Q 6

PLAYBOY: What did making Scarface teach you?

Brian De Palma: Everyone focused on the violence of Scarface and missed the point -- which was the American dream gone awry. Violence is endemic to anyone who cuts corners and rides fast in the cocaine world. How is this multibillion-dollar industry allowed to go on in our society? But then you're addressing the tenets of capitalism, and who wants to be a pinko and come down on capitalist enterprise? Profit is its own justification in our society, and that's why I have a rather dark vision about it.

Q 7

PLAYBOY: An oil company chairman can admit he's in it for the money, so why do "artistes" in Hollywood rarely say what a gas it is to get, say, $3,000,000 for a couple of months' work?

Brian De Palma: I have no problem saying I make movies in order to make money. Even before Carrie, I knew I was in showbiz. Whether it's art or not, it's part of the world I live in. We're dealing with huge amounts of money and we have to justify the way we spend it, which means getting enough people who want to see what I've done. I get very angry with the media. They say they're dealing with information, so they don't have to take responsibility for, or justify, anything they put out. They get away with anything. I, on the other hand, take full responsibility. I have a certain vision I put forth, and I've been very fortunate, thank you. I am going now to do exactly what I want, because I've done films that pay for themselves. And I don't make any apologies for that.

Q 8

PLAYBOY: What did we miss when Scarface and Dressed to Kill were cut to get an R?

Brian De Palma: In Dressed, a little more nudity, more blood from the murders, more slash, some language. In Scarface, I didn't take anything out, except for the arm that was chain-sawed off. You don't really see it, just about 12 frames. I took it out, anyway. I sent the censors four versions and kept taking things out and finally said, "I'm not doing this anymore," and all four versions got an X for "cumulative violence," whatever that is. So I figured, Hey, if we're getting an X, let's go with our first version. So I put it all back and fought the appeal on the original cut. Why fight the fourth version? I didn't even like it. And we won. I had already taken out the arm on my own. I was amazed at the brouhaha.

Q 9

PLAYBOY: Your murder weapons have ranged from gun to carving knife, carrot peeler, scissors, straight razor, telekinetic detonation, wrist-watch garrote, chain saw and, most recently, a huge electric drill in Body Double. What's wrong with a nice .357 Magnum?

Brian De Palma: The usual instruments get boring -- aesthetically -- after a while. A gun -- someone grabs his chest and falls. That's that. You have to figure out what is the right instrument for the right killing. How will it be shot? How effective and scary is it? The chain saw wasn't my idea. It came from the Scarface screenwriter, Oliver Stone. It's an aesthetic problem, like shooting love scenes: Where is he touching her? How is she kissing him? You need an inventive solution or it looks like everything else you've ever seen. Violence lends itself very well to cinematic form. It's one of the few artistic forms where you can deal with really violent kinetic imagery.

Q 10

PLAYBOY: Your violent scenes have earned you plenty of rabid criticism -- particularly from women. Care to respond?

Brian De Palma: Media people always ask how I can make movies like this. This is what's in my brain. I don't have to justify it to anyone. Studio heads are only interested if a movie makes money. And out of 15 movies I've made, I've justified my existence on at least ten of them. The problem isn't the Hollywood system but the people who force a moral justification on you in order for them to sell magazines or air time. They're in business, too. But they can't say that. When I go on a news show, I see more violence in 60 seconds of news footage than in 15 years of film making.

An artist basically creates something out of what's in his brain. I'm no documentarian trying to reflect what's going on in society. There is absolutely no correlation between movie violence and actual violence as far as I can see.

We see movies or boxing or football for their cathartic effect, as an outlet, to see these impulses acted out. There are a lot more outlets for sexual impulses in this society. You can't just go out and beat people up and get into fights, but you can certainly go out and get laid. But anyone in an artistic medium has a leg up in dealing with his obsessions, because he can express them. It's great. I don't dream much, because my dreams are all in my movies. I don't have nightmares, because I work them all out in artistic form.

Q 11

PLAYBOY: Does your high tolerance for blood have anything to do with watching your father perform orthopedic surgery in Philadelphia?

Brian De Palma: When I was, like, 16, 17, I saw him do a lot of bone surgery, amputate legs, put in a steel femur. I saw some brain and eye surgery performed by his colleagues. You do see a lot of blood when people operate.

Q 12

PLAYBOY: Have you submitted to analysis?

Brian De Palma: I've gone to therapists, not analysts, basically when I had problems and needed someone to talk to. And not for long. I don't go to ruminate about my psychological obsessions. That doesn't interest me. Maybe it's because, again, I sort of act them out in my movies all the time. I'm attracted to material that emanates from subconscious need through bizarre dreams. If I understood exactly what that need was, I probably wouldn't be interested anymore. To explain, examine, justify, label all your motivations is for me a defecating process that has nothing to do with creating.