X
- 1984
- R
- Columbia Pictures
- 1 h 54 m
- 1984
- R
- Columbia Pictures
- 1 h 54 m
Summary A struggling actor's obsession with spying on a beautiful woman who lives nearby leads to a baffling series of events with drastic consequences.
Directed By: Brian De Palma
Written By: Robert J. Avrech, Brian De Palma
- 1984
- R
- Columbia Pictures
- 1 h 54 m
- 1984
- R
- Columbia Pictures
- 1 h 54 m
Body Double
69
6.9
Where to Watch
Summary A struggling actor's obsession with spying on a beautiful woman who lives nearby leads to a baffling series of events with drastic consequences.
Directed By: Brian De Palma
Written By: Robert J. Avrech, Brian De Palma
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 18 Critic Reviews
69
61% Positive
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
28% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
11% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 18 Critic Reviews
69
61% Positive
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
28% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
11% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Body Double, while not his finest, is the best candidate as De Palma’s signature film. It’s a wicked, feature-length double entendre from a Doublemint era. Take it at face value, take it for its prurience or take it for all it’s worth. Hell, try taking on all three at once.
Brian De Palma has gotten a bad rap on this one: the first hour of his 1984 thriller represents the most restrained, accomplished, and effective filmmaking he's ever done, and if the film does become more jokey and incontinent as it follows its derivative path, it never entirely loses the goodwill De Palma engenders with his deft opening sequences.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 32 User Ratings
6.9
66% Positive
21 Ratings
21 Ratings
25% Mixed
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
9% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 32 User Ratings
6.9
66% Positive
21 Ratings
21 Ratings
25% Mixed
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
9% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
After 1954 everytime there is a movie or a scene when/about a person peeping somebody else from a telescope, it surely inspired by Hitchcock's Rear Window, but De Palma's is a genius, he make a totally different story, so at in the end Body Double is not Rear Window, Body Double is a unique, intense, twisting story with an incredible performance by all the cast but not the character, though it was conclude/explain at in the end, Jake was a stupid person, overall, Body Double is just another excellent thriller by Brian De Palma.
Report
It's such a pleasure in so many ways that one feels like yelling, "Welcome back." Forget Scarface, all is forgiven. Body Double reminds us what it's like to be in the presence of an original, and that does not happen often at the movies, these days or any days. [27 Oct 1984, p.D1]
De Palma actually has the gall to combine the plots from both Vertigo and Rear Window in one big voyeur-fest and pull it off with a certain sly efficiency.
Once you get past the ridiculous story this is a fine example of De Palma's lush overkill style and certainly has a redeeming thread of silly sick humour.
Brian De Palma lets all his obsessions hang out in Body Double. A voyeur’s delight and a feminist’s nightmare, sexpenser features an outrageously far-fetched and flimsy plot.
His point here seems to be that voyeurism can induce a trancelike emotional paralysis—a message feminists could appreciate if Body Double took less pleasure in the mechanics of mutilation, and that ordinary moviegoers could ponder if the characters' motivations were not so numbingly nitwit. Upscale sleaze—so what else is new?
Un gentillet film de voyeur qui fait penser évidemment à ce qu’a proposé Hitchcock en son temps mais en infiniment moins chiant, car s’il s’inspire de son vieux maître endormi et endormisseur, Brian De Palma ne fait pas chier, lui, ou si rarement qu’il faudrait fouiller dans les archives pendant des plombes entières. Et encore !
De Palma ne se départit donc pas de son élégante mise en scène très appliquée -un peu trop lente sans doute (à force)- puis propose son coup de théâtre suivi d’un autre, coup sur coup, laissant le spectateur ébahi et incrédule : évidemment tout cela ne tient pas debout et oscille soit vers la comédie, soit vers le grand « n’importe quoi », histoire de meubler un scénario qui part à vau-l’eau… surtout que le Frankie qui va à Hollywood s’invite comme un cheveu sur la soupe. On veut bien rester « relax » mais pas être pris pour une poire non plus.
Bref, je ne suis pas satisfait cher Brian et bien que je ne me sois pas ennuyé, tes rebondissements imbéciles ont déprécié un film qui n’en demandait pas tant, lui qui naviguait à vue juste au dessus de la ligne de flottaison. Je remarque en tout ca pour l’anecdote Melanie Griffith, charmante, avant qu’elle ne passe plus **** un peu trop de fois sur le billard pour -j’ignore pourquoi- **** un certain Michel Jackson. Pas très sérieux ce Body Double donc, pas désagréable non plus mais un manque de rigueur alarmant !
Report
Production Company
Columbia Pictures,
Delphi II Productions
Release Date Oct 26, 1984
Duration 1 h 54 m
Rating R
Tagline A seduction. A mystery. A murder.
Awards
Golden Globes, USA
• 1 Nomination
National Society of Film Critics Awards, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Razzie Awards
• 1 Nomination
