De Palma’s mastery of cinematic space bears itself out in the rush of a pre-credits set-up, which employs such CV-echoing tics as false sets, POV-tracking shots and (literally, in this case) masked and mistaken identities.
The glee with which he approaches the film’s central set-piece – a raid on an impenetrable vault – is at once a model of economy and the very explication of Hitchcock’s definition of cinematic tension.
Ethan Hunt
Tom Cruise Jim Phelps
Jon Voight Claire
Emmanuelle Béart Kittridge
Henry Czerny Krieger
Jean Reno Luther
Ving Rhames Sarah Davies
Kristin Scott Thomas Max
Vanessa Redgrave Hannah
Ingeborga Dapkunaite Kittridge Technician
Nathan Osgood CIA Analyst William Donloe
Rolf Saxon Matthias
Karel Dobrý
Director
Brian De Palma
Related Posts
Man With a Gun (1958) Nightclub owner Harry Drayson (John Le Mesurier) makes a £20,000 insurance claim after one of his premises is destroyed by…
English Patient, The (1996) Anthony Minghella‘s lavish adaptation of Michael Ondaatje’s Booker-winning novel was critically adored and showered in Oscars (although it provoked a…
Waiting for Guffman (1996) This film from Christopher Guest about a small-town theatre troupe struggling to put on a musical is as touching as…
Man Who Knew Too Much, The (1956) James Stewart plays an American doctor - on holiday in Morocco with his family - who accidentally learns of a…
Nixon (1996) This biographical drama from director Oliver Stone stars Anthony Hopkins as Richard Milhous Nixon. From a humble Quaker upbringing, Nixon…
Kingpin (1996) ‘You’re on a gravy train with biscuit wheels.’ Roy Munson (Woody Harrelson), the 1979 Odor Eaters Ten-Pin Bowling Champion, falls…
Phenomenon (1996) A strange light in the sky gives small-town mechanic George Malley (John Travolta) paranormal powers in this feel-good sci-fi fable…
McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force (1965) More adventures of some of the characters from the television series, although McHale himself is absent (Ernest Borgnine was off…
