SOUNDTRACK FOR BRIAN DE PALMA'S "PASSION": DONAGGIO, STEFFAN, DEBUSSY, AND BERLINER PHILARMONIKER......

          GERMAN POSTER FOR "PASSION".

The soundtrack release for Brian De Palma's Passion hit mailboxes early this week, and, well, since I can't see De Palma's new movie yet, I've been listening to his new movie. (speaking of which, I received confirmation from someone in the U.S. today that Passion will indeed open in U.S. theaters sometime in June of this year.) Without having seen the film, I am guessing the track list has been put together in a non-chronological fashion (this has been confirmed in a comment below from someone who has seen the film), to present the music in the most compelling flow possible.

Here's the short of it: I love the Pino Donaggio compositions on this soundtrack, as well as Claude Debussy's Prélude à L’après-Midi d’un Faune, which was performed by the Berliner Philarmoniker, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle (recorded live in 2004, it appears here courtesy of EMI Classics). Now, when you look at the back of the CD cover, you see three tracks with asterisks: "Back Issues," "Perversions And Diversions," and "Higher Heels." Those three tracks were each composed by Donaggio and Paolo Steffan, who has been working with Donaggio for a long time, and is credited on this album as Keyboard Programmer, as well as orchestrations throughout the soundtrack along with Donaggio and conductor Natale Massara. But the three tracks with the asterisks are the only three tracks that have a strong '80s vibe. The first, "Back Issues," is assumed to be the music heard in the background of the "Ass-Cam" commercial in the film. This track is highly amusing, in a mostly good way. I laugh heartily every time it comes on. It's a fun little track. It has what might be considered a companion piece near the end of the album, "Higher Heels," which is assumed to be the background music for a fashion show. Again, it is very '80s, but more annoying than fun, and it ends rather abruptly, with a quick fade, as if someone gave it the hook. In between is the center asterisk piece, "Perversions And Diversions." With its smoky saxophone entering the picture a little ways in, I keep thinking I'm going to hear Glenn Frey singing "You belong to the city, you belong to the night," like something out of Miami Vice. Very odd, this '80s vibe, which of course has been mentioned in many of the reviews of Passion.

In any case, the other Donaggio compositions are phenomenal. The CD opens with the bouncy, sinuous "Twin Souls," which is just heavy enough to avoid sounding like it belongs in a somewhat romantic comedy (like, perhaps, De Palma's Home Movies). "The Breakdown" is a beautiful piano ballad that brings to mind Donaggio's "Sally And Jack" theme from De Palma's Blow Out, especially when it is reprised on the final track, "Last Surprise." It is not until the third track that we get the "Passion Theme," which opens with quickly menacing chords, like a Herrmann-esque surprise, before falling back to a quiet piano motif that soon swells with romantic strings and ominous orchestrations. This is a wonderful theme that never seems to stop rising, with a conclusion that seems to leave everything hanging on the edge. I think my favorite track is "Know That Know," which features a heavy, spaced out string bass rhythm, the spaces filled in with strings and other orchestrations, and sounds like a cousin to Morricone's "Towards The Unknown" from De Palma's Mission To Mars. It ends with a slashing string surprise out ofCarrie or Dressed To Kill (and, of course, Herrmann's Psycho). "A Dreamers Dream" features more ominous musings that lead beautifully into the Debussy ballet.

All in all, a strong, achingly beautiful work from Donaggio.

Posted by Geoff at 9:12 PM CST 

http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/

BRIAN DE PALMA:"THIS FILM IS ABOUT WOMEN BUT IT IS ALSO FOR WOMEN...

Thanks to reader Jord for alerting us to the fact that Wild Bunch has made the press kit for Brian De Palma's Passion available to download. The kit includes a great new interview with De Palma, discussing many aspects of the film, such as: the split-screen murder scene; the inspiration for the commercial Noomi Rapace's character creates with Karoline Herfurth's character; howRachel McAdams went all out and had fun playing "a very evil woman"; the reason "Afternoon Of A Faun" seemed appropriate for this story; how placing "boring procedural stuff" in a stylized dream world allows it to become "kind of fun"; and how McAdams and Rapace were so comfortable with each other, they were willing to go to dangerous places together. De Palma says that while Alain Corneau's film "tip toed around the sexual attraction between the characters," Rapace and McAdams "played it straight out. I did not say to them: 'kiss each other and be erotic'. They just did it. And it was quite effective." De Palma also says that while he had three women who were "not afraid of nudity," Passion is a film about women, and also for women, "which is why I wanted to make it more elegant and refrained. The same goes for violence: I did not make it too explicit because women are turned off by it."

