Consciousness, Literature and the Arts
Archive
Volume 12 Number 3, December 2011
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Eyal Peretz. Becoming Visionary. Brian De Palma’s Cinematic Education of the Senses. Foreword by Stanley Cavell. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008. 220pp. ISBN: 0-8047-5685-6; 978-0-8047-5685-3. Paperback: $21.95
Reviewed by
University of Granada
Through its revision of some of Brian De Palma’s highest cinematographic achievements, as is the case of Carrie, The Fury, Blow Out, or Femme Fatale, Becoming Visionary provides an illuminating insight into some of the tools and critical frames that are essential for the study of the filmic image within the parameters of philosophy and metaphysical reflection.
A highly informative Introduction precedes these analyses and offers an outline of some of the major theoretical considerations underneath Peretz’s interpretations of De Palma’s titles. Hence, some previous notions about Plato’s ontological reasonings, as well as his theory about the dual nature of reality and the value of truth of our sensorial knowledge, or Lacan’s re-elaboration of some of these Platonic postulates, are thus presented in this section and turn out really helpful for the reader. Similarly, the numerous endnotes included for each chapter enrich the discussions and add some certainly interesting explanations and points of view which enhance the analyses. Yet, in some cases, the abundance in number of these notes, or their disproportionate length, become a hindrance for the follow-up of the main text, inasmuch as our reading has to be interrupted with unwarranted frequency or for an excessively long lapse of time.
Peretz’s focus on a specific aspect connected with our sensorial perceptions in each chapter contributes to the clarity of his discussion, at the same time as it enhances the interest and fresh originality of his revision of these films. Thus, in the chapter devoted to the exploration of Carrie, the idea of woundedness particularly serves as the epicentre for an understanding of the film as, among other issues, De Palma’s elaborating on the subject of our openness to the future and the world beyond our senses.
The director’s handling of the cinematic frame and the different possibilities of the screen, as regards their capability of selecting images and fragments, is analyzed in Peretz’s dealing with The Fury. Questions such as the manipulation of the viewers’ perception are brought to the fore as a means of shedding light on the way in which the filmic image exerts some authority on its audience. This is brilliantly presented in association with the figure of the father that is central to the movie, along with the philosophical notions based on the Oedipal dimension of human consciousness.
On the other hand, the particular implications of the split and unreliable condition of our senses, especially regarding the reach of ear and sight, as well as the nature of this type of knowledge, come to light in the author’s exploration of Blow Out. In his discussion about this film, which occupies the longest chapter in the volume, Peretz engages in a debate in which the argumentation of the way in which these sensorial perceptions are moulded throughout the film comes to be linked to a masterful analysis of the socio-political context that constitutes the work’s background. As he remarks, the consumerism and the material focus at the basis of that mainframe determine our attitude towards the sensorial, as well as our interaction with the external world.
Finally, the redeeming value of some of De Palma’s creations – especially in the case of Femme Fatale – is brought to the surface in the last chapter. By analyzing the implications entailed by the use of the double in De Palma’s cinema, Peretz concludes on this cathartic potential of the film, which takes its audience to a comforting haven with the notion of a plausible salvation.
No doubt, Peretz’s study further contributes to the appreciation of the philosophical complexity of De Palma’s cinema, which – as the author strives to demonstrate – evinces the masterfulness and psychological profundity of his work. Furthermore, Peretz’s resort to a comparative study, on numerous occasions, with Hitchcock’s highly-reputed oeuvre, situates De Palma’s films at what can be considered as the summit of artistic creation.