Brian De Palma has attained an unusual position in contemporary Hollywood filmmaking over the last several decades. Straddling generic and critical categories, his work has claimed fervent supporters and detractors. Now often hailed (and marketed) as the 'Modern Master of Suspense', De Palma has roots in the rarefied soil of the NYC avant-garde theater. He began as a "committed" New York-based independent filmmaker whose left-leaning countercultural comedies of the late 1960s and early 70s owed much to the early films of Jean-Luc Godard (e.g., the 1966 political comedy "Masculine-Feminine").
Earned MCA writing fellowship to Sarah Lawrence on strength of third student film, "Wotan's Wake"
1963
Began co-directing, co-writing, and co-editing (with Wilford Leach and Cynthia Munroe) first feature, "The Wedding Party" (completed in 1966; released in 1969); also initial collaboration with actor Robert De Niro
Shot "The Responsive Eye," a record of the opening of the 'Op' art show at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, in four hours
