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Obsession
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Directed by Brian De Palma
Love never dies in Brian De Palma's psychological thriller, though money certainly complicates matters. Rich New Orleans real estate developer Michael Courtland (Cliff Robertson) lost his beloved wife Elizabeth (Genevieve Bujold) and their daughter during a botched kidnap rescue, after he chose to let the police try to free them instead of paying the ransom. Sixteen years later, Michael returns to the Tuscan church where he and Elizabeth first met, and he sees Sandra Portinari (Bujold again), the mirror image of his dead wife. Despite the reservations of his long-time friend and business partner (John Lithgow), Michael woos Sandra and brings her back to New Orleans to marry her. Seeing Sandra as his second chance to prove his love, Michael thinks he can finally put the past behind him, but the past is about to catch up with him in ways he never dreamed. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
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Review by All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
lost interest.
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
 

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