Sisters (1972 film)

Sisters
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Brian De Palma
Screenplay by	Brian De Palma
Story by	Brian De Palma
Produced by	Edward R. Pressman
Starring	Margot Kidder Jennifer Salt William Finley Charles Durning
Cinematography	Gregory Sandor
Edited by	Paul Hirsch
Music by	Bernard Herrmann
Production company	Edward R. Pressman Film Corporation
Distributed by	American International Pictures
Release date	November 18, 1972 (1972-11-18) (Filmex, Los Angeles)[1] April 18, 1973 (1973-04-18)
Running time	92 minutes
Country	United States
Languages	English French
Budget	$500,000[2]
Box office	$1 million (US/Canada rentals)[3]

Sisters (released as Blood Sisters in the United Kingdom) is a 1972 American psychological slasher film^[4] directed by Brian De Palma and starring Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt, and Charles Durning. The plot focuses on a French Canadian model whose separated conjoined twin is suspected of a brutal murder witnessed by a newspaper reporter in Staten Island, New York City.

Co-written by De Palma and Louisa Rose, the screenplay for the film was inspired by the Soviet conjoined twins Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapova and features narrative and visual references to several films by Alfred Hitchcock.^[5] Filmed on location in Staten Island, the film prominently features split-screen compositions (also present in subsequent De Palma films such as Carrie), and was scored by frequent Hitchcock collaborator Bernard Herrmann.

Released in the spring of 1973, Sisters received praise from critics who noted its adept performances and prominent use of homage. It marked the first thriller for De Palma, who followed it with other shocking, graphic thrillers, and went on to become a cult film in the years after its release.^[1]

Plot[]

Advertising salesman Philip Woode is the victim of a prank on a Candid Camera-style television show and wins dinner for two at a Manhattan restaurant. When Danielle Breton, a young French Canadian model and aspiring actress who was part of the prank, approaches him and suggests he take her along, he agrees. At dinner, they are interrupted by Danielle's ex-husband, Emil, who also follows them to Danielle's Staten Island apartment. After tricking Emil into leaving, Philip and Danielle make love on the sofa, during which a huge scar on her side is revealed.

After they spend the night together on the fold-out sofa bed, Danielle wakes up in pain and goes to the bathroom, where she takes two pills, leaving two more on the sink. She hears her sister Dominique call from the bedroom in French, and they argue offscreen, mentioning that after they were "separated," Dominique was put in a hospital "full of lunatics." The argument wakes Philip, who dresses in the bathroom, where he unwittingly knocks the pills down the drain. Danielle explains to Philip that Dominique, her twin sister, has come to visit to celebrate their birthday. At her request, he goes to the drug store to refill her prescription, also picking up a birthday cake on which he has "Happy Birthday Dominique and Danielle" written. Danielle, in agony, calls Emil for help. When Philip returns, Emil is watching from his car. Seeing who he believes to be Danielle asleep on the sofa bed, Philip brings the cake and a large knife to her, but is repeatedly stabbed by the woman - the crazed Dominique. He drags himself to a window, where he tries to alert a neighbor whose window faces Danielle's by writing "help" in his own blood, but eventually dies.

The neighbor, a reporter named Grace Collier, sees Philip and calls the police. In split screen, she is seen waiting for the police and trying to convince them of the murder she witnessed while Emil helps Danielle clean up and hide Philip's body by folding it inside the sofa. Grace accompanies the skeptical Detective Kelly and his partner on a search of Danielle's apartment, but Danielle insists that she has been alone since last night, and they find no evidence. Grace finds the cake in the refrigerator, but trips and drops it as she brings it to show the detectives, destroying the message. Undeterred, she goes to the bakery and talks to Louise Wilanski (Olympia Dukakis) and Elaine D'Anna (Justine Johnson), who remember Philip and the cake and the message in the decoration.

Certain that Danielle is hiding the murderer, Grace persuades her editor to let her investigate the story on the basis that the police are ignoring her because Philip was black. Her editor convinces her to work with Larch, a private investigator. He gains access to the apartment and figures out from how unusually heavy it is that the couch contains the body. He also finds a thick file from the Loisel Institute on the Blanchion Twins, Canada's first conjoined twins, which leads Grace to Life magazine reporter Arthur McLennen. He tells her that the twins were separated only recently, and that Dominique apparently died during the operation.

As Larch pursues the truck that Emil called to haul the couch away, Grace tails Emil and Danielle to a mental hospital. When she is caught, Emil convinces the staff that she is a new patient. He sedates and hypnotizes her, conditioning her to say "There was no body, because there was no murder." He promises to reveal everything, placing Danielle on the bed beside her, and Grace has a bizarre dream about the twins' past and their separation, in which she herself is Dominique. Emil tells Danielle that the separation was necessary because Dominique stabbed the pregnant Danielle with garden shears. Emil claims he then had to separate the twins to save Danielle, but Dominique died during the surgery.

