De Palma Film Analysis

Every piece of cinema that De Palma directed had the same motif within the subtext of the film. A character observing a violent or violating action, and unable to stop the action from occurring. The character would try their hardest to stop the action, or search for the truth in an attempt to help themselves or another but ultimately all those involved result in an unhappy ending. When approaching the De Palma films this motif repeats throughout different movies he’s created. Due to his own personal life, this motif shows a strong connection to his own personal life, where he recorded his father having an affair and then showed his mother the video attempting to help her. The action ended poorly in his own life, hence the similarities within his own films.

Another aspect that the quote, “De Palma had always made personal movies, when he put his life on-screen with the least amount of disguise, the result was a flop”, causes me to recall another motif within De Palma’s films, the presence of voyeurism. De Palma constantly uses voyeurism within his film,

His actions from when he was young and living at home to when he marries actress Nancy Allen. Within the weeks readings he’s described to have grown more recluse overtime. He remains to this day to keep his personal life out of the media. However, his movies have become far more expressively biographical and personal. I find it very interesting how De Palma’s choice to keep his personal life more private, directly correlates with his films becoming more biographical in nature. It shows the filmmaker has always drawn material from his own life and experiences, whether he was aware of it or not, and used it to creates suspenseful atmospheres and subvert the audience expectations. For example, the ending scene of Carrie, where Sue is experiencing a dream sequence and De Palma includes a final scare. Referred to as “second ending” by Wes