Brian De Palma Filmography

The Boston Stranglers

Crew: Director

Synopsis: The true gruesome story of the Boston Strangler is retold in this Valhalla Motion Pictures production to be helmed by Brian De Palma. Based on Susan Kelly's book The Boston Stranglers: The Public Conviction of Albert DeSalvo and the True Story of Eleven Shocking Murders, the production will focus Read More

Redacted

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Patrick Carroll, Rob Devaney, Izzy Diaz, Mike Figueroa, Ty Jones

Synopsis: Director Brian De Palma turns his lens on the Iraq war with this "fictional documentary" about the experience of U.S. soldiers involved in the conflict. Based on a news item about the rape of an Iraqi schoolgirl by wayward grunts assigned to patrol a checkpoint, the film depicts a scenario not Read More

The Black Dahlia

Crew: Director

Actors: Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank, Mia Kirshner

Synopsis: Director Brian De Palma returns to the helm for the first time since 2002's Femme Fatale with this stylish screen adaptation of James Ellroy's novel detailing one of the most notorious unsolved murders in Hollywood history. Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirshner) was a struggling actress looking to make a Read More

Scarface

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Al Pacino, Steven Bauer, Michelle Pfeiffer, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Robert Loggia

Synopsis: Al Pacino stars as Tony Montana, an exiled Cuban criminal who goes to work for Miami drug lord Robert Loggia. Montana rises to the top of Florida's crime chain, appropriating Loggia's cokehead mistress (Michelle Pfeiffer) in the process. Howard Hawks' "X Marks the Spot" motif in depicting the Read More

Femme Fatale

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Rebecca Romijn, Antonio Banderas, Peter Coyote, Eriq Ebouaney, Edouard Montoute

Synopsis: Brian De Palma blends the emotional netherworld of film noir with a stylish portrayal of life among the wealthy and powerful in Paris in this glossy thriller. Laure Ash (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) is a beautiful but mysterious woman who has aligned herself with a small ring of jewel thieves, led by a Read More

Mission to Mars

Crew: Director

Actors: Gary Sinise, Tim Robbins, Don Cheadle, Connie Nielsen, Jerry O'Connell

Synopsis: Brian De Palma directed this science-fiction suspense story. When the United States sends its first manned mission to Mars, hopes are high for new scientific discoveries, but many of those hopes are dashed when the Mars crew meets an unexplained disaster; three members of the mission are killed Read More

Dial H For Hitchcock

Actors: Kevin Spacey, Jonathan Demme, Joseph Stefano, John Michael Hayes, Janet Leigh

Synopsis: This documentary is a loving look at the cinematic genius of Alfred Hitchcock. Speeding through much of his early British works, the film focuses on his American classics, such as Marnie, Vertigo, and particularly Psycho. The movie also neatly examines Hitchcock's signature touches, from his Read More

Snake Eyes

Crew: Director, Producer, Screen Story

Actors: Nicolas Cage, Gary Sinise, John Heard, Carla Gugino, Stan Shaw

Synopsis: Brian DePalma directed this taut thriller, set in Atlantic City, where a corrupt cop investigates a political assassination. Outside an Atlantic City arena-hotel-casino, a TV news reporter stands in a pre-hurricane storm to report on the heavyweight boxing match about to begin inside. A transition Read More

Mission: Impossible

Crew: Director

Actors: Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Béart, Henry Czerny, Jean Reno

Synopsis: After he is framed for the death of several colleagues and falsely branded a traitor, a secret agent embarks on a daring scheme to clear his name in this spy adventure. Though it drew its name from the familiar television series, director Brian DePalma's big-budget adaptation shares little more Read More

A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American Movies

Synopsis: In 1994, the British Film Institute commissioned a set of films to mark the centenary of the movies. They would trace the history of several national cinemas, and the BFI's choice for interpreting the history of American film fell to director Martin Scorsese, a longtime champion of film history Read More

Rotwang Muss Weg!