Grace wakes up screaming, but Emil coaxes her back to sleep. As Danielle calls for her sister, Emil tells her that she now dissociates to a violent "Dominique" personality whenever she makes love to anyone. Emil kisses her passionately, bringing "Dominique" out so he can question her about the murder. She slashes him in the groin with a scalpel, and he bleeds to death, controlling her. Their bodies pin Grace to the bed. Grace awakens to find the sorrowful Danielle tenderly embracing Emil's bloody body and screams in horror. Detective Kelly arrests Danielle, who denies knowledge of the murders and says that her sister is dead.

Kelly interviews Grace, who is still under Emil's hypnotic spell, repeating the lines he fed her and denying there was a murder. However, Larch has tracked the sofa to a remote train station in Canada.

Cast[]

• Margot Kidder as Danielle Breton / Dominique Blanchion
• Jennifer Salt as Grace Collier
• William Finley as Emil Breton
• Charles Durning as Joseph Larch
• Lisle Wilson as Phillip Woode
• Barnard Hughes as Arthur McLennen
• Mary Davenport as Mrs. Peyson Collier
• Dolph Sweet as Detective Kelly
• Olympia Dukakis as Louise Wilanski (uncredited)
• Catherine Gaffigan as Arlene
• Justine Johnston as Elaine D'Anna
• James Mapes as Guard
• Burt Richards as Hospital Attendant
• Bill Durks as a Sanitorium resident

Analysis[]

Scholarly discussion of Sisters has centered largely on its prevalent theme of voyeurism as well as a perceived commentary on the women's liberation movement.^[6] Film critic and scholar Robin Wood wrote that the film "analyzes the ways in which women are oppressed within patriarchy society on two levels, the professional (Grace) and the psychosexual (Danielle/Dominique)."^[7] He adds: "If the monster is defined as that which threatens normality, it follows that the monster of Sisters is Grace as well as Danielle/Dominique–a point the film acknowledges in a cinematic hallucination/flashback sequence wherein Grace becomes Dominique...  Simply, one can define the monster of Sisters as women's liberation."^[7]

The prominent allusions to works by Alfred Hitchcock have also been noted by critics such as Bruce Kawin, who wrote in 2000:

Sisters...  makes intelligent reference to Rope (1948), Rear Window (1954), Psycho (1960), and even The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). The film ends with a shot of a detective looking through binoculars at what might be called the scene of the crime, intently but fruitlessly watching a couch that no one will ever incriminate themselves with by picking up. From start to finish, Sisters is charged with scenes of looking—from seeing a murder through a window to seeing another person's memories in one's own mind.^[8]

Production[]

Development[]

De Palma was inspired to write the screenplay for Sisters after reading an article in Life magazine in 1966 about the lives of the Soviet conjoined twins Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapova:

At the end of the article there was a picture of the two girls sitting on a couch and the caption said that apart from the fact that they were joined at the hip both girls were physiologically normal, but as they were getting older they were developing psychological problems. One of the twins had a very surly, disturbing look on her face and the other looked perfectly healthy and smiling. And this strong visual image started the whole idea off in my mind.^[9]

The script, which De Palma co-wrote with Louisa Rose, features structural elements inspired by Hitchcock, such as killing off a prominent character early into the film, alternating points of view, and the involvement of a third party observer in solving a crime.^[9] In writing the exposition of the film which details the twins' history and institutionalization, De Palma was influenced by Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby (1968), specifically the scene in which Rosemary is raped and conceives her child.^[9]

Filming[]

Sisters was shot over a period of eight weeks in New York City in spring 1972,^[1] primarily in the borough of Staten Island.^[10] The apartment interiors were filmed on a set, with additional exterior photography of the Time-Life Building in Manhattan.^[10] The film was shot using Mitchell BNC cameras with Panavision lenses.^[10] According to De Palma, the film was lit with a "truly classical style", with scenes sometimes taking 45 minutes to set up.^[10] Some sequences were shot on 16 mm film by De Palma himself, such as the scene in which Emil speaks directly to the camera during the finale's hallucination sequence.^[11]

Visual style[]

The film uses unusual point of view shots and split screen effects to show two events happening simultaneously,^[8][12] as well as long tracking shots,^[13] some in excess of six minutes in length.^[14] The extended tracking shot in Danielle's apartment following the murder of Phillip was influenced by Max Ophüls and directly references Hitchcock's Rope.^[14] The theme of voyeurism is represented in the alternating points-of-view and distortions of perspective within the narrative diegesis; De Palma commented: "I really got the idea from watching the Vietnam war on television – watching a war that nobody really knew about except that we watched it every night on the 7 o'clock news. It was really a very voyeuristic war, and I think it says a lot about the way we perceive things. We are very much controlled by the media which present things to us. And those can be manipulated."^[15]

