Raising Cain, Brian De Palma’s maddening dissociative identity disorder thriller, remains one of the director’s most inscrutable films three decades later.
“Does Carter know what he did?”
“Carter didn’t do anything. Cain did all the killing.”
Brian De Palma is an absolute master visual storyteller and his movies are always cinematically stunning even when they don’t fully work as films. For every Carrie and Blow Out there’s a Snake Eyes and The Black Dahlia, but Snake Eyes still kicks off with a twelve-and-a-half minute unbroken tracking shot and Black Dahlia turns the camera into an airborne omniscient spectator during its dynamic gangland shootout and simultaneous corpse discovery. 1992’s Raising Cain comes at an important period of transition for De Palma. Sandwiched between The Bonfire of the Vanities and Carlito’s Way–ostensibly the two extremes of De Palma’s career–it’s easy for Raising Cain...
“Does Carter know what he did?”
“Carter didn’t do anything. Cain did all the killing.”
Brian De Palma is an absolute master visual storyteller and his movies are always cinematically stunning even when they don’t fully work as films. For every Carrie and Blow Out there’s a Snake Eyes and The Black Dahlia, but Snake Eyes still kicks off with a twelve-and-a-half minute unbroken tracking shot and Black Dahlia turns the camera into an airborne omniscient spectator during its dynamic gangland shootout and simultaneous corpse discovery. 1992’s Raising Cain comes at an important period of transition for De Palma. Sandwiched between The Bonfire of the Vanities and Carlito’s Way–ostensibly the two extremes of De Palma’s career–it’s easy for Raising Cain...
- 8/7/2023
- by Daniel Kurland
- bloody-disgusting.com
Lo and behold: despite the limitations brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Amsterdam-based Imagine Film Festival managed to get itself two theatrical world premieres for its 2020 edition. One of them was Peet Gelderblom's poetic collage film When Forever Dies, reviewed here, but the other one, Pavel Khvaleev's new film Sleepless Beauty, could hardly be more different: a brutal conspiracy thriller from Russia with a strong torture-horror slant. Briefly released online, Amsterdam actually got the first theatrical screening, and the film will continue to Sitges soon. Sleepless Beauty starts with the failed assassination of an ambassador. "Not to worry," say the people who ordered the hit, "we have a plan-b...". Shortly after that we follow Mila, a young woman who gets abducted and who...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 9/8/2020
- Screen Anarchy
(Is it a drama? Is it a documentary? Is it a history lesson? It's...) When the current pandemic started showing its teeth in the Netherlands in March, it meant the end of the 2020 edition of the Imagine Film Festival Amsterdam, as that was planned in April. Now, almost half a year and lots of re-scheduling later, Imagine managed a re-start of sorts in a slimmer (and partly on-line) form. And lo-and-behold: even in these dire circumstances, the festival manages to show two world premieres, one of which is Peet Gelderblom's collage film When Forever Dies. Comprised entirely out of clips from old films, shorts, and adverts, this "archival fiction feature" (as Gelderblom himself calls it) tells the story of "forever man" and "forever woman",...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 9/3/2020
- Screen Anarchy
I’d imagine every one of us, despite our individual life situations, however privileged or difficult they may be, wouldn’t have too much trouble coming up with a pretty long list of people and circumstances for which to be grateful, during the upcoming week traditionally reserved for the expression of thanks as well as throughout the entirety of the year.
Even in our brave new world, where gratitude and humility and generosity of spirit often seem to be in short supply, at the mercy of greed, abuse of power, disregard for the rule of law, and megalomaniac self-interest cynically masquerading as an aggressive strain of nationalist, populist passion, there are good, everyday reasons to look around and take stock of blessings in one’s immediate surroundings.
And speaking specifically as one who has the privilege and opportunity to occasionally write about matters concerning the movies, and even a (very...
Even in our brave new world, where gratitude and humility and generosity of spirit often seem to be in short supply, at the mercy of greed, abuse of power, disregard for the rule of law, and megalomaniac self-interest cynically masquerading as an aggressive strain of nationalist, populist passion, there are good, everyday reasons to look around and take stock of blessings in one’s immediate surroundings.
