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Body Double (1984)
Director: Brian De Palma
Cast overview: Craig Wasson, Melanie Griffith
Running time: 114 minutes
De Palma is one of those love-hate directors from my experience, but he's one who I'm a fan of. I enjoyed Sisters, and enjoyed this slightly more. It's a terrific, slow-burning thriller about a claustrophobia B-movie actor named Jake Scully who ends up moving into this bizarre LA spaceship-shaped tower apartment. Bizarre, but then it is De Palma. There, an obsession with a woman who lives in the house down the hill ensues, and he seemingly becomes concerned for her safety when he sees someone else who may be doing the very same. I've not explained that very well, but hey...
The acting here is very good. Wasson, who seemed to star in very little else, is excellent, convincing as the weak-willed everyman he plays. Griffith, who was OK but nothing more in Pacific Heights, gives a great performance - though I've not seen Working Girl - as a porn actress, not the ditzy bimbo-type performance you'd expect. Gregg Henry adds the requisite touch of slime and duplicity to complete the cinematic jigsaw.
Pino Donaggio's music is fantastic - a tad repetitive at times, but it's certainly stirring when it does play - and the use of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Relax" adds a nice pop influence. There are several Hitchcockian influences that can be seen also - the film could be seen as a mesh of Vertigo and Rear Window, there are certainly elements of both. There's also some subtle humour that I thought worked well with the offbeat style.
Overall, not as good as the likes of Blood Simple, it's still a great film that I think will have rewatch value, not least to properly understand the latter part of the story which I admittedly found a tad confusing when watching for the first time. Still, probably one of the more overlooked films of the eighties, for me.
Quotes
Holly Body: I do not do animal acts. I do not do S&M or any variations of that particular bent, no water sports either. I will not shave my pussy, no fist****ing and absolutely no coming in my face. I get $2000 a day and I do not work without a contract.
Male Porno Star: I'm not just a stunt cock, I'm an ACTOR!
Sam Bouchard: Don't be so melodramatic.
Trivia
Bret Easton Ellis' book American Psycho (2000) references this film many times, it is one of the main character, Patrick Bateman's, favorite movies.
Deborah Shelton's voice is dubbed.
The set for the Frankie Goes to Hollywood sequence in "Body Double" was also used the following year for the nightclub scene in "Fright Night". Both films were released by Columbia Pictures.
Trailer
Director: Brian De Palma
Cast overview: Craig Wasson, Melanie Griffith
Running time: 114 minutes
De Palma is one of those love-hate directors from my experience, but he's one who I'm a fan of. I enjoyed Sisters, and enjoyed this slightly more. It's a terrific, slow-burning thriller about a claustrophobia B-movie actor named Jake Scully who ends up moving into this bizarre LA spaceship-shaped tower apartment. Bizarre, but then it is De Palma. There, an obsession with a woman who lives in the house down the hill ensues, and he seemingly becomes concerned for her safety when he sees someone else who may be doing the very same. I've not explained that very well, but hey...
The acting here is very good. Wasson, who seemed to star in very little else, is excellent, convincing as the weak-willed everyman he plays. Griffith, who was OK but nothing more in Pacific Heights, gives a great performance - though I've not seen Working Girl - as a porn actress, not the ditzy bimbo-type performance you'd expect. Gregg Henry adds the requisite touch of slime and duplicity to complete the cinematic jigsaw.
Pino Donaggio's music is fantastic - a tad repetitive at times, but it's certainly stirring when it does play - and the use of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Relax" adds a nice pop influence. There are several Hitchcockian influences that can be seen also - the film could be seen as a mesh of Vertigo and Rear Window, there are certainly elements of both. There's also some subtle humour that I thought worked well with the offbeat style.
Overall, not as good as the likes of Blood Simple, it's still a great film that I think will have rewatch value, not least to properly understand the latter part of the story which I admittedly found a tad confusing when watching for the first time. Still, probably one of the more overlooked films of the eighties, for me.
Quotes
Holly Body: I do not do animal acts. I do not do S&M or any variations of that particular bent, no water sports either. I will not shave my pussy, no fist****ing and absolutely no coming in my face. I get $2000 a day and I do not work without a contract.
Male Porno Star: I'm not just a stunt cock, I'm an ACTOR!
Sam Bouchard: Don't be so melodramatic.
Trivia
Bret Easton Ellis' book American Psycho (2000) references this film many times, it is one of the main character, Patrick Bateman's, favorite movies.
Deborah Shelton's voice is dubbed.
The set for the Frankie Goes to Hollywood sequence in "Body Double" was also used the following year for the nightclub scene in "Fright Night". Both films were released by Columbia Pictures.
Trailer