PANTHEON
ExploreBuild My Library
© 2026 Pantheon — an atlas of the ideas that shaped how we think.
person1968–present

Brian De Palma

Disciplines:
film
directing
crime thriller/thriller
film/hitchcock homage

Summary

American filmmaker who directed Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission: Impossible — known for elaborate set pieces, split-screen techniques, and homages to Hitchcock — and who was a core member of the New Hollywood generation.

Core Contribution

Developed the most technically elaborate visual style of the New Hollywood generation — the split screen, the slow-motion set piece, the subjective camera — while also demonstrating that being a 'movie lover's director' (influences visible, stylized) is a viable commercial approach.

Historical Influences

Alfred Hitchcock Michelangelo Antonioni Godard

Intellectual Lineage

Newark New JerseySarah Lawrence College New York independent filmNew Hollywood generation

Contemporaries & Peers

Martin Scorsese Francis Ford Coppola Steven Spielberg

Minds Influenced

Quentin Tarantino Modern thriller filmmaking

Intellectual Posterity

Scarface The Untouchables Carrie Dressed to KillMission: Impossible

Discussing

Brian De Palma

Ask anything about Brian De Palma — their ideas, influences, contradictions, legacy.

Sign in to start a conversation.