‘When rich wives get dead, I usually go after the husband…’
Brian De Palma is widely recognised as one of the greatest directors of his generation and was at the vanguard of the New Hollywood generation of filmmakers (along with Polanski, Scorsese, Robert Altman and others). Whilst I have seen much of De Palma’s more well regarded or mainstream work (Mission: Impossible, Carrie, Scarface etc) much of his more esoteric work remains on my watchlist. Body Double is certainly out there, to the extent that it is the most David Lynch film that I have seen not to be directed by David Lynch. Let’s dive in…
When Jake (Craig Wasson), a young actor, becomes obsessed with spying on a woman (Deborah Shelton) who lives in the apartment across the street, he doesn’t realise that he is entering a conspiracy more insidious than he could ever have imagined.
So, that synopsis does not come close to doing justice to a plot that is masterful in its scope and range. It is a testament to De Palma’s screenplay (with a co-writing credit for Robert J. Avrech) that despite all the twists and turns, Body Double is never confusing or convoluted. De Palma keeps the audience guessing, and while some moments are a touch implausible (the show stopping conclusion is a little too close to an episode of Scooby Doo for comfort), the end result is so thrilling, the pacing so masterful, the cinematography so beautiful that it’s impossible not to be swept up in this bizarre world of sex, murder and intrigue. De Palma takes the bare bones of Hitchcock’s Rear Window and twists and distorts it into something dark and sinister. It helps that Wasson is great (as he was in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors – one of my favourite films of all time), and Melanie Griffith arrives in the second act to breathe new life into proceedings with a spirited and committed performance.
Body Double is a unique and thrilling film that demonstrates what can happen when a filmmaker is allowed to take risks. This is Patrick Bateman’s favourite film for a reason…