Sisters (Brian De Palma, 1972, USA)

Sisters (1972) is arguably the first real Brian De Palma film. It is when the director came into his own and began to adopt the formal and thematic traits that would come to define his career. Made on a shoestring budget, the film received a decent amount of acclaim upon its initial release - though some critics found it too derivative of Hitchcock (though this would always be the case with De Palma). It probably didn't help that he hired Bernard Herrmann, Hitchcock's signature musical partner, to write the score for Sisters.

Despite its limitations, or possibly despite them, Sisters is highly effective. Limited largely to two or three locations, the film makes the most of them, creating a palpable sense of claustrophobia. All of the De Palma signatures are here - shocking violence, voyeurism, and notably - the use of the split screen. The split screen here works very well, and it would become a staple of De Palma's films in later years. The film has a playfulness today that has made it an enduring staple, influencing filmmakers including Quentin Tarantino, who wrote about the film in his recent book Cinema Speculation.

Sisters has an all-around excellent cast. Margot Kidder does a great job playing the main role. Jennifer Salt is perfect as the Jimmy Stewart stand-in. Underrated is William Finley as Kidder's creepy doctor/lover - simply one of the best characters De Palma ever put to screen. While Sisters is not peak De Palma, it is one of his more accessible films. It marks the entry of De Palma onto the stage of New Hollywood in a very visceral way and announces De Palma as a figure joining the likes of Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas - among others. Things have never been the same since.

8/10