Obsession (1976) Dir: Brian de Palma

*Although film critic-turned-screenwriter Paul Schrader intended Obsession as a reworking of both Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958) and Yasujiro Ozu's An Autumn Afternoon (1962), director Brian De Palma plays up the Hitchcock legacy in style and eeriness. Vilmos Zsigmond's cinematography gives the New Orleans and Florence locations the foggy dreaminess of Michael's memory, while Bernard Herrmann's Vertigo-like score (his second-to-last work) evokes both the romance and the threat of Michael's adoration of the dead. Although Obsession got a positive reception, and Herrmann's score was nominated for an Oscar, its haunting mind games did not prove as popular as the more visceral scares of De Palma's other 1976 release, Carrie. ~ ~ ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide