Watch: Hitchcock vs. De Palma Makes for One Bloody Split Screen
Brian De Palma takes Hitchcock's psychological perversity to the next level.
To be fair, this side-by-side comparison might as well be called Psycho vs. Brian De Palma, because while it features scenes from eleven of the Scarface director's films, Hitchcock only gets the one. While it would've been cool to get a glimpse at how some of Hitchcock's other movies influenced De Palma, the result of Hitchcock vs. De Palma Split Screen Bloodbath is just as effective.
That is to say, just look how influential the film Psycho alone was for De Palma throughout the shooting of many of his films. For De Palma, it may not even have been the most influential of Hitchcock's films. He admits that honor goes to Vertigo, the film that inspired him to start a career in filmmaking.
For this reason, Filmmaker Magazine, for whom the video was commissioned, claims "De Palma has been accused by detractors of being nothing more than a shameless Hitchcock imitator." The New York Times identifies these so-called imitations as similarities in "structural ingenuity, psychological perversity and visual bravura."
The video above however, spliced together by Pete Gelderblom, shows just how successful De Palma was in taking these Hitchcockian influences and twisting them into something of his own. Check out this interview De Palma gave to NPR back in July, which goes further into depth on his relationship with Hitchcock.
Source: Filmmaker Magazine
