greetings hi mom wedding party

While collaborations with director Martin Scorsese helped establish Robert De Niro's onscreen persona, his cinematic career began several years before Mean Streets and Taxi Driver ever hit screens. In fact, his early work with director Brian De Palma reveals an actor almost fully-developed from the very beginning, working with the same level of intensity and charismatic appeal. Simply put: the camera loves him. But in films like Greetings, Hi, Mom and The Wedding Party, De Palma's camera takes a far more scattershot approach than his later Hitchcock-inspired genre work.

For all it's improvised, counterculture posturing, Greetings (1968) is the most accessible and interesting of the bunch. Following a trio of draft-age young men through Greenwich Village as they attempt to avoid being sent to Vietnam, the fragmentary plot involves computer dating, the Kennedy conspiracy and - most recognizable to De Palma fans - voyeurism. Jon Rubin (De Niro) proposes a series of "peep art" exhibits, capturing private moments through the windows of neighboring buildings. And his audition of a potential "star," coaching her to remove her clothes on camera, is the film's most fascinating scene.

Even though co-star Gerrit Graham has a few good moments, the focus shifts almost exclusively to De Niro for the sequel Hi, Mom! (1970), where Jon Rubin returns from Vietnam to continue his voyeuristic obsessions, this time hooking up with a sleazy producer (Allen Garfield) who sees the pornography potential. However, Jon's life (and the film) takes a drastic shift into radicalization as he falls in the a left-wing theater group promoting the "Black Experience." From this point, De Palma's film becomes a POV political satire, using the TV documentary format to capture the events as they play out in real time.

Shot in 1963 but released between the aforementioned films, The Wedding Party (1969) is a coming-of-age farce set on a crowded mansion as the groom (Charles Pfluger) has second thoughts about the impending nuptials after meeting the bride's extended family. De Niro and actor William Finley (another De Palma regular) get lost in the ensemble, which feels almost like a nascent Woody Allen production, particularly with Jill Clayburgh's as the nervous bride, tittering about in Diane Keaton-style anxiousness. Again, the highlight of the film involves a sexual dalliance between Charlie and a scatterbrained relative who may not be quite as innocent as she appears.

While The Wedding Party is a curious outlier in De Palma's career (produced as a group project), Greetings and Hi, Mom! track a clear path towards his obsessions as a filmmaker; not only the voyeuristic tendencies used to construct his Hitchcockian thrillers, but the too-often subjugated satiric wit that springs from a culture at war with itself. De Niro is dangerous, unpredictable and often straight-up creepy, full of the quirks and mannerism audiences would take for granted a decade later (there's a lot of Travis Bickle on display here). But both actor and director are clearly working up to something big.

Arrow Video's 3-disc limited edition of De Palma & De Niro: The Early Films gives The Wedding Party, Greetings and Hi, Mom! newly restored 2K scans and the results are flat-out amazing to watch. Extras include a pair of interviews with co-writer / producer Charles Hirsch, commentary by author Glenn Kenny, a digital press book and collector's booklet with new writing on the films.