BRIAN DE PALMA - DE PALMA DEFENDS MOVIE VIOLENCE

DE PALMA DEFENDS MOVIE VIOLENCE

Veteran director BRIAN DE PALMA has hit back at critics who claim his movies feature too much violence. THE BLACK DAHLIA film-maker insists audiences have wrongly come to expect extreme violence from his films ever since 1983 AL PACINO hit SCARFACE, in which one character has his head split open with a chainsaw. But De Palma is adamant the scene was vital to Scarface's "shock factor", and was in no way gratuitous. He says, "I know where this comes from. It's because I'm the guy who directed Scarface. That image of me isn't accurate. "I like to use violence in a symphonic way. I don't use too many images of brutality, but the ones I do use have to be strong - to jolt the audience. You have to be quiet before you get loud. "Sure, there's violence at the heart of this (The Black Dahlia) story, but that's because it's a notorious murder case, surrounded in mystery."