As a disciple of Alfred Hitchcock, Brian De Palma has learned his trade from one of the masters of suspense. In many of his thrillers (starting with SISTERS) he showed up his talent for creating extremely suspenseful scenes. Though he has ventured into horror, his home genre has always been the thriller. His best films are considered to be SISTERS, DRESSED TO KILL, SCARFACE and THE UNTOUCHABLES, although critics have scolded his Hitchcockian mysteries sometimes as blatant rip-offs (he does cite the Master's work occasionally). THE UNTOUCHABLES has put him into the major-league of Hollywood filmmakers.


Filmography:

Murder à la Mod (1968; dir, scr, edit)
Greetings (1968; dir, coscr, edit)
The Wedding Party (1969; dir, scr, prod, edit)
Hi, Mom! (1970; dir, scr)
Dionysus (1970; dir, cin, edit)
Get to Know Your Rabbit (1972; dir)
Sisters (1973; dir, scr)
Phantom of the Paradise (1974; dir, scr)
Obsession (1976; dir, costy)
Carrie (1976; dir, coprod)
The Fury (1978; dir)
Home Movies (1979; dir)
Dressed to Kill (1980; dir, scr)
Blow Out (1981; dir, coscr)
The First Time (1983; creative consultant)
Scarface (1983; dir)
Body Double (1984; dir, coscr, prod)
Wise Guys (1986; dir)
The Untouchables (1987; dir)
Casualties of War (1989; dir)
The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990; dir, prod)
Raising Cain (1992; dir, prod)
Carlito's Way (1993; dir)
Rotwang Muß Weg! (1994; act)
Mission: Impossible (1996; dir)
Snake Eyes (1998; dir, coscr, prod)
Falling Sky (1998; coscr)
Mission to Mars (2000; dir)
Femme Fatale (2002; dir, scr)
The Black Dahlia (2006; dir)

© Ron Altman (last update 02/21/2007)