Last year, I wanted to do a deep dive of Brian De Palma’s thrillers.
As part of that self-curated binge, I watched Murder a la Mod.
A scrappy, indie version of the Hitchcockian films he would go on to make, it features a number of De Palma obsessions: voyeurism, characters obsessed with filmmaking; sex and death.
Starting with a series of actress auditions, the film explicitly sets its focus on the power dynamic of the person being objectified, and the person objectifying.
De Palma's development of Hitchock-ian themes (perception of events, an innocent character's complicity in crime) is here played for jokes.
We get a farcical take on a shower scene, and a fake dream that turns into a murder.
With the time code onscreen, the viewer is constantly at a remove, aware that this is an act of cinematic construction.
While it features a lot the themes and visual ideas De Palma would obsess over in future thrillers, Murder a la Mod is a little dull.
It has the feel of a student film, with theatrical performances, scenes that go on too long, and its barrage of different cinematic techniques moves from satirical to saturation.
I would not call it a showreel - it is done with too much intention to feel completely frivolous - but the film feels like a proof of concept rather than a functional comedy thriller.
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