Brian De Palma has been growing better and better. Each time a new film of his opens, everything he has done before seems to have been preparation for it." In his review of "Femme Fatale", Roger Ebert wrote about the director: "De Palma deserves more honor as a director. Consider also these titles: "Sisters", "Blow Out", "The Fury", "Dressed to Kill", "Carrie", "Scarface", "Wise Guys", "Casualties of War", "Carlito's Way", "Mission: Impossible". Yes, there are a few failures along the way ("Snake Eyes", "Mission to Mars", "The Bonfire of the Vanities"), but look at the range here, and reflect that these movies contain
Brian De Palma providing the audience with a visceral and disturbingly emotional experience. De Palma describes the sequence as a constant invocation of Brechtian distanciation: "First of all, I am interested in the medium of film itself, and I am constantly standing outside and making people aware that they are always watching a film. At the same time I am evolving it. In "Hi, Mom!" for instance, there is a sequence where you are obviously watching a ridiculous documentary and you are told that and you are aware of it, but it still sucks you in. There is a kind of Brechtian alienation