De Palma has a flair sense for making a film like this stand out a bit. It's Los Angeles based so I am immediately drawn in. Even before I lived in Los Angeles, I found it to be a wonderfully cinematic city if the proper locations were used(not as cinematic as New York, but still..). In this case, De Palma has chosen one completely unique and unforgettable locale in the "Chemosphere", an octagon house that is unlike any other I've seen. Apparently, the house had been used in an episode of the Outer Limits previous to this, but in my mind it will always be associated with this film. It has a fantastic panoramic view of the city and obviously serves as the main character(played by Craig Wasson)'s lookout into the world of other characters.
BODY DOUBLE kind of feels like two separate movies. The first half is a very REAR WINDOW inspired thriller with a bit more movement to it. Craig Wasson's character becomes obsessed with a woman he can see from the aforementioned octagon house he is staying in. The woman gets into some peril and Wasson follows and watches her and eventually becomes involved. There's also some VERTIGO mixed in here, in that Wasson's character is cripplingly claustrophobic(just as James Stewart's character was agfaid of heights) and this plays into the story a few times. In the second half of the film, he becomes obsessed with an adult film actress played by Melanie Griffith. The two sections tie together of course but the segmentation is interesting. A few times I've watched only the first half of the film and I have often forgotten how Melanie Griffith even plays into the story.

This Twilight Time Blu-ray was quite a popular seller for them and it's 3000 limited pressing sold out quite quickly. Those of us that got a copy can see that it looks quite good. Very sharp with a nice grain structure as I've come to expect from their releases. The special features were ported over from the Sony Special Edition release. Brian De Palma is among my favorite filmmakers so I am always fascianted to hear him talking about his process and the context of his movies. There was certainly some controversy surrounding this film at the time of its release and this is addressed in one of the four featurettes included on the disc. The film was attacked for it's portrayal of women and De Palma was called a misogynist. Removed from that context, the film is still a little edgy in terms of its portrayal of pornography and pornographic actors, but it is relatively tame when seen through the eye of present day cinema-goers. I find it interesting that De Palma mentions here that it is his films SCARFACE and BODY DOUBLE that he is most approached about by fans. SCARFACE makes sense as that film is well beyond a cult film at this point, but BODY DOUBLE is less known by most and it intrigues me that it gets that attention. The other featurettes include "The Seduction": wherein De Palma talks about the germs of the idea for this movie(from working with a body double on DRESSED TO KILL) and how it came to be made. Apparently he had originally envisioned the film in New York, but after working in California for a good while on SCARFACE he began to see L.A. as the setting. "The Setup": deals with the nuts and bolts making of the film and specific scenes. It was from this featurette that I learned that the white German Shepherd used in this film is in fact the same dog(s) used in Sam Fuller's WHITE DOG. Finally, "The Mystery" featurette deals with the films resolution, location for the ending/reveal and the actors & De Palma talk about how it all worked.
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