'De Palma' an insightful doc into a master filmmaker

The documentary "De Palma" runs a respectable 107 minutes, but I suspect if co-directors Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow had doubled the time, they could easily have filled it with fascinating material exploring the life and amazing career of Alfred Hitchcock devotee and Hollywood's Master of Suspense Runnerup, Brian De Palma.

Usually, a talking head in a documentary would be a bore. This talking head belongs to the director of such films as "Carrie," "Mission: Impossible," "Scarface," "The Untouchables," and many others.

And when he talks, his bluntly honest, behind-the-scenes revelations become spellbinding stories riddled with insights into this iconic filmmaker as well as fascinating footnotes on how his movies actually came together. Or didn't.

Wisely, Baumbach and Paltrow - filmmakers in their own right - don't plug in interviews with movie critics, his directing peers, wives or cast members. De Palma mercilessly dissects himself and his movies quite nicely without their assistance, thank you.

Younger movie fans will probably not know De Palma as well as they know his 1970s "movie brats" peers Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola and Steven Spielberg. (Well, maybe as well as Coppola at this point.)

De Palma never quite achieved the critical or financial stratosphere of his fellow filmmakers, although he achieved cult status with "Scarface" and won Academy Awards and nominations for his casts.

The filmmaker rats out star Cliff Robertson as a difficult lead of his movie "Obsession." His wooden performance was matched only by his unearthly tan, which the cinematographer pointed out was the same color as a mahogany wall.

De Palma addresses the storm over the violent treatment of women in "Dressed to Kill," and the tempest over the cuts the Ratings Administration demanded in the X-rated "Scarface" before it would award the movie its desired R-rating.

He loved watching all the "Carrie" knock-offs and remakes, he tells us, because they reminded him of all the suspense movie mistakes he avoided in the original.

"De Palma" proves the filmmaker to be a great storyteller without the use of a camera.

For movie lovers unfamiliar with De Palma's work, this doc should be a treat as an introduction, although it would have more meaning and resonance to have seen his major films. For knowledgeable film aficionados, "De Palma" should be mandatory viewing.

Note: I saw "De Palma" at Chicago's Lake Street Screening Room, surrounded by my fellow movie critics, who have watched, appreciated (or hated) and analyzed his work during the past 40 years.

If you can imagine a theater full of young kids watching "Star Wars" for the first time, that's what it felt like to be there seeing this documentary made by two filmmakers who have finally awarded the overlooked master his proper due as a true shaper of our nightmares and desires.