Сестры: Психологический триллер Брайана Де Пальмы

1972 film by Brian De Palma
the 1972 film directed by Brian de Palma

Sisters (released as Blood Sisters in the United Kingdom) is a 1972 American psychological horror film directed by Brian De Palma and starring Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt, and Charles Durning. It follows a French Canadian model's separated conjoined twin who is suspected of having committed a brutal murder witnessed by a newspaper reporter in Staten Island, New York City. Co written by De Palma and Louisa Rose, the screenplay for the film was inspired by the Soviet conjoined twins Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapova and features narrative and visual references to several films by Alfred Hitchcock. Filmed on location in Staten Island, the film prominently features split screen compositions (also present in subsequent De Palma films such as Carrie), and was scored by frequent Hitchcock collaborator Bernard Herrmann. Released in the spring of 1973, Sisters received praise from critics who noted its adept performances and use of homage. It marked the first thriller for De Palma, who followed it with other shocking thrillers, and went on to become a cult film in the years after its release. as well as long tracking shots, some in excess of six minutes in length. The extended tracking shot in Danielle's apartment following the murder of Phillip was influenced by Max Ophüls and directly references Hitchcock's Rope. The theme of voyeurism is represented in the alternating points of view and distortions of perspective within the narrative diegesis; De Palma commented: "I really got the idea from watching the Vietnam war on television watching a war that nobody really knew about except that we watched it every night on the 7 o'clock news. It was really a very voyeuristic war, and I think it says a lot about the way we perceive things. We are very much controlled by the media which present things to us. And those can be manipulated." In order to accomplish the image of both twins conjoined onscreen in the film's finale (both played by Kidder), De Palma had Kidder photographed seated in two different positions, and then joined the images together via optical editing.

While editing the film in post production, editor Paul Hirsch and De Palma listened to musical scores by Bernard Herrmann (particularly for Psycho, Marnie, and Vertigo) and played them along with the film's key scenes. This led to De Palma inquiring about Herrmann composing the film's musical score. At the time Herrmann was semi retired, but admired the screenplay enough to agree to score the film.

Sisters had its world premiere at Filmex in Los Angeles, California on November 18, 1972. It would later expand, opening in New York City on September 26, 1973, It was also selected for the 1975 Venice Film Festival.

The film was met with critical praise; Roger Ebert noted that the film was "made more or less consciously as an homage to Alfred Hitchcock", but said it "has a life of its own" and praised the performances of both Kidder and Salt. Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it " a good, substantial horror film" and stated "De Palma reveals himself here to be a first rate director of more or less conventional material", also noting the film's references to Repulsion (1965) and Psycho (1960). Meanwhile, Variety, while stating it was "a good psychological murder melo drama", said that "Brian De Palma's direction emphasizes exploitation values which do not fully mask script weakness." The Los Angeles Timess Kevin Thomas praised it as a "witty homage to Hitchcock" and a "low budget but high style scare show," as well as praising the performances and musical score. George McKinnon of The Boston Globe was less laudatory, writing: "It is difficult to determine what De Palma had in mind in this morbid horror film. Did he intend it all as a parody or a straightforward Psycho type movie? If it is to be taken as a tongue in cheek romp, it doesn't work and if meant as a horror film it is run of the mill." The film received honors from the U. S. Film Festival in Dallas, Texas on April 13, 1973. Kidder also received an award for Best Actress at the Atlanta International Film Festival.

Critical reassessment of the film in the 21st century has largely been favorable, with critic Robin Wood writing in 2003 that Sisters was "one of the great American films of '70s," while G. Allen Johnson of the San Francisco Chronicle considers it a key film in Kidder's career. Richard Brody wrote of the film in The New Yorker in 2016: De Palma weaves his own obsession with movies into the dramatic fabric of Sisters by means of a scene involving a documentary about the twins that Grace views in the offices of Life magazine; this film within a film becomes embedded in her unconscious mind and threatens to warp her consciousness as well. Though De Palma's own images can't rival Hitchcock's in shot by shot psychological power, the intricate multiple perspective split screen sequences of Sisters offer a dense and elaborate counterpoint that conjures a sense of psychological dislocation and information overload belonging to De Palma's own generation and times. In 2016, Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times ranked the film as De Palma's most underrated of the 1970s, writing that "for all its low budget creakiness, [it] feels fully formed—from its sly opening bit of misdirection to its adroit use of split screen to its memorably churning Bernard Herrmann score. De Palma's choice of subject matter couldn't have been more appropriate: With this film he effectively conjoined himself to Hitchcock, announcing himself as a skillful mimic with a mischievous side all his own." Sisters currently has an 85% on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes from 47 reviews with the site's consensus reads, "Clever yet clearly indebted to the masters of the genre, Sisters offers an early glimpse of DePalma at his stylishly crafty peak".

Sisters was released on VHS and Betamax videocassettes by Warner Home Video in the 1980s, and again in 2000 by Homevision. The film was released on DVD by The Criterion Collection on October 3, 2000 in a new widescreen digital transfer. On July 16, 2018, Criterion announced a Blu ray release of the film featuring a new 4K transfer scheduled for October 23, 2018.

The film was remade in 2006 under the same title, with Lou Doillon, Stephen Rea, and Chloë Sevigny in the leading roles.