De Palma

A documentary in which a director talks through his own films. The structure is very simple: Brian De Palma sits in a chair and goes through his career from the beginning. Nobody else speaks on screen; the interviewer's questions are not heard, there are no experts and no narrator. The films are taken in order: from the early experimental work of the 1960s through Carrie, Scarface, Blow Out, The Untouchables and beyond. The account is candid. De Palma says why he made each film, which ones the studio ruined and which ones he ruined himself. He describes the failures with the same ease. Between them, film clips, set photographs and period recordings are used. The recordings were made over a few days; the directors filmed him at their homes and the material was edited over years. Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow directed; both are close friends of his. A direct and rich source for anyone who likes film history and directors talking. For a viewer expecting visual variety, the film consists almost entirely of one man speaking.