And speaking specifically as one who has the privilege and opportunity to occasionally write about matters concerning the movies, and even a (very...
- 11/23/2017
- by Dennis Cozzalio
- Trailers from Hell
A new video posits both films happened the same night, and we believe it.
Perry’s Note: Today I’m handing over one of my time slots to Dutch filmmaker and all-round creative animal Peet Gelderblom, who in his latest video essay argues that Martin Scorsese’s cult classic After Hours and John Landis’ little-seen gem Into The Night are East Coast and West Coast chronicles of the very same night in 1985. Sounds off the wall? Well, off the wall is just another day at the office for Gelderblom, who earlier pitted Hitchcock against De Palma in a Split Screen Bloodbath; who put God in the same room with Satan in a mammoth mash-up compiled from two dozen movies; who made Kermit cry and Werner Herzog talk funny and whose fan edit of Raising Cain became a De Palma approved Director’s Cut.
Check out the video here, and Gelderblom’s written intro below:
https://medium.com...
Perry’s Note: Today I’m handing over one of my time slots to Dutch filmmaker and all-round creative animal Peet Gelderblom, who in his latest video essay argues that Martin Scorsese’s cult classic After Hours and John Landis’ little-seen gem Into The Night are East Coast and West Coast chronicles of the very same night in 1985. Sounds off the wall? Well, off the wall is just another day at the office for Gelderblom, who earlier pitted Hitchcock against De Palma in a Split Screen Bloodbath; who put God in the same room with Satan in a mammoth mash-up compiled from two dozen movies; who made Kermit cry and Werner Herzog talk funny and whose fan edit of Raising Cain became a De Palma approved Director’s Cut.
Check out the video here, and Gelderblom’s written intro below:
https://medium.com...
- 4/13/2017
- by H. Perry Horton
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
So, going into the final stretch before the Oscars are announced, I have a question: if you like—no, love this year’s front-running La La Land, does that make you a bad person, or just deluded? Don’t laugh—there may be people at your own Oscar party who will have already come to their own conclusion on that conundrum. This year’s presumptive favorite is so presumptive that people are talking about the film as if it had already won and are projecting as to whether it’s an enduring classic or just another meh-fest to be thrown on the mediocrity pile along with Crash, Chicago, Argo, The Artist and about half of the rest of Oscar’s Best Picture winners since the Academy started handing out awards at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in 1929. It is hard to deny, no matter how much you like or dislike La La Land,...
- 2/25/2017
- by Dennis Cozzalio
- Trailers from Hell
Anyone interested in the films of Brian De Palma likely knows that the director has been heavily influenced by the movies of Alfred Hitchcock during the course of his career. But even knowing that fact, it might surprise some of you how much one Hitchcock film in particular, the 1960 classic Psycho, impacted De Palma. This video essay from Peet Gelderblom puts it into context by showing off shots from Hitchcock's masterpiece on the left side of the screen and juxtaposes them with shots from tons of films from De Palma's oeuvre on the right. It's pretty amazing how spot-on many of these ended up being.
(Warning: Nsfw imagery).
(Warning: Nsfw imagery).
- 12/13/2016
- by Ben Pearson
- GeekTyrant
Alfred Hitchcock and Brian De Palma are two iconic directors that have made incredible films that are cemented in cinema history. It’s no secret that the “Carrie” helmer is a big fan of Hitchcock and over the years has used his work as source of inspiration.
In a new video essay by director and writer Peet Gelderblom, titled “Hitchcock & De Palma: Split Screen Bloodbath,” the filmmaker shows a side-by-side of Hitchcock’s “Psycho” compared to scenes from De Palma’s filmography. As we take a closer look, it’s easy to see that De Palma’s work is not an exact imitation, rather an homage to Hitchcock, re-envisioned in his own special way.
Among De Palma’s features that are used in the comparison are “Passion,” “Femme Fatale,” “Carrie,” “Phantom of the Paradise,” “Mission: Impossible” and “Dressed to Kill,” among others.
Read More: Quentin Tarantino Pays Homage to...
In a new video essay by director and writer Peet Gelderblom, titled “Hitchcock & De Palma: Split Screen Bloodbath,” the filmmaker shows a side-by-side of Hitchcock’s “Psycho” compared to scenes from De Palma’s filmography. As we take a closer look, it’s easy to see that De Palma’s work is not an exact imitation, rather an homage to Hitchcock, re-envisioned in his own special way.
Among De Palma’s features that are used in the comparison are “Passion,” “Femme Fatale,” “Carrie,” “Phantom of the Paradise,” “Mission: Impossible” and “Dressed to Kill,” among others.
Read More: Quentin Tarantino Pays Homage to...
- 12/9/2016
- by Liz Calvario
- Indiewire
“He is the one who distilled the essence of film. He’s like Webster. It’s all there. I’ve used a lot of his grammar,” Brian De Palma says of Alfred Hitchcock. Indeed, when we looked back at the Blow Out director’s entire filmography this past summer, there was more than a few mentions of The Master of Suspense. It’s not just his riff on Vertigo with Obsession and Body Double or his many homages to Psycho in Dressed to Kill — the DNA of Hitchcock can be found in virtually all of De Palma’s films.
More than just an imitation though, he was able to build on his techniques and formal expertise to further the cinematic language of suspense, and today we have a video essay that shows his sprawling influence. “Hitchcock & De Palma: Split Screen Bloodbath” by Peet Gelderblom (via RogerEbert.com) is an...
More than just an imitation though, he was able to build on his techniques and formal expertise to further the cinematic language of suspense, and today we have a video essay that shows his sprawling influence. “Hitchcock & De Palma: Split Screen Bloodbath” by Peet Gelderblom (via RogerEbert.com) is an...
- 12/8/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
When Brian De Palma’s Raising Cain bowed in American theaters during the summer of 1992, it was anticipated by fans of the director as a welcome return to the sort of formalist genre contraption he hadn’t indulged in since the creative blow-out (forgive me) of Body Double eight years earlier. However, when the lights came up, even within the ranks of the De Palma faithful there was polarization. A handful defended it as one of the director’s masterpieces, while a greater number seemed to consider it at best middle-tier De Palma, a fully committed attempt to deal with typical De Palma-esque narrative elasticity and thematic concerns such as time, chronology and dream logic, all in the context of an examination of the morphing perimeters of American masculinity and parental responsibility which somehow, in the end, seemed as out of balance as its psychically fractured protagonist. Meanwhile, the...
- 9/24/2016
- by TFH Team
- Trailers from Hell
When it comes to the discussion of Brian De Palma's collected oeuvre, Raising Cain is often met with indifference or seen as a well-intended failure when compared to his early filmography. Scream Factory's new, definitive Collector’s Edition Blu-ray release will no doubt change that conversation, mostly thanks to De Palma's preferred cut included on the second disc, a passionate fan-made edit that shifts the narrative perspective and overall tone into a completely different beast.
After the failure of adapting The Bonfire of the Vanities, the theatrical cut of Raising Cain was a noble return to what De Palma does best: cinematically manipulating the audience like voyeuristic puppets, much like he did with Body Double. In “Changing Cain: Brian De Palma's Cult Classic Restored,” one of the features included on the Blu-ray’s second disc, film critic Jim Emerson discusses how the opening shot of a...
After the failure of adapting The Bonfire of the Vanities, the theatrical cut of Raising Cain was a noble return to what De Palma does best: cinematically manipulating the audience like voyeuristic puppets, much like he did with Body Double. In “Changing Cain: Brian De Palma's Cult Classic Restored,” one of the features included on the Blu-ray’s second disc, film critic Jim Emerson discusses how the opening shot of a...
- 9/13/2016
- by Sean McClannahan
- DailyDead
September 13th boasts over 30 horror and sci-fi home entertainment releases, so I hope you guys have been saving up, because there are a lot of great choices to spend your money on this week. The highly anticipated 30th Anniversary Edition of Aliens comes home this week courtesy of 20th Century Fox, and if you are a big fan of James Wan’s latest sequel, you’ll undoubtedly want to pick up The Conjuring on Blu-ray or DVD this Tuesday.