Synopsis: German politics and filmmaking are parodied in this comedic mystery that centers on a line-up of odd-balls, each suspected of killing a politician, as they explain their different motives for committing the crime. It is up to the viewer to decide which one of them committed the crime (the Read More

Carlito's Way

Crew: Director

Actors: Al Pacino, Sean Penn, Penelope Ann Miller, Luis Guzman, John Leguizamo

Synopsis: Carlito's Way is a tale of a former hood trying to escape his former life. Al Pacino is Carlito Brigante, a high-level Puerto Rican drug dealer sprung from a three-decade jail sentence after only five years, thanks to a technicality and his sleazy, cocaine-addled lawyer, Dave Kleinfeld (Sean Read More

Raising Cain

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: John Lithgow, Lolita Davidovich, Steven Bauer, Frances Sternhagen, Gregg Henry

Synopsis: A complicated thriller, directed with great visual style by Brian De Palma, Raising Cain is the story of twin brothers, Carter and Josh (John Lithgow), one good and one evil, who will stop at nothing to find children to further their father's psychological experiments. John Lithgow is outstanding Read More

The Bonfire of the Vanities

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith, Kim Cattrall, Saul Rubinek, Morgan Freeman

Synopsis: Brian De Palma's Hollywood sanitization of Tom Wolfe's scabrous satire stars Tom Hanks as Sherman McCoy, the "master of the universe," a shallow Wall Street investor who makes millions while enjoying the good life and the sexual favors of Maria Ruskin (Melanie Griffith), a Southern belle Read More

Casualties of War

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Michael J. Fox, Sean Penn, Don Harvey, John C. Reilly, John Leguizamo

Synopsis: Casualties of War was based on a New Yorker article by Daniel Lang. This, in turn, was inspired by a true incident which illustrated the dehumanizing aspects of the Vietnam experience. Michael J. Fox plays Eriksson, a member of an American squadron stationed in the deepest jungles of Southeast Read More

The Untouchables

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Charles Martin Smith, Andy Garcia, Robert De Niro

Synopsis: Like the TV series that shared the same title, The Untouchables (1987) was an account of the battle between gangster Al Capone and lawman Eliot Ness, this time in the form of a feature film boasting big stars, a big budget, and a script from respected playwright David Mamet. Kevin Costner stars as Read More

Wise Guys

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Danny DeVito, Joe Piscopo, Harvey Keitel, Ray Sharkey, Dan Hedaya

Synopsis: The "wise guys" referred to in the title, Harry Valentini (Danny DeVito) and Moe Dickstein (Joe Piscopo), turn out to be not so wise after all in this crime-oriented comedy. Harry and Moe run the risk of certain death when they steal money from a Mafia don (Dan Hedaya) and then try to multiply Read More

Body Double

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Craig Wasson, Gregg Henry, Melanie Griffith, Deborah Shelton, Guy Boyd

Synopsis: In Body Double, director Brian DePalma pays homage to the Alfred Hitchcock movies Vertigo and Rear Window, adding a few grotesque touches all his own. Craig Wasson plays Jake, a struggling actor who keeps losing jobs because of his claustrophobia. To make matters worse, his girlfriend has walked Read More

The First Time

Crew: Consultant/advisor

Actors: Tim Choate, Krista Errickson, Marshall Erwin Efron, Wendy Fulton, Raymond Patterson

Synopsis: In this quiet though not quite bland semi-autobiographical look at his formative years, director Charlie Loventhal has his main character Charlie (Tim Choate) enrolled in the film school of a small college. But while Charlie has aspirations of making comedies, his classmates and pretentious film Read More

Blow Out

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: John Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow, Dennis Franz, Peter Boyden

Synopsis: Brian De Palma's homage to Michelangelo Antonioni's classic art movie Blow-Up (1966) blends suspense and political paranoia when a Philadelphia soundman inadvertently records a murder. Former police technician Jack Terri (John Travolta) makes his living doing sound for slasher flicks. While Read More

Dressed to Kill

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen, Keith Gordon, Dennis Franz

Synopsis: One of Brian De Palma's most divisive films, Dressed to Kill is a spine-chilling Alfred Hitchcock update for the late 1970s. Sexually frustrated wife and mother Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson) visits her New York psychiatrist, Dr. Elliott (Michael Caine), to complain about her unfulfilling erotic Read More

Home Movies

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Kirk Douglas, Nancy Allen, Keith Gordon, Gerritt Graham, Vincent Gardenia

Synopsis: Brian De Palma directed this treatise concerning an egotistical film professor as a film-making project for his film-production master class at Sarah Lawrence College in New York. Kirk Douglas plays Doctor Tuttle, known as "The Maestro," who is the leader of a frenetic film-production cult Read More

The Fury

Crew: Director

Actors: Kirk Douglas, John Cassavetes, Carrie Snodgress, Charles Durning, Amy Irving, Andrew Stevens

