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Body Double (1984)
80's Post-Scarface Brian De Palma's take on film noir and the Hitchcockian thriller.
I continue to celebrate the year 1984, by watching yet another wonderful movie from that year. A year that brought us Orwellian homages via Apple commercials and even a situation close to my heart involving a plane, a rabbit hat and a Chevy Monte Carlo (gray). As Conan's chronicler would say - "But that is another story...."
After the exploitation films popular during the 70's, there was what I like to call a film noir retrospective revival during the 80's through most of the industry. It brought back the gritty, sordid, sexual and action based narrative back from the mindless thrills. It started in the 70's with Sam Peckinpah's violent epics and movies like Taxi Driver. The 80's with movies like Scarface, added the 80's "crisp and bright" stereotypical look, feel and sound.
Of course this movie is yet another in the VHS "I remember that cover" story revolving around my childhood and recently gone defunct mom and pop video store, I once patronized. It also did a heavy stint on the Skin-a-Max Cable tour I believe. This movie is probably as close to a grind house movie as you can get to from a studio film.
Jake Scully is a somewhat struggling, B-movie actor with a severe case of "stage fright" and mild claustrophobia. After one of his episodes, he finds himself at home watching his girlfriend having sex with another man. He gets about as good a look as someone could get without being called a habitual voyeur. He then loses his acting job as the lead; as a vampire in Vampire's Kiss. He is down on his luck and ends up meeting a "fellow thespian", Sam Bouchard. Through Sam, Jake is given the job of house-sitting a very expensive house in the hills of Hollywood. I think its the same house "Mad Mel" took out in Lethal Weapon 2. He is told that the neighbor has a particular habit she does every night at the same time: (cough) Masturbate (cough). More than an audience now, we are made participants in the voyeurism through the telescopic lens. Jake believes the neighbor, Gloria Revelle, an attractive, yet abused hot 80's trophy wife is being followed by an "Indian". He proceeds to do the "heroic" act of following her himself. It is hard to reveal the rest without revealing the intrinsic goodness of the mystery.
This movie occurred after Scarface, yet is full of similarities. De Palma enhances the close up shot with all the background action. It is the background and at the same time it isn't, because the story is happening out there even though the eye if focusing on the clarity of the foreground. Your eyes are in a constant frenzy to keep up with everything that is happening in the shot. He uses that to describe the fear of claustrophobia as well as the ecstasy of voyeurism. The infusion of a melodramatic and over the top symphonic score further enhances those emotions. There are long sequences in which there little to no dialog. There are other scenes in which the dialog is in the background conversations and noise. Even if there is no dialog or sound, we are constantly accompanied by the eerily familiar score. The music is reminiscent of Hitchcock's music man – Bernard Hermann (composer on North by Northwest, Psycho, the Birds, Cape Fear and even the Twilight Zone). It is a bit more crisp (like the hair and clothes of the time).
This is very much a stylized, modernization of a Hitchcock mystery and film noir in a 1980's perspective (the clothes, colors, hair, porn's transition to VHS and the television airwaves, the yuppies and the coke). This movie has multiple layers and a very sharp edge. Voyerism is a big component. There is also a underlying parodistic component regarding the movie business. Did I mention there is the very, very, very nude Melanie Griffith giving it her all as Holly Body in Holly Does Hollywood ??
I especially enjoyed the director's porn music video (Frankie apparently did come to Hollywood) as well as the director's definition of the title of the movie during the ending credits. Both are a nice wink, wink to the audience. Why not watch it? Its a good match. Looks real, looks good and best of all there's no tan lines.
After the exploitation films popular during the 70's, there was what I like to call a film noir retrospective revival during the 80's through most of the industry. It brought back the gritty, sordid, sexual and action based narrative back from the mindless thrills. It started in the 70's with Sam Peckinpah's violent epics and movies like Taxi Driver. The 80's with movies like Scarface, added the 80's "crisp and bright" stereotypical look, feel and sound.
Of course this movie is yet another in the VHS "I remember that cover" story revolving around my childhood and recently gone defunct mom and pop video store, I once patronized. It also did a heavy stint on the Skin-a-Max Cable tour I believe. This movie is probably as close to a grind house movie as you can get to from a studio film.
Jake Scully is a somewhat struggling, B-movie actor with a severe case of "stage fright" and mild claustrophobia. After one of his episodes, he finds himself at home watching his girlfriend having sex with another man. He gets about as good a look as someone could get without being called a habitual voyeur. He then loses his acting job as the lead; as a vampire in Vampire's Kiss. He is down on his luck and ends up meeting a "fellow thespian", Sam Bouchard. Through Sam, Jake is given the job of house-sitting a very expensive house in the hills of Hollywood. I think its the same house "Mad Mel" took out in Lethal Weapon 2. He is told that the neighbor has a particular habit she does every night at the same time: (cough) Masturbate (cough). More than an audience now, we are made participants in the voyeurism through the telescopic lens. Jake believes the neighbor, Gloria Revelle, an attractive, yet abused hot 80's trophy wife is being followed by an "Indian". He proceeds to do the "heroic" act of following her himself. It is hard to reveal the rest without revealing the intrinsic goodness of the mystery.
This movie occurred after Scarface, yet is full of similarities. De Palma enhances the close up shot with all the background action. It is the background and at the same time it isn't, because the story is happening out there even though the eye if focusing on the clarity of the foreground. Your eyes are in a constant frenzy to keep up with everything that is happening in the shot. He uses that to describe the fear of claustrophobia as well as the ecstasy of voyeurism. The infusion of a melodramatic and over the top symphonic score further enhances those emotions. There are long sequences in which there little to no dialog. There are other scenes in which the dialog is in the background conversations and noise. Even if there is no dialog or sound, we are constantly accompanied by the eerily familiar score. The music is reminiscent of Hitchcock's music man – Bernard Hermann (composer on North by Northwest, Psycho, the Birds, Cape Fear and even the Twilight Zone). It is a bit more crisp (like the hair and clothes of the time).
This is very much a stylized, modernization of a Hitchcock mystery and film noir in a 1980's perspective (the clothes, colors, hair, porn's transition to VHS and the television airwaves, the yuppies and the coke). This movie has multiple layers and a very sharp edge. Voyerism is a big component. There is also a underlying parodistic component regarding the movie business. Did I mention there is the very, very, very nude Melanie Griffith giving it her all as Holly Body in Holly Does Hollywood ??
I especially enjoyed the director's porn music video (Frankie apparently did come to Hollywood) as well as the director's definition of the title of the movie during the ending credits. Both are a nice wink, wink to the audience. Why not watch it? Its a good match. Looks real, looks good and best of all there's no tan lines.
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