Always had a film in production, never had any stretches without working. a couple years between movies toward the end, but still
― flappy bird, Sunday, 7 June 2020 00:26 (three years ago) link
I never much liked Five & Dime except for that moment where Cher viciously imitated Sandy Dennis
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 7 June 2020 01:41 (three years ago) link
watched Thieves Like Us. Like McCabe, it feels convincing for the period it represents but also like a film that could only have been made in the 70s
― Dan S, Monday, 8 June 2020 00:32 (three years ago) link
didn’t think it was nearly as great as McCabe & Mrs. Miller though
― Dan S, Monday, 8 June 2020 00:33 (three years ago) link
It's the one acclaimed film of his in his McCabe-Nashville run I never quite connected with. I've tried three or four times. (It's been a while since I saw the first two versions.)
― clemenza, Monday, 8 June 2020 00:39 (three years ago) link
I've been trying to remember them as young actors, so it was interesting watching Keith Carradine, Shelley Duvall and Louise Fletcher
― Dan S, Monday, 8 June 2020 00:47 (three years ago) link
John Schuck is freakin' scary in Thieves...
― "...And the Gods Socially Distanced" (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 8 June 2020 00:54 (three years ago) link
he was menacing. he also had a good role in M*A*S*H
― Dan S, Monday, 8 June 2020 01:04 (three years ago) link
I find the romanticism of McCabe corny and overdone, prefer Thieves.
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Monday, 8 June 2020 01:20 (three years ago) link
watched them again both and don't agree with that at all
― Dan S, Monday, 8 June 2020 02:08 (three years ago) link
I watched 'health' last night and it was hilarious
― plax (ico), Monday, 8 June 2020 10:58 (three years ago) link
challopsy, but Glenda Jackson yes
sort of a sketch-show Nashville
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Monday, 8 June 2020 11:47 (three years ago) link
Jackson is hilarious in it but really demonstrates why she was so difficult to cast. Bacall as Reagan was hilarious, Wikipedia says that he mentions it being the worst movie ever in his published diaries.
― plax (ico), Monday, 8 June 2020 13:29 (three years ago) link
I'm genuinely shocked that no one picked the astounding BREWSTER MCCLOUD.
anyway, here are 3 phenomenal Altman television rarities:
Killer App, a pilot from 1998 that was written by Garry Trudeau. It's like SILICON VALLEY 20 years earlier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fesJbkZjH84&disable_polymer=true
Rattlesnake in a Cooler: soliloquy produced for television in 1982-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8q-7LHEZ3Y
The Laundromat-incredible adaptation of Marsha Norman's play that was made for HBO in 1985---https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVB7dsuboQo&disable_polymer=true
― beamish13, Monday, 8 June 2020 21:51 (three years ago) link
Wow, thanks!!!
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 9 June 2020 01:39 (three years ago) link
Nightmare in Chicago remains the holy grail for me (lucky enough to have seen it once, on TV, 30-35 years ago). I check YouTube periodically, but nothing.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BzLS-J2wF58/V3VKr1iNuOI/AAAAAAAABdA/xU7-NGJjWPonV1HE_4avtEhNISNckFevgCKgB/s1600/Nightmare%2Bin%2BChicago%2B5.jpg
― clemenza, Tuesday, 9 June 2020 15:19 (three years ago) link
clemenza I have a link for that if u want it
― k*r*n koltrane (Simon H.), Tuesday, 9 June 2020 15:37 (three years ago) link
Wow--absolutely! I'm hoping you mean a file...I did find a DVD bootleg place that'd end up costing some ridiculous amount after postage and exchange.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 9 June 2020 15:39 (three years ago) link
(My user profile/homepage will take you to my e-mail address if you don't want to post it here.)
Yeah it's a file, 930mb so not amazing quality but probably watchable. I'll email ya
― k*r*n koltrane (Simon H.), Tuesday, 9 June 2020 15:40 (three years ago) link
The Holy Grail located; thank you, Simon.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 9 June 2020 16:02 (three years ago) link
beyond therapy or fool for love?
― flappy bird, Sunday, 28 June 2020 05:34 (three years ago) link
which one are you?
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 28 June 2020 12:10 (three years ago) link
I need to know which to rent today 😞xp Both 😭
― flappy bird, Sunday, 28 June 2020 15:56 (three years ago) link
when I first saw Nashville I thought Carradine's performance of "I'm Easy" and the simultaneous look around the bar was the culmination, and seeing again I still think so
― Dan S, Tuesday, 21 July 2020 00:28 (three years ago) link
“you may say that I ain’t free but it don’t worry me” from Nashville is prophetic
― Dan S, Tuesday, 21 July 2020 02:01 (three years ago) link
echoing my thoughts exactly, altho when I rewatched it in March (2 days after pandemic declared), the finale with Barbara Harris really hit hard. yes, exactly, that ending is just a perfect demonstration of America in miniature: a horrible, motiveless tragedy occurs, complete chaos for a few minutes, and then it's a singalong. Nothing ever changes, but throw those flowers into the crowd and tilt up to the cloudy, grey sky. CLOROX PRODUCTS! WITH RED DOTS ON 'EM! thats right
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 21 July 2020 05:35 (three years ago) link
For a heavy psychological drama (and despite its dysphoric 1970s score) 3 Women seemed almost light in a really appealing way until the end. It was very strange and unlike any other Altman film I’ve seen. Shelley Duvall won the Cannes best actress award for it but Sissy Spacek was equally amazing
― Dan S, Friday, 7 August 2020 00:11 (three years ago) link
I liked Altman’s comment about “empty vessels in an empty landscape”, and also the idea that the California desert represents "a space of death but also one of creation"
― Dan S, Friday, 7 August 2020 01:59 (three years ago) link
A Wedding was an interesting follow-up to Nashville and 3 Women
― Dan S, Sunday, 16 August 2020 00:37 (three years ago) link
marriage celebrations (and marriages) are messy and chaotic and relationships are often unequal, charged, and fraught with peril, but we can always decide to move ahead
― Dan S, Sunday, 16 August 2020 00:44 (three years ago) link
saw on the cast list that Joan Allen, John Malcovich, Laurie Metcalf, and Gary Sinise were extras, but the scenes were so complex that I didn’t even notice them
― Dan S, Sunday, 16 August 2020 01:06 (three years ago) link
*Malkovich
― Dan S, Sunday, 16 August 2020 01:13 (three years ago) link
I love that throwaway line, "You can get cancer from smoking pot?"
