Obsesión

Brian De Palma once again shows his obsession for Alfred Hitchcock. He brings in some overwrought music from Bernard Herrmann.

This is another stylish but flawed film from De Palma with a dreamlike romantic mystery to cover up a controversial strand of the storyline.

Michael Courtland (Cliff Robertson) is a real estate developer in New Orleans whose wife Elizabeth (Geneviève Bujold) and daughter Amy are kidnapped. From the advice of the police, he does not pay the ransom. A botched rescue attempt leads to his wife and daughter's death.

Michael is left devastated. 16 years later, he goes on a business trip to Italy with his business partner Robert LaSalle (John Lithgow.) To his astonishment he meets Sandra Portinari, a woman who looks like his late wife at the same church he originally met her in Italy.

Michael becomes obsessed with Sandra and asks her to marry him. When he brings her to New Orleans, his friends and colleagues are worry about Michael. Fate plays a cruel twist on him as Sandra disappears one morning.

This is a moody, uneven and a slow moving thriller. De Palma is yet to master suspense and the script he co-wrote with Paul Schrader is choppy.

Bujold is very good in a difficult role. Robertson looks like a television actor who struck it lucky with an Oscar. He is just too bland. Lithgow on the other hand is too fruity who signals his nefarious hand in any twist in the plot.

It's 1959 New Orleans. Elizabeth Courtland (Geneviève Bujold) and daughter Amy are kidnapped for ransom. Michael Courtland (Cliff Robertson) sells to his business partner Robert Lasalle (John Lithgow) to raise the money. Following police advise, he gives the kidnappers fake money and the deal goes badly. Elizabeth and Amy are presumed dead after going off a bridge. Michael builds a tomb for them and refuses to develop the valuable land surrounding it. It's 1975. He and Robert go to Italy for business where he falls for Elizabeth lookalike Sandra Portinari (Geneviève Bujold).

The fake money ended any hopes for greatness. It's an annoying little detail but the movie can still be good. At the very least, the police would use counterfeit money which can be tracked. The kidnappers are probably going to open the suitcase as soon as they get into the van. It's a stupid little detail which I have to ignore. The other problem is that the villain is obvious from the start and the reason for the whole thing can be logically deduced as soon as the premise is revealed after thirty minutes. There is also a final twist that seems obvious as a possibility. It's not quite so well conceived either. I don't really buy the flashbacks and Sandra's progression. Maybe if she was brutalized, she could become submissive to the plan. This is a twisted mystery from director Brian De Palma but it's not as mysterious as it should be.

Obsession is directed by Brian De Palma and written by Paul Schrader. It stars Cliff Robertson, Genevieve Bujold and John Lithgow. Music is by Bernard Herrmann and cinematography by Vismos Zsigmond.

You either love him or hate him, it seems. Brian De Palma that is. He's an amazing stylist who made some piercingly great thrillers in the tradition of Maestro Hitchcock, or he's a knock off artist using style to hide his inadequacies as a story teller? One thing for sure, for a good portion of the 70s and 80s his films would not be ignored, for better or worse depending on your own proclivities of course.

Obsession, as has been noted numerous times, is De Palma's homage to Hitchcock's masterpiece, Vertigo. It's not a straight out copy as some reviewers have somehow managed to convince themselves, but narrative drive is similar. Robertson in grief for a passed on wife (Bujold) and daughter meets a doppelganger (also Bujold) of his dead wife 16 years down the line and becomes obsessed with her. As the new woman reciprocates the attraction, the relationship becomes wrought and borderline unhealthy, reaching a crescendo when muddy waters are stirred and revelations force the can to open and worms to spill everywhere.

When remembering that for a long time Vertigo was out of circulation in the 70s, Obsession was sure as hell a good second option for anyone hankering for a superbly stylish thriller boiling over with psychological smarts. Even if you buy into the style over substance argument, what style there is here though. Roving camera work, up tilts, haze surrounds, canted frames, pan arounds, dream shimmers and personalised focus. Add in the splendid use of New Orleans and Tuscany locations and Herrmann's sensually dangerous score (lifted in part and re-worked from Vertigo) and it has style to burn. While the big reveals at pic's culmination are in turn intriguing and daring; even if the original ending planned would have really put the cat among the pigeons and made for a more potent piece ripe for heated discussion.

Lead cast are on fine form, Robertson plays it superbly as a wistful and damaged wastrel, guilt and obsession seeping from every pore. Bujold is just darling, a telling twin performance that actually doesn't demand to be noticed until late in the play. While Lithgow stomps around the edges of the frame like some shyster lawyer whose tie is on too tight. Ultimately Obsession is a film crafted in the mode of Hitchcock, but not in anyway disgracefully so. This is no illegitimate relation to Vertigo, it's more like a reliable brother-in-law. Pulpy, Trashy but also Classy. Great. 8/10

Brian dePalma really accomplished quite a feat by paying homage to Hitchcock with a strong variation on VERTIGO's theme--a man who loses the woman he loves sees her reincarnated in another woman and then loses her too.

He takes this premise and does some fancy camera-work that swirls around the lovers with an intensity only matched by the whirling colors of Bernard Herrmann's magical score. He sets up the tale by having a convincing kidnapping take place in which his wife and daughter are taken by the criminals and has him mourning their loss until he encounters another woman in Italy, years later, who strongly resembles his presumably dead wife.

The rest of the plot must remain undisclosed for "spoiler" purposes, but I'm sure there are those who will at least have a suspicion as to the real purpose of all the foregoing events.

CLIFF ROBERTSON has the difficult chore of appearing downtrodden and depressed most of the time, so GENEVIEVE BUJOLD has the task of brightening up the tale with her unconventional good looks and upbeat manner. JOHN LITHGOW makes his screen debut as Robertson's close friend and business acquaintance.

If it's a stylish dePalma movie you're in the mood for, this one will fill the bill nicely. And that Bernard Herrmann score alone makes watching the movie completely worthwhile. It's dazzling.

I revisited "Obsession" recently because I've always been a fan of the late, great Bernard Herrmann. In the late 1970's, I bought the "Obsession" soundtrack on LP because, as one critic so aptly wrote, "Herrmann's score would make even blank film compelling." As for what happens on the celluloid, it's obvious that this movie was a lower-budgeted rush job (example: mid-70's automobiles in scenes of 1959 New Orleans). It's also quite a feat to make Florence look so drab and gray, while the middle third of the film bogs down tremendously. And the excessive use of filters by Vilmos Zsigmond makes the film look less ethereal than out-of-focus.

In my opinion, the only other positive for the film is Genevieve Bujold's performance. It stands in marked contrast to the one given by Cliff Robertson, who is leaden throughout and provides no shades or nuances of a conflicted man. And a young John Lithgow fares no better, with his outrageously syrupy Southern accent.

Five stars out of ten. For Benny and Genevieve.