Wow! Such a good movie.

Did you people see the same film I saw?

A Masterpiece!

The acting in this movie is really good.

In 1959 in New Orleans, real estate magnate Michael Courtland (Cliff Robertson) celebrates his tenth wedding anniversary with his lovely wife Elizabeth (Genevieve Bujold) and nine year-old daughter Amy (Wanda Blackman). But as we hear the portentous music in the background and see a butler with a pistol tucked inside his belt and inside his white jacket, we feel something ominous. That night Michael's wife and daughter are kidnapped as a $500,000 ransom note is left behind. Although Michael is warned not to call the police he does so. Inspector August Brie (Stanley Reyes), he of the thick accent, has a strategy that he says works every time. This plan involves placing a transmitter inside the briefcase with fake money packs. Then the police simply follow the pick-up man with a radio truck. At the destination the kidnappers are apprehended. Simple! Of course the plan goes awry, and the kidnappers escape in their car with their victims, or so it seems. Hey police, you could have shot the tires out! Anyway, it ends tragically as the kidnappers' car crashes into a tractor-trailer oil tanker and explodes, killing everyone aboard. No bodies are found. Grief stricken Michael builds a church-like tomb on undeveloped prime land to his deceased wife and daughter.Sixteen years later, in 1975, Michael and his close friend / partner Bob La Salle (John Lithgow) travel to Florence, Italy on business and vacation. Courtland goes to the Florence church where he had met his late wife after the Second World War. He is startled to spot a young woman (around 25 years-old) who looks exactly like his dead wife at the height of their marriage. She (Sandra Portinari = Genevieve Bujold) is restoring mural art from the early Renaissance (1325). Sandra responds well to the older man and says that her task is to prepare the painting for the specialist. She also wonders that there may be an older, cruder painting underneath the later one. Michael says of the newer work, "Hold on to it, beauty should be protected." This statement gives us a hint of what the movie is about: People are not what they seem to be. A courtship develops, and before long Michael desires Sandra and wants to marry her. When the two visit Sandra's dying mother in a local hospital, she tells Michael to marry her. He takes her to new Orleans, but his co-workers tell him he is pushing things too quickly. Sandra begins to poke around Michael's mansion. With a half-hour or so to go, the ploys begin to make sense, but no spoilers will be given in this review. The movie spells things out quite well, and there should not be too many questions from viewers. Love that closing shot! Director Brian De Palma has created a few classics, like "Carrie" (1976), "Dressed to Kill" (1980), "Blow Out" (1981), "Scarface" (1983), and "The Untouchables" (1987). He is a master at creating a moody atmosphere, as he has done here with "Obsession," which is helped by Bernard Hermann's haunting music score. By the way, Hermann worked Hitchcock's "Vertigo" in 1958. There are other pluses, like Vilmos Zsigmond's outstanding Panavision photography and the deliberate pacing. Cliff Robertson, paralyzed by melancholia, plays his role well. Bujold too is in good form in a dual role (hint, hint). Despite the plot holes, this one is worth watching (and fascinating).

Brian De Palma is not one of my favorite directors. At least not in a long shot. But, his films are very good, if not, great or good. Frequently, most of his movies are focus on some of the concepts that were conceived from the films of Alfred Hitchcock. In the film Obsession, De Palma takes on Hitchcock once again after making his third feature film, Sisters, which was released three years ago.In 1959, Michael Courtland, (Cliff Robertson), an wealthy New Orleans businessman, is celebrating his 10th wedding anniversary with his beautiful wife, Elizabeth, (Genevieve Bujold). But, as the night ends, his life is about to turn upside down. Kidnappers have took his wife and his daughter, Amy. The kidnappers demanded Michael to pay the ransom. He does come up with the money. But, the kidnapping ends in tragedy when his wife and daughter are killed in a car explosion.Fast forward to 1975. Courtland and his business partner, (John Lithgow), travel to Florence to look at a job. Courtland is still grieving about the loss of his dead wife and daughter. At Florence, he visits the same church that he and Elizabeth got married. Inside the church, he finds out that the person working inside the church is his dead wife! But, how did she survived the explosion in 1959?A lot of critics complained that Obsession is a complete rip off of Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece, Vertigo. But, there's a catch. Rip offs are done in a poor taste to be failure. Obsession is not a rip off of Hitchcock's Vertigo. But certainly, Brian De Palma does know how to shoot a well made mystery thriller. This is a man who loves movie-making. And like his other movies such as Dressed to Kill and Blow Out, he knows how to shoot certain scenes that build suspense or create tension between characters. Characters that we are interested in watching.The movie isn't a great one, but it is worth seeing if you are a fan of De Palma or fans of Hitchcockian thrillers. Cliff Robertson does a good job of playing the grief stricken Michael as well as a man infatuated by his wife. There even several good scenes where Michael seems to follow his wife around Florence. What makes those scenes work and maybe the entire movie work is that the music score by Bernard Herrmann is very appropriate to empathizes the sorrow and mystery of Michael's obsession. He is a man of certainty and will follow his mind and especially his heart by solving this complicated mystery that ends in a unexpected manner. I won't reveal to you how it all ends. See it for yourself.Another person who should receive credit and someone who I really think stole the movie from Robertson and Lithgow is Genevieve Bujold. I really like her in this movie as Robertson's wife. She is not like any other movie actress I saw. Her character is played as a smart and intelligent woman who uses her wit and her charm to move the movie's story along. She also have a way of bringing the movie to life and propelling us into this mystery. This is a good stylish thriller that does have some double crosses and twists. De Palma uses his style of filmmaking to make the movie works on a technical level. On a storytelling level, it does have little plot holes. But, De Palma is able to deliver a strong thriller that does works so beautifully and mysteriously. ★★★ 3 stars.

