De Palma's Passion

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 9/3/13 at 10:05pm

I saw Passion tonight and couldn't get over how awful it was. Sometimes it was tragic enough to get a chuckle, or at least a raised eyebrow from my friend, but mostly it was just ponderous that De Palma made such a bad remake.

Don't get me wrong. Love Crime wasn't Gone With the Wind, but it was pulpy fun, and Kristen Scott Thomas sunk her teeth into it and Ludivine Sagnier was the perfect protege to turn against her boss. (I saw a screening where Sagnier gave a talk back and she seemed like a lot of fun.)

De Palma's version strays pretty far from the plot of the original; I didn't want a shot for shot replica, but some of the changes were unnecessary.

The casting may have been the most detrimental aspect though. Rachel McAdams was so wrong as the high powered boss of the marketing company. She's much too young and was out of her depth as an actress. Noomi Repace gave a frustrating performance and never made the transformation from frump to glamour.

The soundtrack was unrelenting and should have been saved for late night cinemax. Lots of bizarre cinematography including a split-screen sequence that got the giggles going in my audience.

I was curious to see what De Palma would do, but my advice is stick to the original!

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 9/4/13 at 1:32am

I saw this a few weeks back on iTunes and thought it was ridiculous and just plain stupid. I love a good campy thriller and hoped this would fit the bill, but it was just dumb. McAdams, one of my favorite actresses, is terribly miscast and Rapace, so brilliant in the original DRAGON TATTOO trilogy and PROMETHEUS, was pretty bland. I agree about the score being incredibly distracting...and about some of the directorial choices registering as just plain cheap-looking and unnecessary (ie: the split screen). I haven't seen LOVE CRIME, but it's on my Netflix Instant list and I plan on watching it soon. I certainly hope it's better than PASSION, as you say Whizzer!

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 9/4/13 at 8:45am

I didn't understand why De Palma reset the movie in Berlin. If you're going to remake a French movie in English with mostly American and British actors (and Rapace is Swedish), why set it in Germany? If he wanted to keep it European it could just as easily have been set in London.

SPOILERS****************


And what was with Rapace's terrible alibi!? If I cared more I would do some research, but what ballet begins at 10pm?? Plus she was asked about her whereabouts between 11:30-1am. Surely the ballet still wasn't going on at 1. Plus the police said Christine's house was only 10 minutes from the ballet. Even if she had seen the entire ballet she would have had plenty of time to commit the crime.


END SPOILERS*********************

[Roscoe]

Posted: 9/4/13 at 8:46am

Amazing how they still toss money at that tired old De Palma hack to sh*t out a movie every few years, isn't it. Pathetic.

Updated On: 9/4/13 at 08:46 AM

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 9/4/13 at 8:51am

Yeah, he's really awful, isn't he? "Carrie" was a fluke, "The Untouchables" has aged really poorly, and "Mission: Impossible" was almost decent. Aside from this, his filmography is just crap after crap after crap.

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 9/4/13 at 9:10am

^ Dressed To Kill and Blow Out are two of my favorite movies.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 9/4/13 at 11:30am

With far more misses than hits and nothing decent since Mission Impossible, I tend to forget De Palma still directs anything. It's still a mystery to me how he managed to turn the story of the Black Dahlia into one of the most boring films I've ever seen.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 9/4/13 at 2:21pm

The one DePalma film I happily watch is PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE, a film that manages to be as much fun as it thinks it is. A dear friend who worships De Palma made me watch SISTERS some years back, and I could kind of enjoy it, but well, you know.

As for DRESSED TO KILL -- I was so engraged by it that I left the theater telling the people on line for the next screening who the killer was, so that they'd go see something else. Vile film.

Updated On: 9/5/13 at 02:21 PM

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 9/4/13 at 4:50pm

"I was so engraged by it that I left the theater telling the people on line for the next screening who the killer was, so that they'd go see something else."
Going to see something else probably wouldn't have been my reaction.
I forgot Scarface. I think that's his best. And it looks fantastic on blu-ray.
But I agree he hasn't made anything good since Mission Impossible. Black Dahlia was awful. Sad but not surprised to hear this was bad.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 9/4/13 at 5:04pm

'Engraged' is my new favorite word. I will use it often.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 9/4/13 at 5:08pm

Sounds like a bizarre hate proposal.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 9/4/13 at 5:15pm

It's like you're reeeeeeeeally into being furious. Which is my mental state during most waking hours.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/4/13 at 6:43pm

It sounds like "engorged" but a very special kind of engorged when one angry man shoulder locks another angry man from behind and they get very very close and express their special angry feelings.

[Playbilly]

Posted: 9/4/13 at 7:21pm

He should have retired after Phantom of the Paradise and Carrie. Or, at least done a Terrence Malick and do a movie every ten years.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 9/4/13 at 7:38pm

Love De Palma, but I found LOVE CRIME to be a snooze. I shall skip.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 9/5/13 at 9:06am

"It's like you're reeeeeeeeally into being furious. Which is my mental state during most waking hours."

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