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Review
Archives
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Today's
Date is:
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OBSESSION
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Reviewed
by: |
Christopher
J. Jarmick |
| Genre: |
Suspense |
| Video: |
Anamorphic
2.35:1 Widescreen |
| Audio: |
Dolby
Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0, Dolby Digital 1.0 |
| Language: |
English,
French |
| Subtitle: |
English
(Captioned), French, Spanish |
| Length: |
98
minutes |
| Rating: |
PG |
| Release
Date: |
06/26/01 |
| Studio: |
Columbia/Tristar |
| Commentary:
|
None |
| Documentaries:
|
Obsession
Revisited is a superb 36 minute short documentary detailing
the creation and filming of Obsession. |
| Featurettes:
|
None |
| Filmography/Biography:
|
Run
of the mill standard issue, incomplete main participant filmographies
included |
|
Interviews: |
As
part of the documentary |
| Trailers/TV
Spots: |
Wide
screen theatrical trailer for Obsession. Full Frame trailers
for Against All Odds, Devil in A Blue Dress and Someone to Watch
Over Me |
| Alternate/Deleted
Scenes: |
None |
| Music
Video: |
None |
| Other:
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None |
| Cast
and Crew: |
Cliff Robertson,
Genevieve Bujold, John Lithgow |
| Screenplay
by: |
Written by
Paul Schrader; based on a story by Depalma and Schrader |
| Produced
by: |
George Litto (the guy
who put up his house and then found others to invest in the
film), Harry N. Blum and Robert S. Bremson Executive Producers |
| Directed
By: |
Brian DePalma |
| Music: |
Bernard Herrmann |
| The
Review: |
Obsession
is one of the most tasteful and pure homages to Hitchcock that
DePalma (or anyone else) has ever made. It's an old fashioned
type of film that is slowly paced and romantic as the suspense
builds to a satisfying exciting ending that reveals a surprising
twist. It has a wonderful score by Bernard Herrman (one of his
last) and is beautifully photographed by Vilmos Vzigmond. *
* * Brian DePalma has seemingly been obsessed by Hitchcock for
most of his life. And back in the mid-70's he put together a
film that was a direct, no-nonsense homage to Hitchcock (Vertigo
and Rebecca). DePalma began working on the film immediately
after seeing a screening of Vertigo with friend and collaborator
Paul Schrader. DePalma had some ideas on making a twist on Hitch's
Vertigo and asked Shrader to write the screenplay. The result
was a film they originally titled 'Déjà Vu which became OBSESSION.
* * * I had not seen the film for many years and am glad to
tell you that it holds up well. DePalma fans will probably be
surprised at how restrained the film is. It's a film that has
a purposefully slow pace which takes the viewer through the
romantic elements of the story and then delivers its surprises
and its most suspenseful moments in the last 15 minutes of the
98 minute film. * * * * Cliff Robertson does not exude the charisma
that a Cary Grant or Jimmy Stewart does, but he makes a fine
old-fashioned leading man. The film opens with a long segment
set in 1959, rich New Orleans real estate developer, Michael
Courtland (Robertson) is throwing a lavish party to celebrate
his 10th wedding anniversary to Elizabeth (Genevieve Bujold).
At the party we also meet his long-time business partner Robert
LaSalle (John Lithgow). Immediately after the party however,
Michael's wife and 8 year old daughter are kidnapped. A ransom
note demands 500,000 dollars. The police advice Michael to use
phony money in a briefcase equipped with radio transmitter that
is supposed to lead them to the kidnappers. Things go terribly
wrong. * * * * The film leaps forward 16 years to 1975. Michael
is still fighting his demons and the tragedy from the past.
On a business trip to Italy with partner Robert he sees a woman
that looks exactly like his wife. He immediately becomes obsessed
with her. * * * * I won't spoil the film by revealing too much
of what happens. It's a film that moves slowly and very purposefully.
