Dressed to Kill (1980)Movies

Dressed to KillFear of FlyingThe Responsive EyeDressed to Kill'sVertigoCruisingThe Wedding PartyGreetingsHiMom!SistersPhantom of the ParadiseUn Chant d'AmourNon-StopLa Ronde—Armond WhiteMovies Eyes meet. Glands swell. Hopes rise. The museum sequence of Brian De Palma’s 1980 Dressed to Kill is the moment the film first rises to greatness. It is also a superb dramatization of urban sexuality — especially, by-proxy gay sexuality. De Palma depicts an urban habit — cruising — that once defined gay life in New York City of sexual alertness and readiness. These prerogatives were liberated by the 1960s-'70s sexual revolution. The scene’s combination of lust, apprehension and opportunity idealized cruising as a particular social ritual of...