Sisters

Never mind the split persona theme… in this gripping thriller from 1973, Brian De Palma takes the split screen technique to an entirely different level, although the action is at times overpowered by the cleverness of the movie’s visuals.

Those familiar with the work of director De Palma will know that not only is he superb in creating suspense but equally he likes his homages and in-jokes. The film starts with a mock-reality TV show called ‘Peeping Tom’ (a nod to Michael Powell’s 1960 cult thriller of the same name), during which Danielle (Margot Kidder), a model and occasional actor, poses as a blind woman. Meanwhile, the guests on the panel are meant to guess whether ‘Peeping Tom’ Philip (Lisle Wilson) takes advantage of her apparent blindness or whether he behaves in a chivalrous manner. The two actors are then invited into the TV studio, where in front of a live audience Danielle is presented with a set of kitchen knives, and Philip, a black American, receives a voucher for a restaurant with a distinct African theme. It’s a sharp and poignant scene in which De Palma highlights the narrow-mindedness, racism and the sexism of the time. Slightly angered but also amused over the voucher, Philip invites Danielle along to the eatery and she accepts. During the course of the conversation, we learn that she’s from French-Canada and moved to New York in pursuit of her career. The conversation suddenly is interrupted by the arrival of Emil Breton (William Finlay), who is Danielle’s ex-husband. She purposefully creates drama in the restaurant by shouting at him to stop following her around and the bouncer throws him out. Later that night, Philip accompanies Danielle back to her apartment in Staten Island, and they end up making love after having managed to fool Emil and shake him off.

The next morning, a dazed and confused Danielle puts some pills on the corner of a sink, and sends Philip to the pharmacy for more, stating she feels unwell. Briefly using the bathroom himself, he accidentally swipes the pills down the drain without noticing. At the same time he overhears an argument between Danielle and what appears to be her jealous sister Dominique, they both argue in French. On the way back from the pharmacy, Philip stops by a bakery and buys a surprise cake for the twin sisters, as Danielle had informed him of their birthday. When he returns to the apartment, mad and dishevelled looking twin Dominique suddenly leaps up from behind the sofa and brutally stabs Philip – ironically with the one of the knives presented to her sister during the TV show. Mortally wounded, he manages to crawl direction window, smearing the word HELP across it before he dies. The horror is witnessed by feisty journalist Grace Collier (Jennifer Salt), who watches from her neighbouring apartment. The scene is a nod to Hitchcock’s Rare Window.

When Grace raises the alarm and calls upon Detective Kelly (Dolph Sweet) for help, things start off badly, for the detective is dismissive of her story and of her journalistic work, which often criticizes law enforcement. Nonetheless, he goes with her to the apartment and they find nothing… for in the meantime, Danielle’s ex Emil has not only cleaned the bloodstains and hidden the corpse in the sofa, but we also learn that Emil is Danielle’s physician and psychologist. This is one of several illogical points in the film… how can someone clean red bloodstains on a white carpet so quick and so thorough?!
Whilst Detective Kelly is inclined to believe every explanation given to him by Danielle (for example that she has the same set of clothes twice in case one set gets damaged during an acting job), Grace smells a rat big time. Realising that she cannot count on the local police, she hires rivate detective Joseph Larch (Charles Durning) helping her to prove that there is a corpse somewhere, and that a murder took place in Danielle’s apartment. As the plot thickens, Grace gets a tip off from a Time Life reporter who informs her of the case of the Blanchions - two Canadian conjoined female twins. Upon further probing, she learns that their names are Danielle and Dominique, but that Dominique died during a surgical procedure to separate them…

From then on, things turn ever more gripping and tense, and with some hallucinatory sequences thrown in for good measure. Grace gets drawn into an abyss of truly nightmarish proportions, and she comes to realize too late that it may not have been a clever idea to embark upon further investigations alone…

Special Edition Contents of this Dual-Format relase:

- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation
- Original Mono audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)
- What the Devil Hath Joined Together: Brian De Palma’s Sisters – A visual essay by author Justin Humphreys (47 mins)
- All new interviews with co-writer Louisa Rose, actress Jennifer Salt, editor Paul Hirsch and unit manager Jeffrey Hayes
- The De Palma Digest – a film-by-film guide to the director’s career by critic Mike Sutton
- Archive audio interview with star William Finley (excerpt)
- Gallery of Sisters promotional material from around the world
- Theatrical trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys
- Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by author Kier-La Janisse (House of Psychotic Women), Brian De Palma’s original 1973 Village Voice essay on working with composer Bernard Herrmann as well as a contemporary interview with De Palma on making Sisters, and the 1966 Life magazine article that inspired the film.