"Slashing Dressed To Kill"

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DF: I have a question I've always wondered about. There seems to be certain directors who just haven't, won't or can't do audio commentaries. If I'm not mistaken, De Palma has never done a commentary for any of his films. Does he hate them? (laughs)

LB: No, actually, I've been talking to him about it. He likes them. To be honest, when I got involved with Carrie and Dressed To Kill, he was and is in Paris doing a new project, so just getting him for the interviews was a stretch. It is a challenge when filmmakers are in production or post-production to get them to come in and sit down for two hours and do a commentary. But I've been talking with him about doing a number of his other movies so I'm sure at some point it will happen.

But, in all honesty, I'm so not a fan of commentaries. I think especially when you have an hour and a half worth of documentary footage on Carrie and a solid hour on Dressed To Kill, I really don't see what else could be said. I'm sure a lot, in one sense, but I experienced it on other titles I've done. Some of the commentaries are great, but I just really don't "get it." To me, it is redundant. I rather spend the money on getting another interview in the can. I rather spend the money on another featurette rather than a rehash of the same thing on a commentary.

DF: You may have a point, because commentaries are becoming ubiquitous lately and some I've heard are really pretty terrible!

LB: Oh, I think I just did a couple of them! (laughs) I just went through one with a director that is unusable. It's frightening. But if I would have done it as an on-camera interview, I think it would have been better and at least some of it may have ended up usable...

DF: That's actually an important point, because I think the reason commentaries can be more hit or miss is because it is an all or nothing deal...you can't just use certain parts. And I think a participant may try a bit harder when they are in front of the camera?

LB: I personally can not blame the director who doesn't want to do a commentary. I do documentaries, and I'm at the bottom of the barrel of those who do visual work (laughs), so I can't imagine what it is like when you've directed a movie and twenty years later you look at it again. It is like looking at a picture of yourself when you were wearing bell bottoms and had long hair and you're horrified! I think as much a movie might have become a classic, it is really stirs so much up and it is really hard to do. I think the best commentaries are those done for current movies, or a commentary is made up of interviews where you match it up to the film and edited it from various sources, like Criterion pioneered. It is a tough thing. But, then, on the other hand you have some directors who are terrific at it (recording commentaries.) With Brian, it was just a question of timing. But I think in the future it will happen.

DF: Now, about those still galleries. There is some really great stuff in there, especially on Dressed To Kill. How did you amass all that material?

LB: I got some help from MGM and the archives, and from a collector, but with Dressed To Kill it is mainly my collection! The posters, the ad slicks, all that stuff - I've had since I saw the movie and have been collecting through the years.

DF: It's very impressive. You must have a big house! (laughs)

LB: It was fun to finally see the payoff for all that stuff that has been collecting dust in the drawer all these years! But I am very selective, I don't collect everything. Only certain directors, like Brian De Palma and Steven Spielberg, where I collect all their stuff.

DF: I'd like to wrap up with another recent De Palma DVD you worked on but is a film of his that doesn't get a lot of attention. Obsession seems to have fallen between the cracks, so to speak, hasn't it?

LB: Obsession was an interesting story. It is one of my favorite movies, but obviously not a huge box office draw at the time. It is one of those De Palma movies that remains very obscure. It was a negative pickup for Columbia, and when that happens, the studio usually only owns the rights for the United States and Canada. So, for a while, I believe they (Columbia) may not have owned the rights anymore, so I never really brought it up as a project. Finally, I did, but the only way I managed to do it was because I was doing a lot of other projects for Columbia so we managed to do it on a very low budget. But it was really a treat because I think that it is a movie that has disappeared from everyone's radar, so to speak.

But I think it is a classic, and especially within the body of work of Brian De Palma. It is a thriller but at its core it is a sophisticated love story, ultimately one of redemption. I think it explored a lot of themes that appeared in his some of his scary movies but in a different way, plus the score and the fact that Paul Schrader worked on the script. A lot of classic names were attached to this movie, and I'm thrilled that people can rediscover the movie. Even though we're not doing a huge documentary like I'd do on another picture, it is worthy of a little bit of money and giving to another life on DVD. And, now, George Litto the producer owns it for foreign markets. So it is going to be released worldwide via other distributors.

DF: Perhaps that is the best thing that has come out of the DVD format. It provides a place for films that are not quite classics in the true sense of the word - at the level of say a Citizen Kane - but are modern classics and should not be lost to the midst of time and decay...

LB: There is a big difference between Europe and America in how older films are treated. For example, Obsession, Dressed To Kill, Carrie, Blow Out and Scarface were just re-released theatrically with brand new prints in France. New poster campaigns, advertising, everything. That would never happen in a million years in America. And these are huge releases for library titles, so the only way you have to preserve these movies is DVD. The only way these movies will ever see the light of day is DVD. So why not pay tribute to them? Being a huge fan of Brian I felt a real responsibility to crusade for them. Hopefully I was somewhat instrumental in pointing out that these are movies people should see.

Special thanks to Laurent Bouzereau, Michael Cidoni, Stacey Studebaker and all at MGM Home Entertainment.