fellow students remember him as "a boy fascinated by the most varied objects, able to spend entire hours to dismantle radios or tuners from top to bottom in order to understand exactly the internal mechanics" (if you will find a track in Keith Gordon of "Home movies" and "dressed to kill" as well as in the John Travolta of "Blow out". The turning point comes when De Palma since graduating in physics, freshman at Columbia University, New York college comes among the most unbalanced toward the humanities, and in the wake of its scientific vocation "discovers" the entertainment world, devoting himself to the theatre and, later, to experimental cinema.
Obtained his diploma, De Palma manages to get a scholarship at another New York institution, Sarah Lawrence College. For him this is an important opportunity that allows him to work closely with what he considers his first and only teacher, Wilford Leach, who teaches at Sarah Lawrence. Leach--who later became famous on Broadway directed by one of the most successful of the years ' 70, "The Pirates Of Penzance"--knows De Palma at the time of her attendance of Columbia Players, and takes him under his wing, giving him advice about everything a young self-taught, wont turn on small film at no cost , may not have yet fully assimilated: the relationship with the actors, writing, production design. The genial De Palma quick study the lesson. Subsequent masterpieces, including "Carlito's way" (with Al Pacino), "the untouchables" (Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Andy Garcia) or "Scarface" (Al Pacino), they are there to witness it. According to the American magazine "Variety" none better than Brian De Palma is able to get the most out of the tension and suspense.
The enormous talent as a craftsman of the images, the use of debonair split screen, disarming ability in the use of slow motion without boring, but in order to increase engagement, does De Palma the most original and one of the most exciting filmmakers of the last twenty years. In 1986 he directed the music video for Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark" (which featured the actress Courtney Cox). He was married to actress Nancy Allen, who has used in four of his films from 1979 to 1983, with Gale Anne Hurd (second wife of James Cameron), and from 1995 to 1997 with Darnell De Palma, with whom he has a daughter, Piper, born October 21, 1996.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.