ALCAINE AND DONAGGIO
De Palma also praises the way cinematographer José Luis Alcaine photographs women, and how he made noir images look "terrific" in color, something that is not so easy to do, according to De Palma. The director also said he called on Pino Donaggiobecause "he knows how to write the kind of terror-dream music I needed for this film... The last sequence is essential and had to be absolutely right. Even though we had not worked together in 22 years, he knows me very well and once I gave him a temp suggestion, he came up with incredible stuff."

De Palma is expected to arrive in Venice today (Thursday) ahead of Friday's world premiere of Passion.
http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/

BRIAN DE PALMA "LA REPUBLICA" INTERVIEW BY ARIANNA FINOS ON VENICE, PASSION, NEW YORK AND ORSON WELLES

Via http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/
Thanks to reader Maurizio Rossi for sending along this past weekend's interview with Brian De Palma in La Repubblica. Arianna Finos interviewed De Palma via Skype, and mentions that De Palma's username combines his brothers Bruce and Barton. Finos then points out that Brian and Bruce shared a love of technology. They designed their own computers, "so when the technological revolution arrived we were ready," De Palma told Finos. Here, with the help of Google Translation, is a translation of the interview:


--------------------------------

"Passion" is a remake of "Crime d'amour", a film by Alain Corneau 2010.
"I liked the complex and dark relationship Corneau created between the two women. It’s a good basis for developing a story more complicated and mysterious than the original, in which we discover immediately who killed whom. The pleasure of a thriller is to put together a system full of tricks and reveal them only at the end. " 

So it will be a full revisioning.
"Yes. Beyond the sexual tension that was mentioned, my film goes well beyond. Initially I was looking for a mature, sophisticated actress similar to the manager in the original film. But Noomi Rapace won me over with her charisma. Rachel McAdams had read the script and arrived with Noomi. They had met on the set of "Sherlock Holmes" and have developed a strong relationship, which I used in the film. That way they play against each other, sexy and dangerous at the same time."

Five years ago, you brought to “Redacted” to Venice, instant-film on the war in Iraq. Now you return to the thriller.
"It’s been years since I did this kind of movie. I found this material and I started to see the images of the story: an exciting adventure. For the music I called Pino Donaggio, who's been with me on so many films, from "Dressed to Kill" to "Body Double." The thriller is a genre that allows me to stage my visions. In "Passion" there is a terrifying dream sequence: a ballet, "The Afternoon of a Faun" choreographed by Jerome Robbins, which fits perfectly in the film."

You are a regular at the Venice Film Festival.
"The public has always welcomed my films. I love Venice and I frequently attend as a guest of my friend Pino Donaggio."

With Scorsese, Lucas, and Spielberg, you founded the New Hollywood. Do you visit with them these days?

"We were friends in the seventies and eighties. We came a long way together. Every now and then we'll see each other. But each of us has our own world. We live in different places, do different things. I continued my research and I now have relationships with younger directors: Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson. I love and I attend this generation, living in Greenwich Village. We meet, we exchange scripts and advice."

Who is your heir? "Tarantino. He always does visually exciting things. I admire the visionary talents of Christopher Nolan. But apart from the blockbuster special effects, there are few films told in pictures. It is as if we are at the end of a way of storytelling".

When you were 30 you directed Orson Welles in "Get To Know Your Rabbit."
"Welles is a great example of what not to do in Hollywood. A master filmmaker who worked with me, for two weeks, because he needed money for his films. It is not easy to immediately make your masterpiece and spend the rest of your life trying to get back to that peak. At the time of "Citizen Kane" he was considered a money machine, but when he came out from the circle of Hollywood he suffered. He was a masterful director and an actor who could do everything. Fascinating storyteller."

You are also a director who divides and causes debate.
"I've always been an avant-garde auteur outside of the establishment. I remember a headline in the New York Times: "Here's another film by De Palma to argue about." The public knows that I do not pull back from uncomfortable subjects that are not politically correct, I'm not a member of the Academy. This means nothing to me. I know what's right and wrong when I film, the rest does not concern me."

