"To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them that they can never have; the act turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed. Just as a camera is a sublimation of the gun, to photograph someone is a subliminal murder - a soft murder, appropriate to a sad, frightened time." ― Susan Sontag
Brian De Palma's first thriller, "Murder a la Mod" opens with screen tests, the familiar hash marks of a camera viewfinder imprinted over two nervous young women. We then watch as the duo are coerced into removing their clothes by an unseen speaker, a scene which recalls the voyeuristic violence of similar sequences in subsequent De Palma films (and Michael Powell's "Peeping Tom").
A fairly simple plot then unfolds: Karen, a naive young woman, desperately wants to help Christopher, an "artist" who is working the porno beat in an attempt to raise enough money to divorce his wife. When Karen sees her best friend Tracy pull some jewels out of a bank, she hatches a plan to finance Christopher's freedom. All too grateful, Christopher beds Karen on his porn set. Moments later the girl is killed with an ice pick. In the eye, naturally.
The rest of the film replays the events surrounding this murder from each character's perspective. De Palma handles the story with customary flair (split screens, slow motion, lots of dazzling camera work etc), but at times he's hampered by inexperience and the film's low budget.
7/10 - Worth one viewing.
Brian De Palma's first thriller, "Murder a la Mod" opens with screen tests, the familiar hash marks of a camera viewfinder imprinted over two nervous young women. We then watch as the duo are coerced into removing their clothes by an unseen speaker, a scene which recalls the voyeuristic violence of similar sequences in subsequent De Palma films (and Michael Powell's "Peeping Tom").
A fairly simple plot then unfolds: Karen, a naive young woman, desperately wants to help Christopher, an "artist" who is working the porno beat in an attempt to raise enough money to divorce his wife. When Karen sees her best friend Tracy pull some jewels out of a bank, she hatches a plan to finance Christopher's freedom. All too grateful, Christopher beds Karen on his porn set. Moments later the girl is killed with an ice pick. In the eye, naturally.
The rest of the film replays the events surrounding this murder from each character's perspective. De Palma handles the story with customary flair (split screens, slow motion, lots of dazzling camera work etc), but at times he's hampered by inexperience and the film's low budget.
7/10 - Worth one viewing.