SISTERS (1973)
Article 2422 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-13-2007
Posting Date: 3-30-2008
Directed by Brian De Palma
Featuring Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt, Charles Durning

A woman reporter witnesses the murder of a black man in the apartment of a separated siamese twin. When the police don’t believe the story, she decides to conduct her own investigation and find the proof.

This is the first movie I’ve covered by director Brian De Palma, though I have seen other movies of his at one time or another. Quite frankly, I’m not sure how I feel about him as a director and writer; though he is often clever and occasionally brilliant, his obsession with Hitchcock is so obvious that it’s rather distracting; I find it a little hard to appreciate this movie on its own terms when I spend so much time dwelling on how he managed to combine elements of both PSYCHO and REAR WINDOW for it. As a result, many of his movies feel contrived to me. Still, I can appreciate the cleverness he uses in putting together a story that references both of these movies, and he’s clearly a master at using the split screen technique; I never get the sense he’s showing off when he does this, because he only uses it at times when it is really effective. And there’s one thing he borrows from Hitchcock here that I have no trouble enjoying completely; bringing in Bernard Herrmann to compose the music was a masterstroke. I also love the odd, bizarre and hilarious final scene of the movie.