Are a filmmaker’s films like children, all the same?

"Sometimes you do certain films because they are the only ones the business allows you. Sometimes you're in a low moment of your career and you have to accept the proposals. Sometimes you do films that are not exactly what you want. Sometimes great successes allow you to finance a film that is important to you that no one wants: thanks to "The Untouchables" there exists "Casualties of War". There are films ahead of their time, cut down and then re-evaluated. Others that I would like to have not made due to the circumstances or reactions. I’ve made so many different films. Not all I like, but I love them all."

BRIAN DE PALMA'S PASSION LEILA ROZARIO FILMS SCENE WITH NOOMI RAPACE IN ELEVATOR

Leila Rozario, the actress who filmed an elevator scene yesterday with Noomi Rapace for Passion, tells De Palma a la Mod she thinks that working on a Brian De Palma film is something she had on her bucket list as an actor. "Have you seen Scarface," she asks rhetorically. "Have you seen The Untouchables or Carlitos Way? I mean these are films that stick with you for life." Rozario has a role in the film as one of the people working at the corporation headed by the Rachel McAdams character.

I asked her how working with De Palma differs with some of the other projects she has worked on in the past. "The difference between working with someone like De Palma and say someone less experieced," Rozario says, "is that he knows and understands actors. That's something every director should, but a lot of them don't and that can make the work very difficult. Brian is a very calm man, the set is rather small, very unexpected. The way he directs is just perfect for an actor. He gives you the feeling of being totally relaxed, and if he needs adjustments you know you can trust him, so it works. The people he has closely working with him seem also very trusted, like a family, which is very Italian. I love that!"

For the elevator scene shot yesterday, Rozario had to speak German, "which is always a challenge for me because my native language is English," she says. "Even though I can speak German fluently, its still a whole different way of talking, thinking, body language." And she was very impressed with Rapace. "I loved watching Noomi work," says Rozario, "she always blew everyone on set away with her performance, each take got better and better, and you could really feel what she was putting across. Normally you can only have that when the movie is done."

http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/index.blog?start=1335243559

BRIAN DE PALMA'S PASSION FUELS CANNES No 2

Above is an Instagram picture, posted by Hein van Joolen, of a banner for Passion at the Cannes Film Festival. Van Joolen, a sales manager from Amsterdam, states in the photo's caption that he saw the first footage of Passion this week, and that the film will be released this winter. (Thanks to Lindsey for the translation!) Meanwhile, Noomi Rapace Online has posted scans from the June issue of the U.K. magazine Dazed & Confused, which features Rapace on the cover. Near the end of the article, Rapace is interviewed by phone from Berlin, where she was, at the time, working onPassion. Here is that excerpt from the article by Hannah Lack:

As the clock ticks towards the release of Prometheus, forgetting Rapace won’t be easy—she’s following up Ridley Scott by working with another film titan, Scarface director Brian De Palma. A few weeks after we meet, Rapace calls from an apartment in Berlin where she has set up temporary home while shooting De Palma’s new feature Passion, a remake of 2010 French cat-and-mouse psychodrama Crime d’amour. Her accent has taken on an American twang, and she’s submerged in a new character, tinkering with whatever volatile spirits will bring it to life. Today, this involves listening to a lot of Wagner. “I don’t usually do interviews while I’m shooting,” she pauses. "At the moment I’m so deep in it, it’s hard for me to step out. When I was doing the Millennium movies I’d drink coffee in a corner, while everyone else was talking and laughing. I was angry and isolated, but when I look back I see, of course, it was Lisbeth—she was in charge, leading the way. But with this movie, it feels like we’re becoming some kind of disturbed, dysfunctional family!” A car is on its way to escort her to the set—they’ve been wrapping at three or four a.m., but she’ll be up to take her son to school in the morning. Meanwhile, there are new scripts on the table, awaiting her consideration. Rapace has decided that whatever character she invites into her life next, it will not be a ditsy,Jennifer Aniston-style rom-com heroine. “A character who’s happy and doing a bit of yoga and going on a date? That’s not for me. I think life is both darkness and light, almost like a battlefield with those two forces. I’ve always been drawn to… not darkness, but things with an edge,” she says. “When I’m working, I don’t care if I look ugly or fat, skinny or shave my head… I took a decision early on that I refuse to be driven by my vanity.” She thinks for a second before adding: “Perfection is boring.” And with that, Noomi Rapace—former punk, new action hero—sums up why she’s the perfect antidote to every vanilla starlet on our screens. 
http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/index.blog

