- Title Pages
- Frontispiece
- Dedication
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 The Wedding Party (1964–65)
- Chapter 2 Murder à la Mod (1966)
- Chapter 3 Greetings (1968)
- Chapter 4 Dionysus in ’69 (1970)
- Chapter 5 Hi, Mom! (1970)
- Chapter 6 Get to Know Your Rabbit (1972)
- Chapter 7 Sisters (1973)
- Chapter 8 Phantom of the Paradise (1974)
- Chapter 9 Obsession (1976)
- Chapter 10 Carrie (1976)
- Chapter 11 The Fury (1978)
- Chapter 12 Home Movies (1980)
- Chapter 13 Dressed to Kill (1980)
- Chapter 14 Blow Out (1981)
- Chapter 15 Scarface (1983)
- Chapter 16 Body Double (1984)
- Chapter 17 Wise Guys (1986)
- Chapter 18 The Untouchables (1987)
- Chapter 19 Casualties of War (1989)
- Chapter 20 The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990)
- Chapter 21 Raising Cain (1992)
- Chapter 22 Carlito’s Way (1993)
- Chapter 23 Mission: Impossible (1996)
- Chapter 24 Snake Eyes (1998)
- Chapter 25 Mission to Mars (2000)
- Chapter 26 Femme Fatale (2002)
- Chapter 27 The Black Dahlia (2006)
- Chapter 28 Redacted (2007)
- Chapter 29 Passion (2012)
- Afterword
- Acknowledgments
- Bibliography
- Index
- Plates
Body Double (1984)
Body Double (1984)
- Chapter:
- (p.166) Chapter 16 Body Double (1984)
- Source:
- Brian De Palma's Split-Screen
- Author(s):
Douglas Keesey
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
This chapter explores an emasculating inferiority and sexual aggression in De Palma's Body Double (1984). The film's beginning shows its protagonist, Jake (Craig Wasson), suffering from an attack of claustrophobia due to a childhood experience—and this sense of immobility rooted in inferiority is drawn from De Palma's own past when he himself had undergone the same childhood experiences as Jake. This is further reinforced by De Palma's growing up with feelings of inferiority and rivalry toward his two big brothers. To be rendered passive through an inability to act can be experienced as emasculating or “feminizing”—a condition explored throughout the film as Jake becomes more sympathetic to women and is even outright feminized in certain sequences as the movie goes on.
Keywords: Body Double, claustrophobia, immobility, feminization, inferiority, childhood experiences, sexual aggression
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- Title Pages
- Frontispiece
- Dedication
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 The Wedding Party (1964–65)
- Chapter 2 Murder à la Mod (1966)
- Chapter 3 Greetings (1968)
- Chapter 4 Dionysus in ’69 (1970)
- Chapter 5 Hi, Mom! (1970)
- Chapter 6 Get to Know Your Rabbit (1972)
- Chapter 7 Sisters (1973)
- Chapter 8 Phantom of the Paradise (1974)
- Chapter 9 Obsession (1976)
- Chapter 10 Carrie (1976)
- Chapter 11 The Fury (1978)
- Chapter 12 Home Movies (1980)
- Chapter 13 Dressed to Kill (1980)
- Chapter 14 Blow Out (1981)
- Chapter 15 Scarface (1983)
- Chapter 16 Body Double (1984)
- Chapter 17 Wise Guys (1986)
- Chapter 18 The Untouchables (1987)
- Chapter 19 Casualties of War (1989)
- Chapter 20 The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990)
- Chapter 21 Raising Cain (1992)
- Chapter 22 Carlito’s Way (1993)
- Chapter 23 Mission: Impossible (1996)
- Chapter 24 Snake Eyes (1998)
- Chapter 25 Mission to Mars (2000)
- Chapter 26 Femme Fatale (2002)
- Chapter 27 The Black Dahlia (2006)
- Chapter 28 Redacted (2007)
- Chapter 29 Passion (2012)
- Afterword
- Acknowledgments
- Bibliography
- Index
- Plates