Page "Brian De Palma" Paragraph 10

" Be Black, Baby " was filmed in black and white stock on 16 mm, in low-light conditions that stress the crudity of the direct cinema aesthetic.

It is precisely from this crudity that the film itself gains a credibility of “ realism .” In an interview with Michael Bliss, De Palma notes “ Black, Baby was rehearsed for almost three weeks ...

In fact, it's all scripted.

But once the thing starts, they just go with the way it's going.

I specifically got a very good documentary camera filmmaker ( Robert Elfstrom ) to just shoot it like a documentary to follow the action .” Furthermore, “ I wanted to show in Hi, Mom!

how you can really involve an audience.

You take an absurd premise – “ Be Black, Baby ” – and totally involve them and really frighten them at the same time.

It's very Brechtian.

You suck ‘ em in and annihilate ‘ em.

Then you say, “ It's just a movie, right?

It's not real .” It's just like television.

You ’ re sucked in all the time, and you ’ re being lied to in a very documentary-like setting.

The “ Be Black, Baby ” section of Hi, Mom!

is probably the most important piece of film I ’ ve ever done .”