JONATHAN BAUMBACH
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fantasies of humiliation and death).
The point-of-view character of the first half of the film,
Dickinson is replaced by a young prostitute (Nancy Allen) who wit–
nesses the killing. Having seen the murderer, Allen inherits his/her
enmity and pursuit, inherits Dickinson's role in the film. Allen's
tion between the two women - though mostly different, they are
also secret sharers - holds
Dressed to Kill
as narrative together.
though mostly different, they are also secret sharers - holds
Dressed to
Kill
as narrative together.
De Palma's voluptuous pop art style (a combination of Russ
Meyer and Jean Luc Godard) is rich with comic exaggeration,
insisting on the illusionary nature of the action. What's most upset–
ting about
Dressed to Kill
is not the violence, which is stylized and
mocked, but how the film repeatedly catches us off guard and impli–
cates us in behavior that violates our sense of propriety. Although we
know that
Dressed to Kill
is make believe-a fantasy about
fantasies - we are also aware that there's something anarchic in its
movement, that anything can happen at any moment, a free-floating
expectation predicated by the opening scene. Nothing stands up to
close scrutiny in De
Palma'~
film-plot elements are determinedly
illogical- yet it works as illusion, has the power and appropriateness
of a dream.
The sensational nature of De Palma's material permits him to
deal with it in a complex and personal way.
Dressed to Kill
is a film
both about the imaginative possibilities of film (its Godardian
legacy) and an illustration of the power of the cinema as nightmare.
The two shower fantasies frame the narrative, the second a reprise in
variation on the first. We are taken in both times, deceived by the
conjurer even after we know the trick. De Palma has not been imi–
tating Hitchcock - comparisons between them are pointless - but
commenting on Hitchcock, reimagining his materials to make films
of wholly different sensibility and implication.
