Brian De Palma

*uploaded a better cropped version*

In my younger years I used to wonder if I like Brian De Palma's films because they appeal to my adolescent urge to see aggressive violence and nudity. It's not like Scarface, Dressed to Kill and Blow-Out don't deliver on that front.
But when I saw films like Carlito's Way and The Untouchables which, while violent, sure, were remarkably "classier" films in comparison, (and by "classier" I mean they had a lower age restriction here in Finland,) I realized there is something in him as a great audiovisual storyteller. Later on that suspicion has been confirmed again and again when hearing him in interviews and revisiting each work I'd already seen. Even with my limited understanding of film as a form of storytelling I can tell De Palma is very adamant about the way he wants things done, even if he's working on something that's dismissed as genre fair. It's his insistence on not showing a plane landing on an airport for Bonfire of the Vanities, because he thinks it's a cliché and a truly lazy way to show a plotpoint, that separates him from a fool like me, who would never even think of shooting something like that any differently. He clearly loves to tell stories by the way he moves the camera* and positions a shot. And he loves films and filmmakers of the past, often paying homage to pioneers like Welles, Hitchcock and even Eisenstein, but you don't need to know about them to enjoy the film. He wants to entertain you, is what I get from his movies. He also wants to punch you in the guts.
But maybe the most important thing about De Palma is, and this is just an impression I get from him, he wants to challenge himself.

*=the art museum scene from Dressed to Kill, top-to-bottom opening shot of Untouchables as well as the lead-up to Jimmy Malone's assassination, etc etc