Biografía

[Split screen] Often uses split screens (created optically or using a split diopter while shooting) to build suspense and/or convey story information. This allows the audience to choose what to look at and engages them further in the story (Un fantasma en el paraíso (1974), Carrie. Extraño presentimiento (1976), Vestida para matar (1980), Estallido (1981), La hoguera de las vanidades (1990), Misión: Imposible (1996), Ojos de serpiente (1998), Mujer fatal (2002) and La Dalia Negra (2006)).

[Alfred Hitchcock homage] Films frequently reference the work of Alfred Hitchcock, using similar locations, camera techniques/compositions, musical scores by Bernard Herrmann (a frequent Hitchcock collaborator), and blondes as leading ladies.

Frequently casts Robert De Niro, William Finley, John Lithgow, Kevin Dunn, Richard Belzer, Steven Bauer, Gregg Henry, Dennis Franz, Gary Sinise, Al Pacino, Sean Penn and ex-wife Nancy Allen.

The "LONG TAKE" which is usually complimented by a series of elaborate tracking shots or dolly movements

Doppelgangers (or evil twins), and femme fatales appear frequently in DePalma's films.

Received a special thanks credit in Calles peligrosas (1973) for introducing Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro to one another.

De Palma bases his most famous cinematic predilection, voyeurism, on a specific childhood incident. When he was a child, his parents split up, his mother accusing his father of infidelity. The young De Palma spent several days stalking his dad with recording equipment, hoping to find evidence to confirm his mother's suspicions.

Has said that Caracortada (1983) and Doble de cuerpo (1984) are the two films of his that have been attacked the most. Vestida para matar (1980) also received a lot of negative attention as well.

He is the godfather of Steven Spielberg and Amy Irving's son Max.

In the 1970s, De Palma helped a close friend on a film project. He helped audition and interview actors. When the film was shot, DePalma did some uncredited writing on an opening "scrawl," a device the friend thought of at the last minute to help explain events in the film, so the audience would not be confused. The friend was George Lucas and the film was La guerra de las galaxias (1977).

The camera lies all the time; lies 24 times/second.

[on why he would not add rap songs to the soundtrack of Caracortada (1983)] They said it would help promotion, presenting the film in a different way, but Giorgio's [composer Giorgio Moroder] music was true to the period, I argued - and no one changes the scores on movies by Martin Scorsese, John Ford, David Lean. If this is the "masterpiece" you say, leave it alone. I fought them tooth and nail and was the odd man out, not an unusual place for me. I have final cut, so that stopped them dead.

I'm astounded there aren't more American political films. I'm amazed, when you can make movies for nothing, there are not people out there making these incredibly angry anti-war movies. How come? [Sept.2006]

I've never been accepted as that conventional artist. Whatever you say about David Lynch or Martin Scorsese, they are considered major film artists and nobody can argue with that. I've never had that. I've had people say it about me. And I've had people say that I'm a complete hack and, you know, derivative and all those catchphrases that people use for me. So I've always been controversial. People hate me or love me.

My films deal with a stylized, expressionistic world that has a kind of grotesque beauty about it.