In order to accomplish the image of both twins conjoined onscreen in the film's finale (both played by Kidder), De Palma had Kidder photographed seated in two different positions, and then joined the images together via optical editing.^[10]

Musical score[]

While editing the film in post-production, editor Paul Hirsch and De Palma listened to musical scores by Bernard Herrmann (particularly for Psycho, Marnie, and Vertigo) and played them along with the film's key scenes.^[16] This led to De Palma inquiring about Herrmann composing the film's musical score. At the time Herrmann was semi-retired, but admired the screenplay enough to agree to score the film.^[16]

Release[]

Sisters had its world premiere at Filmex in Los Angeles, California on November 18, 1972.^[1] It was released theatrically in the United States by American International Pictures, opening in Los Angeles on April 18, 1973.^[17] It would later expand, opening in New York City on September 26, 1973,^[1] where it received "rave reviews," and continued to screen into the fall of 1973.^[18] It was also selected for the 1975 Venice Film Festival.

Critical response[]

Contemporaneous[]

The film was met with critical praise; Roger Ebert noted that the film was "made more or less consciously as an homage to Alfred Hitchcock", but said it "has a life of its own" and praised the performances of both Kidder and Salt.^[19] Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it " a good, substantial horror film" and stated "De Palma reveals himself here to be a first-rate director of more or less conventional material", also noting the film's references to Repulsion (1965) and Psycho (1960).^[20] Meanwhile, Variety, while stating it was "a good psychological murder melo-drama", said that "Brian De Palma's direction emphasizes exploitation values which do not fully mask script weakness."^[21] The Los Angeles Times's Kevin Thomas praised it as a "witty homage to Hitchcock" and a "low budget but high style scare show," as well as praising the performances and musical score.^[22] George McKinnon of The Boston Globe was less laudatory, writing: "It is difficult to determine what De Palma had in mind in this morbid horror film. Did he intend it all as a parody or a straightforward Psycho-type movie? ... If it is to be taken as a tongue-in-cheek romp, it doesn't work and if meant as a horror film it is run-of-the-mill."^[23]

The film received honors from the U.S. Film Festival in Dallas, Texas in April 1973.^[24] Kidder also received an award for Best Actress at the Atlanta International Film Festival.^[25]

Retrospective[]

Critical reassessment of the film in the 21st century has largely been favorable, with critic Robin Wood writing in 2003 that Sisters was "one of the great American films of '70s,"^[7] while G. Allen Johnson of the San Francisco Chronicle considers it a key film in Kidder's career.^[26] Richard Brody wrote of the film in The New Yorker in 2016:

De Palma weaves his own obsession with movies into the dramatic fabric of Sisters by means of a scene involving a documentary about the twins that Grace views in the offices of Life magazine; this film-within-a-film becomes embedded in her unconscious mind and threatens to warp her consciousness as well. Though De Palma's own images can't rival Hitchcock's in shot-by-shot psychological power, the intricate multiple-perspective split-screen sequences of Sisters offer a dense and elaborate counterpoint that conjures a sense of psychological dislocation and information overload belonging to De Palma's own generation and times.^[27]

In 2016, Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times ranked the film as De Palma's most underrated of the 1970s, writing that "for all its low-budget creakiness, [it] feels fully formed—from its sly opening bit of misdirection to its adroit use of split-screen to its memorably churning Bernard Herrmann score. De Palma's choice of subject matter couldn't have been more appropriate: With this film he effectively conjoined himself to Hitchcock, announcing himself as a skillful mimic with a mischievous side all his own."^[28] Sisters currently has 87% on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes with the site's consensus reads, "Clever yet clearly indebted to the masters of the genre, Sisters offers an early glimpse of DePalma at his stylishly crafty peak".

Home media[]

Sisters was released on VHS and Betamax videocassettes by Warner Home Video in the 1980s, and again in 2000 by Homevision. The film was released on DVD by The Criterion Collection on October 3, 2000 in a new widescreen digital transfer.^[29] In July 2018, Criterion announced a Blu-ray release of the film featuring a new 4K transfer scheduled for October 23, 2018.^[30]

Remake[]

The film was remade in 2006 under the same title, with Lou Doillon, Stephen Rea, and Chloë Sevigny in the leading roles.

See also[]

• List of American films of 1973

References[]

Notes

Bibliography

• Armstrong, Kent Byron (2003). Slasher Films: An International Filmography, 1960 Through 2001. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN 978-0-786-41462-8.
• Rubinstein, Richard (2003) [1973]. "The Making of 'Sisters': An Interview with Brian De Palma". Interviews: Brian De Palma. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi. pp. 3–14. ISBN 978-1-578-06516-5.
• Wood, Robin (2003). Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan . . . and Beyond. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-50757-8.

External links[]

• Sisters at IMDb
• Sisters at Rotten Tomatoes
• Sisters at AllMovie
• Sisters an essay by Bruce Kerwin at the Criterion Collection