Friday, June 1, 2012

OBSESSION (1976)


Much before Brian De Palma made two of his most popular and much admired gangster films; he made certain B genre Hitchcockian edge on the seat psychological thrillers. Having watched his quite underrated ‘Sisters’, ‘Blow Out’ and ‘Body Double’, I must say the man is just brilliant replacement of Master Hitchcock for a quite a time being. Though many of critics criticized and labeled him as ‘Hitchcock’s shadow’, De Palma left his own stamp in all these films. His highly stylistic use of camera especially mise en scene, expressionist shots and angles focusing voyeuristic and stalking camera work in those earlier films bears an absolutely grotesque De Palma beauty.

This is one of those underrated De Palma. He took the premise of ‘Obsession’ from one of his most favorite Hitchcock film ‘Vertigo’ but constructed the film with different and surprising twist in the tale with impulsive obsession of two individuals. Need I ruin the suspense by sharing the plot! This is perhaps one of most slow paced film De Palma ever made but still its captivating thriller and visually so rich with spell binding camera work and Bernard Herrmann’s brilliant background score is added bonus.

Worth a watch for any Hitchcock admirer.

Ratings-7/10 

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