Universal Studios is keeping busy this Tuesday with two Universal Monster collections celebrating Frankenstein and The Wolf Man, and Scream Factory’s Raising Cain Blu-ray arrives this week, too. Also, if you happened to miss the special edition of the giallo classic Tenebrae earlier this year, Synapse Films is putting out a basic Blu that fans will definitely want to nab (as a proud owner of the Collector’s Edition,...
Universal Studios is keeping busy this Tuesday with two Universal Monster collections celebrating Frankenstein and The Wolf Man, and Scream Factory’s Raising Cain Blu-ray arrives this week, too. Also, if you happened to miss the special edition of the giallo classic Tenebrae earlier this year, Synapse Films is putting out a basic Blu that fans will definitely want to nab (as a proud owner of the Collector’s Edition,...
- 9/13/2016
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
The team over at Shout! Factory specializes in giving the special-edition treatment to films that are cultish even by cult-film standards. And later this month, Shout! will release a new Blu-ray edition of Brian DePalma’s oft-overlooked split-personality thriller, Raising Cain.
Raising Cain stars John Lithgow, John Lithgow, and John Lithgow as Dr. Carter Nix, a respected child psychologist who suffers from multiple personality disorder. Carter and his criminal personality, Cain, are offing mothers to kidnap their children for experiments. Shout! Factory has granted The A.V. Club two exclusive looks at the new Raising Cain Blu-ray, featuring interviews with stars Steven Bauer and Gregg Henry.
One of the more interesting aspects of this new release is the director’s cut of the film on the second disc. Back in 2012, commercial director Peet Gelderblom completed work on his own fan edit of Raising Cain; after obtaining the original script ...
Raising Cain stars John Lithgow, John Lithgow, and John Lithgow as Dr. Carter Nix, a respected child psychologist who suffers from multiple personality disorder. Carter and his criminal personality, Cain, are offing mothers to kidnap their children for experiments. Shout! Factory has granted The A.V. Club two exclusive looks at the new Raising Cain Blu-ray, featuring interviews with stars Steven Bauer and Gregg Henry.
One of the more interesting aspects of this new release is the director’s cut of the film on the second disc. Back in 2012, commercial director Peet Gelderblom completed work on his own fan edit of Raising Cain; after obtaining the original script ...
- 9/6/2016
- by Mike Vanderbilt
- avclub.com
Some intriguing new Blu-ray specs were revealed for the Collector’s Edition of Brian De Palma’s spine-tingling Raising Cain, which debuts on Blu-ray on September 13th. A special director’s cut, interviews with John Lithgow (Dexter, Third Rock from the Sun), Steven Bauer, Gregg Henry, Tom Bower, Mel Harris, and the film’s editor, Paul Hirsch, are just a few of the special bonus features included in this edition.
Press Release: When Jenny cheated on her husband, he didn’t just leave… he split.
Scream Factory has announced the release of the thriller Raising Cain [Collector’s Edition] on Blu-ray on September 13th. Called “creepy and effective” by Moviehole, Raising Cain [Collector’s Edition] offers impressive bonus features including new interviews with actors John Lithgow, Steven Bauer, Gregg Henry, Tom Bower, Mel Harris and editor Paul Hirsch, a new featurette titled Changing Cain: Brian De Palma’s Cult Classic Restored, a new video essay by...
Press Release: When Jenny cheated on her husband, he didn’t just leave… he split.
Scream Factory has announced the release of the thriller Raising Cain [Collector’s Edition] on Blu-ray on September 13th. Called “creepy and effective” by Moviehole, Raising Cain [Collector’s Edition] offers impressive bonus features including new interviews with actors John Lithgow, Steven Bauer, Gregg Henry, Tom Bower, Mel Harris and editor Paul Hirsch, a new featurette titled Changing Cain: Brian De Palma’s Cult Classic Restored, a new video essay by...
- 7/27/2016
- by Tamika Jones
- DailyDead
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