― flappy bird, Sunday, 16 August 2020 03:21 (three years ago) link
I only spotted Metcalf (I think)
― plax (ico), Sunday, 16 August 2020 14:12 (three years ago) link
Popeye is so broad and dumb, it's hard to believe this is the same director who made McCabe & Mrs. Miller and Nashville
― Dan S, Thursday, 17 September 2020 23:53 (three years ago) link
think his next film Come Back to the 5 & Dime will be better
― Dan S, Friday, 18 September 2020 00:04 (three years ago) link
Saw Popeye when it came out, immediately erased everything from my mind. Come Back I saw years after the fact--some positives, I think.
― clemenza, Friday, 18 September 2020 00:16 (three years ago) link
Come Back is too long but good
― flappy bird, Friday, 18 September 2020 04:22 (three years ago) link
revisited a couple of his movies yesterday.... Brewster McCloud, good lord, so bad... so much worse than I remember... just stupid and not funny and so boring...
but Nashville was even more of a masterpiece last night... there's that incredible match cut of the old man crying at the hospital after his wife's died right to Michael Murphy and Ned Beatty laughing in the club.
― flappy bird, Monday, 2 November 2020 18:13 (three years ago) link
I also think it's worth noting the final three shots: there's the zoom out from the stage, and then right as the lens is pulled completely back, there's a cut to one last shot of the crowd: two cops walking around wearing aviators. Cut back to the wide shot, tilt up to the gray sky. Maybe it's an arbitrary shot, but going back into the crowd after that relatively long zoom out to show two cops who look like they're looking for trouble, it feels absolutely intentional--a brief reminder of reality, that the dream is almost over
― flappy bird, Monday, 2 November 2020 18:15 (three years ago) link
Crisp description, flappy. Every time I wanna knock Nashville to a second tire I remember that match cut.
― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 2 November 2020 18:30 (three years ago) link
I still prefer Brewster McCloud to M*A*S*H*, but yeah--Nashville, McCabe and Mrs. Miller--he got better as the 70s went along.
― Langdon Alger Stole the Highlights (cryptosicko), Monday, 2 November 2020 18:32 (three years ago) link
Seeing Brewster McCloud at 18 and reading Robert Kolker's A Cinema of Loneliness (about the New American Cinema) was the first real spur to my becoming a cinephile, and conscious of auteurism and the role of a director. The film is completely chaotic and doesn't really have a centre other than Altman's whims, but I would rank it above such vote-getters in this poll as M*A*S*H, The Player and Short Cuts.
― Halfway there but for you, Monday, 2 November 2020 20:31 (three years ago) link
Paul Schrader, on Facebook today:
3 WOMEN. Several FB friends have been harrumphing for years about the greatness of Altman's 1977 film to the extent I felt psychologically arm twisted to watch it again. Which I just did. I disliked it when it came out, I disliked it ever more on belated viewing. The corona of condescension, superficiality and self importance which exudes from Altman and his films like a marijuana haze is in full display. And that score? Could it be the worst serious score ever? Nice prod design, though.
― On average, this critic grades 8.3 points lower than other critics (Eric H.), Monday, 2 November 2020 21:00 (three years ago) link
classic schrade shade
― it bangs for thee (Simon H.), Monday, 2 November 2020 21:24 (three years ago) link
there's a cut to one last shot of the crowd: two cops walking around wearing aviators.
Is one of them the female cop? I think she gets the frame to herself.
― clemenza, Monday, 2 November 2020 23:37 (three years ago) link
Seeing Brewster McCloud at 18 and reading Robert Kolker's A Cinema of Loneliness (about the New American Cinema) was the first real spur to my becoming a cinephile
Me too, although I'd swap a few dozen films in for BM (which I didn't see for years and didn't like). Excellent book
― clemenza, Monday, 2 November 2020 23:38 (three years ago) link
I should say Brewster is only bad relatively imo, it has plenty going for it. Watching it with a couple other people, and none of us laughed... well, it looked good as most Altman movies do, and there's great stuff here and there. I should say that if I found more of the leads attractive it would work. Bud Cort is too close to the 2001 baby for me to get interested, much less excited.
That Paul Schrader writeup is INSANE. Hilarious, his opinion can only be taken so seriously since he was a competitor with Altman at the time. All one has to do is counter with is Cat People.
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 3 November 2020 05:32 (three years ago) link
Schrader bagging on another filmmaker for "self importance" is pretty rich
― turn the jawhatthefuckever on (One Eye Open), Tuesday, 3 November 2020 13:01 (three years ago) link