The New Hampshire

Issue date: 4/18/08 Section: Arts & Living

Media Credit: Courtesy Photo

Something strange happened while I was watching "Sisters" During one scene, a murder scene, I was struck by a very visceral and disturbing sense of fear in a way I have never felt before. I could feel my stomach secrete acid, my neck muscles tighten. I know that sounds pretty standard for suspenseful movie moments, but then came a peculiar tingling in my ribs, an electricity permeating my torso and my head. I even experienced something akin to nausea -- not induced by gore, but by disorientation in the presence of something beyond all reason, something terrifyingly insane. Maybe it was the murderer's distorted, twisted, twitching face. Maybe it was the camera slowly creeping in as it beheld the victim, or the haunting shadows on the wall during the act itself. Maybe it was the gripping, bombastic score that punctuated the violence. It was only a for a few moments that I felt this way, a maximum of ten seconds, but they were moments that left an indelible mark. After watching the film, I wanted to watch the scene again. I didn't. Part of me didn't want to demystify the magic, to bring order to the delirious chaos of the scene. The other part of me thought it was just too disturbing to see a second time.

Though I suggest some possible reasons for the scene's effect on me, one could argue that my reaction was personal and irrational -- that an obscure alignment of emotions and events yielded a response that would not have been the same had I seen the film in a different time or a different place. I understand you may not feel the way I do about the murder scene if you watch the film. In fact, I expect that most people won't experience the sensations I described to the degree that I felt them. I can confidently say, however, that "Sisters" is a suspenseful, skillfully-made thriller by one of the greatest visual stylists of our time, director Brian De Palma.

De Palma made "Sisters" independently and on a low budget in 1973. Margot Kidder (Lois Lane of the first "Superman" movies) stars as Danielle, a model and aspiring actress from Quebec who is one of the titular sisters. There is a murder at some point, but I'm not saying anything else about it. I know I'm being frustratingly vague, but I hope to titillate and tantalize you with as little information as possible, since half the fun is trying figure out where the film is going. The film is De Palma's first true thriller, and he would become known for his films in that genre, among which are "Obsession," "Body Double," "Dressed to Kill" and "Blow Out." He's also responsible for quite a few blockbusters, most notably "Carrie," "Mission: Impossible," "The Untouchables," and "Scarface." The cinematography and action sequences are brilliant in De Palma's films, which prominently feature elaborate set-pieces. A great example of what he's capable of would be the shoot-out on the train station stairwell in "The Untouchables" (I suggest watching the hilarious spoof of this scene that appears in one of "The Naked Gun" movies). Like the great Alfred Hitchcock, De Palma prefers making "pure cinema," a form of storytelling that relies primarily on images and not on dialogue. It's no coincidence that there are glaringly obvious allusions to Hitchcock's "Psycho," "Rear Window," and "Rope" in "Sisters."

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