Sisters was partly inspired by an article Brian De Palma saw in Life magazine about a pair of Russian Siamese twins named Dasha and Masha. According to the director, "apart from the fact that they were joined at the hip both girls were physiologically normal, but as they were getting older they were developing psychological problems. One of the twins had a very surly, disturbing look on her face and the other looked perfectly healthy and smiling. And this strong visual image started the whole idea off in my mind."

The budget for the film was estimated to be approximately $500,000. "I got it financed independently," De Palma stated. "It took me a long time, and it was very difficult and I don't recommend it to anybody. We started with $200,000 and the producer just kept going out and raising more money until we ended up with a half million cash. But that was as far as he could go."

Allegedly, producer Ray Stark originally purchased Sisters as a project for Raquel Welch. De Palma commented on this, stating, "He suggested her to me, once. He bought it because he wanted to make a film with me, and he liked the material. I also wrote Phantom of the Paradise (1974) for him at that time, but we could never agree on the script so I had to buy it back."

The opening scene in Sisters - a live situation broadcast on the TV series, "The Peeping Tom Show" - was derived from the popular "Candid Camera" television show.

De Palma rehearsed Sisters for a month before he began filming. The director stated "I always rehearse material to make sure it works before I think about how I'm going to shoot it. If the story works, the dramatic flow works, then you can think about implementing visual conceptions."

One of the most ambitious scenes in Sisters and one which De Palma eventually had to delete from the final version was an elaborate tracking shot during the murder investigation of Danielle's apartment in which you can see the blood of the victim's body oozing through the bottom of the couch. "The whole search scene is a Max Ophuls-type tracking shot about 6 minutes long, and while they are searching through the apartment the camera keeps coming back to the couch and the spot is getting bigger and bigger and bigger," De Palma recalled. "I shot it, but because the camera could only get down so low and still go up high enough to shoot the rest of the scene we couldn't get down to the bottom of the couch and when we saw the rushes it looked ridiculous because it looked like the guy was bleeding up through the arm of the couch. So I had to throw out the whole tracking shot, and I was forced to use close-ups and television-type coverage."

One of the special effects in Sisters featured Margot Kidder as Siamese twins sitting next to each other. "We photographed Margot," De Palma revealed, "as she sat once in the chair and made a mark and photographed one side of the screen, and then we moved her over and photographed on the other side of the screen and made another mark for where we placed her in the frame, and then the optical house joined them together so that she was one piece, just like a Siamese twin. That same sort of thing was done a long time ago in old Bette Davis movies [A Stolen Life, 1946, Dead Ringer, 1964], so it's nothing new; but it's never been done before with a Siamese twin."

Sisters was shot in 35mm with some segments filmed on 16mm for stylistic reasons. De Palma said, "I used 16mm to photograph the doctor when he is talking directly to the camera during the hypnosis scene. I operated the camera myself there because he was looking directly into the camera and there was no other way to see how he was playing it. Also, the first dream, where they are going through the clinic with all the freaks, was shot in 16mm. I happen to like grain if you can use if properly...But you have got to put it in the right place so that it doesn't look like a tawdry 16mm exploitation picture. However in this film I was looking for a classical Hitchcock-type look, and when you spend that much time on sets and lighting you have to use Panavision lenses and the sharpest photography you can get - and it's not feasible on 16mm."

According to De Palma, Sisters was shot over an eight-week period. "We used a Mitchell NC with Panavision lenses, an Eclair for the 16mm, and an Arri and two Mitchells for some of the double shots. The film was shot entirely on location on Staten Island except for the stuff on the apartment set and at the Time-Life building. The film was very tightly shot. Our shooting ratio was 8 to 1, and only a couple of scenes were re-shot and only one scene was dropped. Each scene was preconceived and carefully planned out. The film was very carefully lit in a truly classical style...The cameraman sometimes took as long as 45 minutes to light closeups, which is especially rare in a low-budget movie, but it makes a big difference because the girls looked good!"

De Palma's use of split-screens in Sisters was not a new technique in 1972 (it had been used before in films such as Grand Prix [1966] and Woodstock [1970]) but it enhanced the voyeuristic aspects of the film. "The multiple split-screens were done with set-ups," De Palma said. "For instance, in the elevator-hallway sequence we used three set-ups: a pan at the window, one coming around the doorway when they come out of the elevator and the Doctor is hiding in the back, and the two people at the door (when the detective comes in she opens the door and you see it from both sides)."

There are several scenes in Sisters where De Palma makes the audience aware that they are watching a movie. "The opening scene is one example," De Palma points out. "The audience thinks they are voyeuristically watching people in a bath house, but then they are suddenly made aware that those people are on a television show and they are watching a television screen. It is also a very unique way of introducing characters, because instead of having them meet on the street and say, "Hi, let's go have a drink together," suddenly you have set up the whole image of the movie: the audience as voyeur which then transforms into what is essentially the character of Grace Collier who sees the murder. And it ends with the detective watching the couch with binoculars, so there is a voyeuristic image at the beginning and at the end."

The idea to use composer Bernard Herrmann to create the music score for Sisters is credited to Paul Hirsch, the film's editor. Hirsch used Herrmann's music for Psycho (1960), Marnie (1964) and other Hitchcock films as an accompaniment while assembling the rough footage and its disturbing quality convinced De Palma to go directly to the source.

De Palma found out soon enough that working with Herrmann, a known perfectionist with a difficult temperament, was no picnic. "I wanted to start the movie with just white credits over the first scene as Danielle/Dominique is getting undressed," recalled De Palma. "That was the first cue I discussed with Herrmann, and he said, "That's TERRIBLE!" (And he talks in a very gruff, deliberate way.) So I said, "What's wrong with it?" And he said, "Nothing happens in this movie for forty minutes!" And I said, "Yes, that's the idea. There is a slow beginning - you know, like Psycho, where the murder doesn't happen until about 40 minutes into the picture." And he shouted at me, "YOU are not Hitchcock; for Hitchcock they will WAIT!" And that is of course very true. Because it's a Hitchcock movie you KNOW something is going to happen."

Sources:
The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film
Brian De Palma: Interviews, ed. by Laurence C. Knapp
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind
Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan..and Beyond by Robin Wood
www.briandepalma.net
filmforce.ign.com
film.guardian.co.uk
www.geraldpeary.com/interviews
Cinefantastique Magazine

Compiled by Jeff Stafford