Day 87: Sisters (1973)
Brian De Palma’s “Sisters” is a film interested in the discussion of voyeurism, both in the external world and towards a person’s inner turmoil. From its very start, which depicts an episode of a game show entitled “Peeping Toms” alla “Candid Camera,” De Palma brings into question, not only what we see, but what we also perceive to be true by using elements of suspense connected closely with director Alfred Hitchcock in a way both classic and modern.
In the film, Grace Collier (Jennifer Salt) is a hard hitting New York reporter stuck in a soft story newspaper, whose pieces have gotten her on the bad side of many, including the city police department. Always looking for a good story, the greatest of her career comes one day when she simply looks out her window and sees a bloodied man write “help” on the window of the adjacent apartment wing. Quick to action, Grace calls the police, but, by the time they arrive and enter the apartment of model and actress Danielle Blanchion (Margot Kidder), there are no signs of foul play present. When questioned, Danielle swears she has been alone, but, as Grace investigates the apartment, she is convinced that Danielle is harboring the real murderer, possibly, from certain clues found, her sister, though Danielle denies having one.
As the police close the case for complete lack of evidence, Grace keeps searching and soon her work pays off. It seems Danielle does have a sister, a twin, who, until last year, she was connected to at the hip. For Danielle and her sister Dominique are the famous Blanchion Siamese twins, who, in an amazing feat of medical science, were seperated from one another, making the pair, for the first time in their lives, independant individuals. Certain that Danielle’s sister is the muderer, Grace digs deeper and soon uncovers information so disturbing that it might just drive her to the edge of her very own sanity.
With “Sisters,” director Brian De Palma creates a world that contains voyeuristic elements at every turn, which are further enhanced by a shooting and editing style that pays great homage to the master of suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock. Throughout the film, characters always seem to be watching one another. Whether it’s Danielle’s ex-husband watching her from a distance, a hired private detective using binoculars to keep an eye on a crucial piece of evidence, or Grace’s own experience watching the bloodied murder victim from her apartment window, each have that same ”Peeping Tom” vibe we receive from watching Norman Bates peer at Marion Crane through a hole in “Psycho” or L. B. Jeffries watching his Greenwich Village neighbors go about their lives in “Rear Window.”
But, what De Palma does that gives his film that vibrant modern edge is flip the concept of voyurism on its head when Grace gains a chance to, quite literally, look into Danielle’s past and see the devastating connection she holds with her sister. With this concept, the film breaks new pychological ground and, while Hitchcock’s Norman and Mother Bates had their own special family connection, “Sisters” dives farther into the ideas of family attachment, both figurativly and literally and opened the door for even more extesential variations on this theme such as David Cronenberg’s “Dead Ringers.”
A film that works as both sensationalist suspense and a deep psychological study, “Sisters” entertains while promoting discussion on the ramifications of a sibling bond being tragically broken in two.
To learn more about “Sisters,” check out Criterion’s page here.
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