Movies - TV
Brian De Palma Doesn't Think It's Very Fair To Compare Him To Alfred Hitchcock
By JOE ROBERTS
Whether you think Brian De Palma stole Hitchcock’s entire directorial style or evolved his own style based on Hitchcock’s, there’s no doubt that the filmmaker has been inspired by Hitchcock. All of which makes it a little weird that the director doesn’t like to be compared to the legendary filmmaker and master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock.
When “Dressed to Kill” was labeled an homage to Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” De Palma pushed back on comparisons, saying, “People sometimes address [...] what is like Hitchcock in my movies as opposed to what is De Palma that isn’t Hitchcock.” According to De Palma, the similarities exist only because Hitchcock was the innovator of everything movie-related.
As De Palma said, “Hitchcock thought up practically every cinematic idea that has been used and probably ever will be used in this form […]” While he certainly has a point that Hitchcock’s influence can be felt in many films, if it were as widespread as De Palma insists, more filmmakers would face the same comparisons to the legendary filmmaker.