As a fan, big fan, of the majority of De Palma's work, I was looking forward to seeing this. I'd never seen it before , somehow it had slipped past me. Now, having watched it, I can only say that maybe I had a kind of 6th sense when I was younger that warned me away from it. Sadly, that sense seems to be fading. This tale of triple obsession (yes, triple) should've been a huge turkey. Difficult to believe it ever broke even, never mind made a profit, as I see it has from this website, though I reckon it must've taken a while. Visually it's interesting, the only real strong point from De Palma that I'd note, though given the Italian locations especially it's still surprising he doesn't do more with the visuals. The performances he gets are barely satisfactory and rarely convincing, not helped by a ridiculously bewigged and mustachioed John Lithgow. Cliff Robertson, a fine actor, is suitable for the romantic side of the story but never at any time convinces as someone tortured by guilt for some 15/16 years.That may not have been entirely his fault since the Paul Schrader script gives him, and everyone else, so little to work with. Full of anomalies and plot holes, while the viewer will likely have every plot twist worked out in the first 25 minutes, the script itself doesn't seem to know where it's going for the first hour with it's snail's pace development and reliance on atmospheric score to keep the audience warm.I've seen this called a psychological thriller but what thrills it has, and there aren't many and they aren't that thrilling , mostly come in the first and last ten minutes. Having sat through most of the movie waiting for something to happen, when it does, it only highlights the worst shortcomings of script and direction with unbelievable character u-turns, revelations, coincidences and just plain stupidity, such as Robertson going to the airport to book a flight , finding out there's one about to leave at that moment and just running for it without getting a ticket. The script actually makes a comic moment of it just to emphasise how stupid it is. (Even stupider than the 1959 New Orleans police as represented here also.) The film ends, more or less, with a priceless look of bewilderment on Robertson's face as, even with all the previous revelations, he finally starts to understand what has happened to him. He can't do tortured guilt, but by goodness he can do bewilderment. Funnily enough that exact look was visible on the faces of quite a few others in the cinema as the lights went up, though most likely for other reasons, that they'd sat through it all, that it had ever got made in the first place, that this stylish piece of trash could come from De Palma, etc..

Obsession is directed by Brian De Palma and written by Paul Schrader. It stars Cliff Robertson, Genevieve Bujold and John Lithgow. Music is by Bernard Herrmann and cinematography by Vismos Zsigmond.You either love him or hate him, it seems. Brian De Palma that is. He's an amazing stylist who made some piercingly great thrillers in the tradition of Maestro Hitchcock, or he's a knock off artist using style to hide his inadequacies as a story teller? One thing for sure, for a good portion of the 70s and 80s his films would not be ignored, for better or worse depending on your own proclivities of course.Obsession, as has been noted numerous times, is De Palma's homage to Hitchcock's masterpiece, Vertigo. It's not a straight out copy as some reviewers have somehow managed to convince themselves, but narrative drive is similar. Robertson in grief for a passed on wife (Bujold) and daughter meets a doppelganger (also Bujold) of his dead wife 16 years down the line and becomes obsessed with her. As the new woman reciprocates the attraction, the relationship becomes wrought and borderline unhealthy, reaching a crescendo when muddy waters are stirred and revelations force the can to open and worms to spill everywhere.When remembering that for a long time Vertigo was out of circulation in the 70s, Obsession was sure as hell a good second option for anyone hankering for a superbly stylish thriller boiling over with psychological smarts. Even if you buy into the style over substance argument, what style there is here though. Roving camera work, up tilts, haze surrounds, canted frames, pan arounds, dream shimmers and personalised focus. Add in the splendid use of New Orleans and Tuscany locations and Herrmann's sensually dangerous score (lifted in part and re-worked from Vertigo) and it has style to burn. While the big reveals at pic's culmination are in turn intriguing and daring; even if the original ending planned would have really put the cat among the pigeons and made for a more potent piece ripe for heated discussion.Lead cast are on fine form, Robertson plays it superbly as a wistful and damaged wastrel, guilt and obsession seeping from every pore. Bujold is just darling, a telling twin performance that actually doesn't demand to be noticed until late in the play. While Lithgow stomps around the edges of the frame like some shyster lawyer whose tie is on too tight. Ultimately Obsession is a film crafted in the mode of Hitchcock, but not in anyway disgracefully so. This is no illegitimate relation to Vertigo, it's more like a reliable brother-in-law. Pulpy, Trashy but also Classy. Great. 8/10