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
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
otm, altho it’s murphy and geraldine chaplin, not beatty— the most evil char and the dumbest char. you can work out that what they’re laughing at is barbara baxley’s kennedy monologue. chaplin says the assassination’s her fault for owning a gun. lol
― difficult listening hour, Tuesday, 3 November 2020 20:07 (three years ago) link
Whoa! Great catch
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 3 November 2020 23:12 (three years ago) link
(the monologue happens earlier to be clear but p sure opal from the bbc has just been telling advance man tripple about it when we cut to them in that moment.)
whole last scene is such a symphony. otm about the ominous dissonance of that cut into the angelus-novus-pov pullback. oh, man, i can’t stop that blood, man!
― difficult listening hour, Tuesday, 3 November 2020 23:23 (three years ago) link
lmao. Somebody sing.. SING!
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 4 November 2020 06:42 (three years ago) link
I've been filling in the Altman I haven't seen yet and I got to O.C. & Stiggs and holy shit it's bad. Like hateful terrible bad. What the hell?
Thieves Like Us has been the big why-didn't-i-watch-this-sooner surprise. Keith Carradine & Shelley Duvall should have played Tom Verlaine & Patti Smith.
― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 5 November 2020 01:03 (three years ago) link
saw Streamers the other night, I liked it more than the other 80s stuff of his I've seen recently
― Dan S, Thursday, 5 November 2020 01:06 (three years ago) link
but it did have that 'stage play turned into a movie' quality, like Come Back To the 5 & Dime and Secret Honor
― Dan S, Thursday, 5 November 2020 01:13 (three years ago) link
Found this the other day, uploaded only 2 months ago, short making of on California Split
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDgCM-V41_A
Altman's hat is awesome
― flappy bird, Friday, 13 November 2020 19:23 (three years ago) link
Vincent and Theo as a film adapted from a miniseries didn't have to be as long as it was, but I liked it
― Dan S, Sunday, 15 November 2020 02:31 (three years ago) link
Saw 5&dime for the first time last month and I kinda loved it. It’s very ‘for hire’ even if he did the OG play but as a bottle movie is really moves
― Its big ball chunky time (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Sunday, 15 November 2020 04:50 (three years ago) link
The Player and Short Cuts seem like a comeback for Altman after his non-commercial play-based films of the 80s
I was wondering about Short Cuts as I hadn’t seen it again since it came out. The missed connections between the characters and the earnestness of their trying to connect made the film for me, even if it didn't all come together
― Dan S, Wednesday, 16 December 2020 01:12 (three years ago) link
short cuts is my favorite altman even though, yeah, it doesn't quite all come together. i rewatched the player recently and it remains an excellent movie.
― visiting, Wednesday, 16 December 2020 01:18 (three years ago) link
I think they're both pretty great--took me two or three times with The Player, Short Cuts right away.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 16 December 2020 01:39 (three years ago) link
My favourite latter-day Altman is Gosford Park; I found The Player really smug, and Short Cuts was laying on irony with a trowel. I haven't seen anything else post-87, in fact I get a strong aversion when scanning those titles because I remember not wanting to see them when they first came out.
― Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, 16 December 2020 02:53 (three years ago) link
He hit the trifecta on the way out imo (Gosford, The Company, Prairie Home Companion). I'm planning to watch all three over the winter.
― You will notice a small sink where your sofa once was. (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 16 December 2020 03:53 (three years ago) link
I’ve never been quite as big on Gosford as most, but I did rewatch it in the last year and it’s had to argue against it being in the upper tiers of Altman’s career.
― On average, this critic grades 8.3 points lower than other critics (Eric H.), Wednesday, 16 December 2020 04:24 (three years ago) link
Watch remains of the day wings of a dove and room with a view THEN watch gosford and its like a coens movie
― Its big ball chunky time (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Wednesday, 16 December 2020 05:19 (three years ago) link
Kansas City was ok. I wasn’t that interested in the plot but I really loved the big band concert with the sword-fighting saxophones about an hour in
― Dan S, Sunday, 27 December 2020 01:05 (three years ago) link
it has its moments. probably should revisit once I read that 2010 Altman oral history that went out of print. (it's really long--at least 150 pages before it gets to the 1970s)
watched The James Dean Story recently and man is it good. Some wack interview photography but at 80 minutes it zips along using mostly photos and voiceover and film clips and newsreels. It really felt like Jimmy Dean Mon Amour, but 2 years before the fact!
― flappy bird, Sunday, 27 December 2020 05:14 (three years ago) link
Watched Rich Kids, which he produced in 1979, for the second time last night, and it's marvellous. Strong proto-Baumbach vibes, down to the new york yuppie interiors, but a really sweet movie about kids growing up within divorce that is absolutely bewitching. Recommend me more movies like this, anyone who knows of any.
― Change Display Name: (stevie), Sunday, 27 December 2020 21:09 (three years ago) link
sounds like Paul Mazursky
― flappy bird, Sunday, 27 December 2020 22:14 (three years ago) link
I rarely feel compelled to go off on a film. I try to avoid stuff I don't think I'll like; I know I end up missing films I would like because of that, but with films I'm the guy who wants to let 100 guilty people go free rather than convict one innocent person. (If that analogy even works.)
God, I hated Prêt-à-Porter. I saw it when it came out, hated it then, assumed that would be tempered by 20 years and lowered expectations, possibly hated it even more today. Took me almost a week of how-much-can-I-stand? to get through it. Anouk Aimée, Julia Roberts, Tim Robbins, and maybe a couple of others managed to keep their dignity. At least two throwbacks to previous Altman films: Sally Kellerman humiliated like in MASH, Danny Aiello as Bert Remsen in California Split--like those jokes would improve with age. Very glad he got to make a few more films and go out on A Prairie Home Companion rather than this.
― clemenza, Friday, 5 February 2021 06:04 (three years ago) link
I was 17 when this came out and I rented it on VHS. I had seen and enjoyed The Player and Short Cuts and a few of the Altman classics so I was receptive. I recall it being one of the worst movies I had ever seen up to that point. Am I remembering correctly that characters kept stepping in dog poop every few minutes and that was supposed to be really funny? Maybe it's still one of the worst films I've seen! I'll never rewatch it to find out, though.
I haven't tried many of the reputed 80s stinkers but among them, HealtH is more enjoyable than this.
― Hans Holbein (Chinchilla Volapük), Friday, 5 February 2021 07:23 (three years ago) link
I was thinking about him the other day. I think 3 Women, California Split and The Long Goodbye are nigh (heh-heh) unimpeachable. Granted, McCabe is impressive in a stunt-filmmaking Herzog kinda way, and is good/great but I think is (affects cineaste voice) ultimately overrated, as is Nashville. And I love leonard cohen and country music! And america! And maybe even canada
Thieves Like Us is very good, but too depressing on balance for me to re-visit. It... could use more cohen brothers style levity. Which, it has some of, but not in large enough doeses to offset the overall subj matter and narrative. Brewster McCloud is great, if a tad too light, farcical.
His best films do life in just the right measure. Damn, california split is so good, tho it undoubtedly fails every variation of the bechdel test ever. But... i am not a big film person -- music has much more of a lasting impact on me. Even novelty songs about valley girls. But CS is one of those films that I couldn't stop thinking about for a long time after I watch(ed) it. The whole gambling thing is obv very fruitful metaphor on its own, w long long legs, but add in male friendships and i guess relationships in general, and damn. The ending is at once depressing, triumphant, and transcendent. There's a lot of ground covered there.
― dell (del), Friday, 5 February 2021 07:33 (three years ago) link