Synopsis: Brian De Palma returns to the mind-blowing potential of telekinesis in the follow-up to his 1976 horror hit Carrie. While vacationing with his psychic son, Robin (Andrew Stevens), and close associate Childress (John Cassavetes), government agent Peter Sandza (Kirk Douglas) survives a terrorist Read More

Carrie

Crew: Director

Actors: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, William Katt, Nancy Allen, John Travolta

Synopsis: This classic horror movie based on Stephen King's first novel stars Sissy Spacek as Carrie White, a shy, diffident teenager who is the butt of practical jokes at her small-town high school. Her blind panic at her first menstruation, a result of ignorance and religious guilt drummed into her by her Read More

Obsession

Crew: Director, Screen Story

Actors: Stanley Reyes, Cliff Robertson, Geneviève Bujold, John Lithgow, Sylvia "Kuumba" Williams, Wanda Blackman

Synopsis: Love never dies in Brian De Palma's psychological thriller, though money certainly complicates matters. Rich New Orleans real estate developer Michael Courtland (Cliff Robertson) lost his beloved wife Elizabeth (Genevieve Bujold) and their daughter during a botched kidnap rescue, after he chose to Read More

Phantom of the Paradise

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Paul Williams, William Finley, Jessica Harper, George Memmoli, Gerritt Graham

Synopsis: "He sold his soul for rock-n-roll," read the tagline for Brian De Palma's satirical Phantom of the Opera for the '70s rock scene. After hearing Winslow Leach (William Finley) perform a song from his Faust rock opera, Phil Spector-ish impresario Swan (Paul Williams) decides that Winslow's opera Read More

Sisters

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt, Charles Durning, William Finley, Lisle Wilson

Synopsis: A reporter gets more than she bargained for when she tries to prove that a murder has occurred in Brian De Palma's disturbing thriller. Danielle (Margot Kidder) meets Phillip (Lisle Wilson) on a "Peeping Tom"-themed game show and, dodging her ex-husband Emil (William Finley), takes him back to her Read More

Get to Know Your Rabbit

Crew: Director

Actors: Tom Smothers

Synopsis: In this comedy, young Donald Beeman (Tom Smothers) becomes disillusioned with his business career and quits to become a tap-dancing magician. However, the grass isn't always greener, and Donald soon discovers that the money-oriented aspects of his former career are starting to creep into his new Read More

Hi, Mom!

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Robert De Niro, Charles Durnham, Abraham Goren, Lara Parker, Jennifer Salt

Synopsis: Brian De Palma takes on late 1960s media culture in his followup to Greetings (1968). Seeking a place in New York life one way or another, Vietnam vet John Rubin (Robert De Niro) moves into a Greenwich Village dive, with hopes of becoming a director for porn king Joe Banner (Allen Garfield). Rubin Read More

Dionysus in '69

Crew: Cinematographer, Director, Editor, Producer

Actors: William Finley, William Shephard, Judith Allen

Synopsis: This adaptation of "The Bacchae" by Euripides seems to be a collection of black and white home movies using hand held cameras. The filming and editing was done by Brian De Palma, but nothing distinguishes the film from being a filmed stage performance of writhing and groaning amateur actors and Read More

The Wedding Party

Crew: Director, Editor, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Jill Clayburgh, Charles Pfluger, Raymond McNally, Robert De Niro, John Braswell

Synopsis: This dark comedy finds Charlie (Charles Pfulger) traveling to stay at the house of his fiancee's parents two days before his wedding to Josephine (Jill Clayburgh). With his two friends, he discusses Vietnam, the sexual revolution, black power, and compares bachelor life to that of a married man. Read More

Murder à la Mod

Crew: Director, Editor, Screenwriter

Actors: Margo Norton, Andra Akers, Jared Martin, William Finley, Ken Burrows

Synopsis: A man is being blackmailed by his wife, who wants him to get out of the pornography business. His girlfriend steals some jewels from a friend to help the financially strapped man, but she ends up being a murder victim in his studio, and the man must track down the killer to clear his own name. The Read More

Greetings

Crew: Director, Editor, Screenwriter

Actors: Jonathan Warden, Robert De Niro, Gerritt Graham, Richard Hamilton, Megan McCormick

Synopsis: If for nothing else, Greetings would be memorable as the second feature-length directorial effort of Brian DePalma (his first, 1966's The Wedding Party, was released shortly afterward). A satire of late-1960s manners and mores, the film aims its barbs at Lyndon B. Johnson, Vietnam, the draft, the Read More