It is a film that is gloriously enhanced by an almost overwhelmingly
lush Bernard Herrmann score that is evocative of Herrmann's
masterpiece Vertigo score. It features some very special visual
sequences which include two instances where during a 360 degree
pan, time leaps forward. In the first use, 16 years passes from
the time the pan begins till it ends about a minute later. In
the second pan about an hour of time passes by. DePalma and
Vilmos constructed several beautiful visual segments throughout
the film, utilizing New Orleans, Florence, Italy, and various
stand-in locations beautifully. The entire film is bathed in
A slightly hazy blue toned look which adds to both the old fashioned
and dream-like quality of the film. * * * It is unlikely the
deliberately slow pace of the film will hold casual younger
viewers attention. The film also has several flaws. First, let
me remind you, everyone had terrible hair in the 1970's (except
perhaps Farrah). The make-up, particularly on John Lithgow is
not consistent. In several shots it does appear he has aged
16 years with speckles of gray in his hair and he appears to
have additional lines on his face, but in other shots the hair
color changes and the wrinkles have vanished. Lithgow also seems
to be wearing almost the same identical suit throughout the
film. Robertson has a scene without his shirt set in 1959… and
a scene without his shirt set in 1975. Bad choice. He looks
nearly identical in both scenes. Do yourself a favor and don't
allow these things to spoil the film for you. I'm sure shooting
schedules and budget restraints (it was made for a very modest
approximately 1.5 million budget), are to blame for these 'mistakes'.
|
| Image
and Sound |
The film
is presented in an anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio.
This was the first wide screen film that DePalma shot and he
uses the screen well. The film is intentionally soft and hazy,
but unfortunately, the black levels are not as sharp and defined
as they should be. There is also quite a bit of graininess and
dust visible during certain sections of the film. There is enough
present so that it is distracting. Image clarity and line delineation
are weak which make even the opening credits difficult to read.
You will notice some edge enhancement and halo-ing. Over-all
the film looks like a half-way decent VHS copy of the film,
not a brand new DVD release.* * * The three audio mixes are
not as clear or full sounding as I was expecting. The Digital
5.1 does not utilize the capabilities of the system and I wonder
if much time effort or energy was spent in Re-mixing the film
at all. Herrmann's score is loud and clear, but sometimes the
dialogue has a noticeable hollow feel to it. The rear speakers
are not well used. Sound does not move around the spectrum of
the speakers the way you would hope. Even the score while clear
is rather Statically presented. |
| The
Extras |
Obsession
Revisited is a 36 minute mini-documentary produced by Laurent
Bouzereau (who produced the Hitchcock documentaries for the
Universal studios Special Edition Hitchcock DVDs). It includes
new interviews with Cliff Robertson, Genevieve Bujold, George
Litto (producer), cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, and director
Brian DePalma and includes a generous sprinkling of behind the
scenes production stills and clips from the film. It is not
a promotional type of behind the scenes documentary but a very
informative and interesting film which reveals how Obsession
was created. There are discussions of how some of the shots
came to be , a few cuts that DePalma made to secure distribution,
a decision regarding looping some dialogue that greatly upset
Bujold and how certain interiors and locations stood in for
others. It's an excellent revealing and interesting short documentary. |
| Commentary |
None |
| Final
Words: |
Obsession is a slow moving romantic
suspense thriller in which director Brian DePalma channels
Alfred Hitchcock while restraining all of his sophomoric tendencies.
It's an old fashioned type of film which despite it's controversial
surprise twist features no blood, no foul language and no
nudity. It's mostly a beautifully done film. Unfortunately
very little actual restoration appears to have been performed
in transferring the film to DVD as the film looks and sounds
only slightly better than it would have as a no frills wide
screen VHS release. The DVD however does contain the excellent
36 minute short documentary Obsession Revisited which is an
excellent excuse for justifying buying this imperfect disc.
* * * * *
Christopher Jarmick,is the author
of The Glass Coccon with Serena F. Holder a critically acclaimed,
steamy suspense thriller. For information on Author readings/signings
or availability of special autographed editions of the novel
email: glasscocoon@hotmail for details. * * * * Original portions
of this review Copyright© Christopher J. Jarmick 2001. The
above work is protected by international copyright law.
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