Vietnam vet John Rubin returns to New York and rents a rundown flat in Greenwhich Village. It is in this flat that he begins to film, ‘Peeping Tom’ style, the people in the apartment across the street.
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[The] shockingly realistic and nerve-racking [Be Black, Baby] sequence (shot in faux-vérité black and white) is immensely troubling, and De Palma’s depiction of this and the succeeding acts of “real” violence is perhaps too uncomplicated to function. But the anger and genuine sense of subversion remains, and that is what matters.
This independent film, which Brian De Palma made in New York in 1970, is an exuberant grab bag of diabolical whimsy that blends radical politics, sexual freedom, racial tension, and emotional hangups with the director’s own catalogue of artistic references, from Hitchcock and the French New Wave to cinéma vérité and avant-garde theatre—and adds a freewheeling inventiveness and an obstreperous satire all his own.
HI, MOM! is undisciplined in many ways, but where those better-known films [REAR WINDOW, PEEPING TOM, BLOW UP] are contained and thematically anchored around the implications of the camera and the relaying of what it captures, HI, MOM!’s richness comes from its scattershot, allusive approach.
"You see that cleavage? Huh? Where are you gonna get that? You don't get that in a Fellini film!" 2 different things going on here, first a comical, voyeuristic look at voyeurism, with De Palma's camera on De Niro's camera filming other people in their windows, some of whom are also making home movies; then the film morphs into a Godardian political farce. De Niro is good, but I just love Allen Garfield :-)
The surprise success of GREETINGS found the nebulously anarchist young De Palma returning to the scene of the crime w/ a more formidable bankroll. HI, MOM! remains a standout achievement in American cinema of an especially celebrated period. Genuine (ironic) commitment to radical upheaval. Nastiness hardly gets more congenial. I would contend that the BE BLACK BABY sequence is the greatest shit De Palma ever did.
His early comedies a bit too much like sketch shows, here with De Niro scenes that are rendered obsolete by the excellency of his later films examining the collision of technology and privacy. Then, the brilliance of the scenes depicting how the revolution will be televised, mondo verite and Be Black Baby still so raw and shocking. That both sections sell their point at the cost of women leaves the worst taste.
Would make a nice double feature with DAVID HOLZMAN'S DIARY or a Peter Watkins movie. I wish De Palma (or De Niro for that matter) still made wild movies like this. A film of its time in the best sense. The hand held camera section of the "Be Black Baby'' play is really amazing.
This film is a landmark in American cinema, but mainstream audiences associate De Palma's name with Scarface and The Untouchables... which is sad, as this is one of his best.
Before turning into a suspense auteur, Brian DePalma directed this subversive little film, heavily inspired by the vanguardist french nouvelle vague. A sequel of "greetings" in which he let DeNiro run the show with amazingly funny results.