Just a week ahead of the Cannes Film Festival, Indiewire's The Playlist has the first official still from Brian De Palma's Passion (above), as well as a synopsis (initially posted at the Wild Bunchsales site) that amps up the anticipation level:

An erotic thriller in the tradition of "Dressed To Kill" and "Basic Instinct", Brian De Palma's PASSION tells the story of a deadly power struggle between two women in the dog-eat-dog world of international business. Christine possesses the natural elegance and casual ease associated with one who has a healthy relationship with money and power. Innocent, lovely and easily exploited, her admiring protégé Isabelle is full of cutting-edge ideas that Christine has no qualms about stealing. They're on the same team, after all... Christine takes pleasure in exercising control over the younger woman, leading her one step at a time ever deeper into a game of seduction and manipulation, dominance and humiliation. But when Isabelle falls into bed with one of Christine's lovers, war breaks out. On the night of the murder, Isabelle is at the ballet, while Christine receives an invitation to seduction. From whom? Christine loves surprises. Naked she goes to meet the mystery lover waiting in her bedroom...

Such a tease...! So, aside from a naked Rachel McAdams, there is one more new piece of information to glean from the above: it looks like the movie theater of the original Alain Corneau film (Love Crime) has been changed to the ballet. Knowing of De Palma's love for Powell & Pressburger's The Red Shoes, and recalling Carlito's longing for Gayle in the beautifully heartbreaking ballet class scene in De Palma's Carlito's Way, this sounds intriguing, to say the least.
(Thanks to Mary!)

BRIAN DE PALMA FUELS CANNES WITH PASSION...

http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/

According to the Facebook page for Brian De Palma's Passion, Wild Bunch plans to show a teaser for the film at its offices in Cannes during the film festival. The offices are located at 4 la Croisette. But the real exciting part of the new Facebook page is the set of six pictures posted yesterday, including the one above and the several below. These images are tantalizing, and anticipation for this film is only just ramping up...

An erotic thriller in the tradition of "Dressed To Kill" and "Basic Instinct", Brian De Palma's PASSION tells the story of a deadly power struggle between two women in the dog-eat-dog world of international business. Christine possesses the natural elegance and casual ease associated with one who has a healthy relationship with money and power. Innocent, lovely and easily exploited, her admiring protégé Isabelle is full of cutting-edge ideas that Christine has no qualms about stealing. They're on the same team, after all... Christine takes pleasure in exercising control over the younger woman, leading her one step at a time ever deeper into a game of seduction and manipulation, dominance and humiliation. But when Isabelle falls into bed with one of Christine's lovers, war breaks out. On the night of the murder, Isabelle is at the ballet, while Christine receives an invitation to seduction. From whom? Christine loves surprises. Naked she goes to meet the mystery lover waiting in her bedroom...

Such a tease...! So, aside from a naked Rachel McAdams, there is one more new piece of information to glean from the above: it looks like the movie theater of the original Alain Corneau film (Love Crime) has been changed to the ballet. Knowing of De Palma's love for Powell & Pressburger's The Red Shoes, and recalling Carlito's longing for Gayle in the beautifully heartbreaking ballet class scene in De Palma's Carlito's Way, this sounds intriguing, to say the least.
(Thanks to Mary!)

The above poster is being used to represent Brian De Palma's Passion for SBS Productions and Wild Bunch Distribution at the Film Market of the Cannes Film Festival, which opens on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the IMDB has added Rainer Bock to its Passion cast credits, where he is listed as "Inspector Bach." Bock, pictured here, is a veteran German actor of the stage, TV, and film. He has appeared in Steven Spielberg's War Horse, Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, and Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon. In 2008, Bock appeared in Caroline Link's A Year Ago In Winter, which featured Passion's Karoline Herfurth in a starring role.

Also of note is a post from Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere, who visited Studio Babelsberg on Friday, one week after the Passion crew likely cleared out of there. Wells' post includes a couple of interesting videos he took while being given a tour of the studio. In one video, the tour guide, Eike Wolf (Studio Babelsberg's head of corporate communication), shows Wells where parts of Cloud Atlas were recently filmed, and in another, they walk through a room full of props, including a copy of the British prime minister's book from Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer.