The Sisyphus myth. Life is a never-ending struggle.
The contemporary political oppression over the individual. The soldier is forced to carry out missions he doesn’t understand.
Solipsism. The world is what one experiences inside his/her head, therefore inseparable from our subjective senses.
The Cave from Plato’s Republic. We are in the darkness of our mind and can only guess what the outside world is like – the City is always on the horizon, unreachable.
Buddhist immortal soul being reborn from one reality to another.
Systematic society versus the spontaneity of the human condition. The hero is a lost soul who is in turns a soldier, saviour, bully, thief, charmer, entertainer… all the colours of the human experience. (more…)
In his extensive body of work, director Brian De Palma makes very important political and cultural points, but they aren’t being taken seriously by the audiences. Quite often, their viewing experience collapses and the filmmaker gets a bad reputation. This happens because De Palma’s elaborate form doesn’t follow the mainstream media style, which isn’t really looking to enlighten people in the first place.
Audiences are strongly accustomed to popular media and instinctively refuse to accept another point of view. The vicious circle is complete when De Palma grows even more cynical towards the establishment and general audiences feel even more alienated to his output.
