Body Double (1984)

Memorable, crazy movie

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Dismissed on release Body Double is referenced often in Bret Easton Ellis' novel 'American Psycho'(1991), the stories serial killer Patrick Bateman has seen the film 37 times. He also occasionally repeats his preferred moments from the film to the reader or to other characters, especially 'the power drill scene' (he masturbates to this scene). On a lighter note, the futuristic octagon residence Jake house-sits is a real place, 'Chemosphere,' at 7776 Torreyson Drive in Los Angeles. It was designed by the architect John Lautner in 1960, but is still looked cutting edge in the 1984 film. In The Simpsons television series the shallow ex B actor now infomercial host 'Troy McClure' lives in a near-identical house. DePalma began his career as an American Jean-Luc Godard with his films 'Greetings' and 'Hi, Mom!' and to a lesser extent with 'Blow Out'. He is unusual for a mainstream American director, in that he frequently produces love letters to Godard's 'Weekend'; colourful, loud, violent… sometimes popular, sometimes not. Body Double is a chapter in his ongoing war with his critics. The film was so shocking (for a major studio film from an established director), that I remember my jaw hit the floor when I first viewed it. It references early eighties porn films, Hitchcock via Melanie Griffith as well as 'Rear Window' and 'Vertigo'. Dario Argento is there via 'Tenebre' like killers, and as always DePalma thinks highly enough of himself to reference his own work (most obviously the Victoria Lyn link in 'Dressed To Kill'). DePalma had talked about making a porno… and with Body Double his critics thought he had. Those who still hate this film would probably be surprised to hear Bertolt Brecht mentioned in the same breath. "…the play should not cause the spectator to identify emotionally with the character or action before him or her, but should instead provoke rational self-reflection and a critical view of the action on the stage." DePalma performs more distancing tropes than he had ever tried to pull before under the guise of a thriller. We are asked to examine what is being said and how we observe and process it. DePalma does this via movies within movies; Jake is filming a movie, or was until he is fired for being claustrophobic. Melanie Griffith's porn starlet Holly Body stars in 'Holly Does Hollywood', a movie described as the 'Gone with the Wind' of porn. The two meet on the set of the porno sequel, one that recreates the making of the earlier film (a mirror shot that actor Craig Wasson claims he created reveals the camera crew; though DePalma probably had 'Blow-Up' in mind). Body Double begins and ends with deliberate deconstructions, breaking the fourth wall by showing the film set and crew. It sounds academic but it is a sickly sweet early eighties 'Tangerine Dreamy' sound tracked concoction full of nudity and violence, and this is precisely what makes it possible for DePalma to demonstrate his concerns, techniques and cognitive dissonance. DePalma is thumbing his nose at his critics for 'Dressed To Kill' (and 'Blow Out', and for that matter his previous film 'Scarface'), who decided the sexed up thriller 'Dressed…' was the number one cause of all rapes committed since its release. DePalma like Godard, gets a kick out of fatalistic humour. My reference to 'Tangerine Dream' is deliberate; whenever Jake catches a glimpse of his own 'Madeline'/'Judy' double (i.e. a doppelganger of a doppelganger) dancing in nothing but headphones and panties, DePalma has Pino Donaggio's music sounding not like a Hitchcock thriller, but more like 'Risky Business' from the previous year that starred a young Tom Cruise. DePalma is pointing out the hypocrisy that, in 'Dressed To Kill' for instance, it is verboten to have a middle-aged woman having remotely risqué sexual fantasies unless you get to throw labels of misogyny at the director DePalma who is regarded as arrogant by many. However in films like 'Porky's' (1982), 'My Tutor' (1983), and 'Class' (1983) and most obviously the aforementioned Risky Business (which the critics loved), it's okay to romanticise the corruption of virile, high school boys at the hands of non-Gonorrhea-carrying prostitutes. Body Double, whilst not a 'great' film (it's too flawed by the directors indulgences… even though they are what make the film; it's complicated), is however the front runner as his signature film. It has all the DePalma DNA; long set pieces, little dialogue, story told visually, voyeurism, the culprit aware he is a voyeur and yet being worried about other characters voyeurism, and what it means. He is self-referential (a kiss lifted from the climax of his own 'Obsession'), and to work our way back to Dario Argento, rather than being a 'noir' thriller, DePalma utilises the bright California sunshine, much as Argento did in 'Tenebre'.

"Body Double"'s plot is transparent and derivative - it's like a slick, R-rated update of "Vertigo" (although there is at least one crucial difference: here, the hero falls obsessively in love with the real thing, not the double; and I have to say I agree with his choice, Deborah Shelton is hotter than Melanie Griffith), with some "Rear Window" thrown in, and a (mostly satirical) side trip to the pornographic industry. But if you surrender yourself at the hands of Brian De Palma, his direction is so fantastic, and so assured, that the film becomes an entertaining, at times even exhilarating, experience. It's erotic, (briefly) violent, surprisingly funny, and occasionally positively surreal. Perhaps one of the key thrillers of the 1980s. *** out of 4.

Brian De Palma really goes off the deep end here; the scene with Frankie Goes To Hollywood is the one that illustrates this best. It's like a music video within a film, like the film seems to be a statement within a dirty confession, or possibly a comment on De Palma's working with Hitchcock, or maybe... I'm really not sure. Then there's porn, exhibitionism, agoraphobia, voyeurism... the list seems endless. God bless De Palma, if only for trying.Craig Wasson's acting is terrible, though. I've tried thinking up why or how (t)his sort of amateurism would fit in some way, but I end up pretty much blank (he's been working before and since a lot, so maybe I should check out some more work he did). And yet, somehow, it's also as if there's no one else that could have done a better job... if you understand what I'm talking about, please explain it to me.By the way, (Melanie) Griffith, (Dennis) Franz and (Gregg) Henry do terrific jobs in this B-film piece of art. And (Deborah) Shelton plays 'the beauty' well enough.A beaut of a film, though it leaves me conflicted just as much. 8 out of 10 seems fair enough.

After struggling actor Jake Scully finds his girlfriend in bed with another man, he moves out and accepts an offer from fellow struggling actor Sam Bouchard to house-sit for a few weeks. Apart from getting to live in an ultramodern house, he also get to watch a neighbour do a sexy dance in front of her window every night at exactly the same time. He becomes infatuated, following her around and eventually meeting her. She also has another admirer however and while watching her one night through his telescope, Jake sees her murdered by this other man. The police are dubious about what he claims to have seen, but the case takes a bizarre turn when, while watching TV, he sees a porn star do the exact same dance he had watched for all those nights. He soon realises he has been an unwitting accomplice in a complex plot.De Palma has always referenced Hitchcock in his movies, and here, it's his rear window, and the concept is as bonkers and as brilliant as the decade it was made in.There are many interpretations of the films narrative, and this is why it demands repeat viewings. Is it all in Jakes head while he is suffering his bout of claustrophobia? So the only parts of the film that are real are the initial scene with him in the coffin, and then him being helped out of the coffin. After all, the majority of the film is almost dreamlike, thanks to the wonderful eye De Palma has, most noticeably the scene in the shopping mall where Jake sees the Indian following his victim from afar.The film can be seen as a wonderful epitaph to the decade that fashion, music and taste forgot, and no matter how garish the make up, clothes and sets are, it just adds so much t the narrative.It's a definite conversation piece, there are plot holes aplenty, but this just adds to the argument of where reality ends and the subconscious starts in the films narrative.And it also adds much evidence to my theory that 1984 was the best year for movies ever.It's a bonkers piece for sure, but it's thrilling, and never let's up the craziness.Essential viewing.