AA | 1h 38min | Drama,
Mystery, Thriller | USA
Director: Brian De Palma
Writers: Brian De Palma
(story by), Paul Schrader (story by)
Stars: Cliff Robertson, Geneviève Bujold, John Lithgow
Obsession is a 1976 American neo noir psychological
thriller mystery film directed by Brian De Palma, starring Cliff Robertson,
Geneviève Bujold, John Lithgow, and Stocker Fontelieu. The story is about a New
Orleans businessman who is haunted by guilt following the death of his wife and
daughter during a kidnapping-rescue attempt gone wrong. Years after the
tragedy, he meets and falls in love with a young woman who is the exact
look-alike of his long dead wife.
Both De Palma and Schrader have pointed to Alfred
Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958) as the major inspiration for Obsession's
narrative and thematic concerns. Schrader's script was extensively rewritten
and pared down by De Palma prior to shooting, causing the screenwriter to
proclaim a complete lack of interest in the film's subsequent production and
release. Completed in 1975, Columbia Pictures picked up the distribution rights
but demanded that minor changes be made to reduce potentially controversial
aspects of the plot. When finally released in the late summer of 1976, it
became De Palma's first substantial box office success and received a mixed
response from critics.
Out-dated.
