From Hi Mom! to Dressed To Kill, the 1970s were a key creative time for Brian De Palma. Now the director is ready to share his memories of those glory days at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival. De Palma is a late addition to the programme and will fly into the Scottish capital for an audience Q&A on Wednesday 23 August.
Unfortunately he won’t be accompanied by a print of his latest movie, The Black Dahlia – it’s being held back for the opening night of the Venice Film Festival at the very end of the month. Instead De Palma will focus on the New American Cinema of the 1970s, which forms a major retrospective strand at Edinburgh. His work from this period includes horror classic Carrie and Hitchcock homage Obsession, while his run of hits in the 1980s – including Blow Out, Scarface and Body Double – was clearly influenced by the freedom that the so-called Hollywood brats enjoyed in the previous decade.
“Brian De Palma is one of the finest living American filmmakers,” says Edinburgh’s Artistic Director Shane Danielsen, “a product of the New American Cinema of the 1970s who went on, along with a mere handful of his peers, to become a household name. We’re thrilled that he will be a part of this year’s festival.”
De Palma joins a high-profile list of movie players who will be taking part in a string of ‘Reel Life’ live events in Edinburgh, including Steven Soderbergh, Charlize Theron, Sigourney Weaver, Iain Smith, Arthur Penn and Kevin Smith.
Alan Morrison