PimpinAinttEasy
There is so much to appreciate in this early De Palma film.Let me start with the actors - Margot Kidder (that pout!) and William Finley (the man with the sinister face) not only look remarkable, but exude sensuality and danger. The plainly pretty and earnest Jennifer Salt is a perfect foil for the sultry Kidder. Charles Durning and some other bit players like the actress who played Salt's mother and the two bakery employees add muscle to the ensemble.The almost hilariously bombastic score by Bernard Herrmann is perfect for this genre flick. It does have a melancholic tune which is played while Kidder and her boyfriend are on a ferry.The set pieces are something else. Like the white corporate cleanliness of Danielle's flat which forms the backdrop for the close up of the two red pills. Split screens, extensive use of close ups (like the one of Danielle's eyes - maybe a nod to Vertigo's title sequence) and dream sequences add to the film's visual splendor.De Palma satirized American society in his earlier films like Greetings, Hi Mom and Get to Know Your Rabbit. Jennifer Salt's amusing exchanges with the cops and her naked ambition as a reporter is De Palma's commentary on the American media and police force.Sisters is probably the first De Palma masterpiece. (10/10)
lasttimeisaw
A young French-Canadian model and would-be actress Danielle Breton (Kidder) in New York City, meets cute with a black advertising salesman Philip Woode (Wilson), in a proto-reality show "Peeping Tom", which conspicuously heralds director Brian De Palma's intrigue of voyeurism in this lurid genre piece: the urge of killing from a Siamese twin under severe psychological pressure and personality disorder, who has been recently successfully severed from her sister.Yes, Danielle has a twin sister Dominique, De Palma and co-writer Louisa Rose's script doesn't shy away from steadily implicating that Dominique is the insidious killer who lurks behind the camera, initiates conversations with the personable Danielle, and mercilessly assaults any man who gets intimate with her lovable sister, an emblem of the evil side of the conjoined anomaly, meantime, a bespectacled, bulged-eyed, gangling Emil Breton (Finley), Danielle's ex-husband, looks equally suspicious and sinister with his hidden agenda.Philip is the jinxed victim who thinks he is getting lucky, but fails to notice that he overstays his welcome due to his own goodwill, how ironic is that? Before succumbing to death, however clumsily, at least he manages to catch the attraction of Grace Collier (Salt), the journalist living in the building across Danielle's apartment, immediately she alerts the police force, but as outlined by the split screen dynamically chronicling the paralleled actions, contrasting the crime scene where Danielle and Emil hastily conceal the dead body (thanks for ruining couch bed for me Mr. De Palma) and clean up the blood, with the detectives dilly-dally their action (racism and sexism are heedfully hinted here) to check Danielle's apartment against Grace's mounting keenness and impatience. What De Palma devises is a stylish and effective cinematic machination, but he also wears his heart on his sleeve, which inconveniently renders the not-so-convoluted story an unwelcome feeling of arbitrariness.Grace, hogs the limelight thereafter, vigilantly plays detective, digs into the backstories of Danielle and hopes for an exposé, thanks to the assistance of a private eye Joseph Larch (Durning), who will later undertake a tailing mission to a bizarre and goofy cul-de-sac (and literally, the ending of the film). Grace is characterised as an uncouth, career-pursuing knucklehead, we understand that she is a woman of principle, works hard to break the glass ceiling, but her undisguised single- mindedness and wanting for etiquette turn herself into an irritant, consequently pare down viewers' investment into her dangerous pursuit, which ends up in a mental hospital, where Emil finally gives his tell-all recount and discloses the darkest secret of Danielle, while Grace's own sanity will be forever compromised by Emil's hypnotic brainwash. Undeniably, this part is the meat of the story, it is presented from a peculiar angle of an eyeball, with a surreal veneer onto the sensational tale-of-misery by its grotesque tableaux vivants and freaky colour scheme, yet, for my money, Bernard Herrmann's intrusive score is a shade shrill and nerve-racking.Margot Kidder deserves some kudos for her dualistic impersonation and nails a not-so-irritating French accent, to corroborate her undervalued versatility. It would also turn out to be a wonderful idea for Jennifer Salt to give up acting and become a successful TV producer and writer instead. On the first impression, SISTERS is a testimony of De Palma's forte: injecting a dash of gore into a deeply unsettling psycho-drama, but that doesn't make him an essential master, because a certain requirement of gravitas and punctiliousness is something uniformly absent from most of his works I have watched.
gridoon2018
Brian De Palma's first thriller shows very clearly his love for the genre. It is inventively and assuredly directed, with masterful (and playful) use of the split screen (notice how this filmic device starts off by showing events that happen in two different buildings, later it moves on to events that happen in the same building, and finally one and the same event is shown from two opposite sides!), and features one of Bernard Herrmann greatest (and most otherworldly) scores, as well as a supremely creepy performance by William Finley, and a shocking murder sequence. De Palma's story is not up to the level of his direction - the central twist is pretty obvious. But "Sisters" is more about the visuals than the story anyway; case in point, the inexplicable but amusing final shot. **1/2 out of 4.
Theo Robertson
Sometimes a TV channel can surprise you . There I was watching THE INVADERS on the UK Horror Channel wondering what graphic and mediocre movie the channel was going to throw up at us as it normally does on a 9pm weeknight . Flicking through the info button I caught the synopsis and instantly thought I was going to be something along the lines if BASKET CASE a film that despite having a cult following I wasn't mad keen on . So doing what every other puzzled film fan does I came on to this site to catch a bit more info and was slightly surprised to see it had an average user rating of 7.0 which is quite high for something being broadcast on The Horror Channel . I then glanced at the credits and was shocked to discover it's an early effort from Brian De Palma ! Hold the front page because " De Palma directs a film that is being broadcast on The UK Horror Channel " is definite headline news and let's not forget that from CARRIE to CARLITO'S WAY he was one of Hollywood's leading film makers . This alone makes this rather obscure and early work from the director worth seeking out De Palma is something of an acquired taste and he does sometimes come in for heavy criticism such as " one trick pony " and " Hitchcock plagiarist " and to be blunt you could make the exact criticism about BLOOD SISTERS . This was made during The New Hollywood period when film making movie brats discovered post modernism and obviously De Palma has seen REAR WINDOW . The main plot involves a person witnessing a murder from the window of a facing apartment , calling the police and the police finding no evidence , but to say it's a rip off of a 1950s Hitchcock classic is to do it a disservice . The story is very much updated to the 1970s since the witness is now a career woman who works as a journalist which is something very few women would have had in the way of a career20 years earlier . The heroine is a lot more proactive than what Jeff was in REAR WINDOW and I felt the major problem in that film was that it too static for its own good . There's also an air of weary 70s cynicism where the police are useless are to be blunt total " pigs " . Since the Hays Code had been nullified a few years previously the film contains much more graphic violence than you'd have seen in a 1950s movie One thing Hitchcock described about his movies was " The ice-box effect " By this he meant when you watched one of his movies you went to the ice box to grab yourself a beer then - bang . You stop to think about the plotting and everything collapses and we see the same thing here . Someone gets stabbed to death and within the ten minutes of it being witnessed and the police arriving it's possible to get blood stains out of the carpet etc . The story suffers these unlikely implausible aspects and relies a little bit too much on coincidence and bad luck to drive the story forward . Bernard Herrman's score is very intrusive and again reminds you of his work for Hitchcock . You also tend to notice De Palma's style that he uses in nearly all his movies so despite it being an example of his early work there's a feeling of seen it all before . That said it is a highly involving tense thriller and I did enjoy this more than the film that inspired it so thanks to The Horror Channel for broadcasting it and I look forward to seeing more obscure works by Hollywood auteurs turning up
