Robert Altman

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“I Don’t Know If I Can Pull This Off. I’m Exhausted.”

November 10, 2013 in Excerpts, Film | Permalink

My 4 favorite Robert Altman films:

  • 3 Women
  • California Split
  • Nashville
  • McCabe and Mrs. Miller

My least favorite Altman film:

  • Quintet

Somewhere in between these extremes is Short Cuts, which is certainly an accomplished work but bothered me because I thought it used Raymond Carver’s deeply humane stories in a cruel way. But I have almost infinite love and forgiveness for Altman, who risked all in the name of art, willing to take the bruises when he fell flat. He’s recognized as one of the greatest directors ever, yet he oddly feels underrated. I have no interest in comic-book movies and I miss his work dearly–films made by an adult for other adults.

It’s the twentieth anniversary of Short Cuts and Mike Kaplan, who was an Associate Producer on that film, has made a documentary about the experience, Luck,Trust and Ketchup. From an article Kaplan wrote about the movie for the Hollywood Reporter:

“Bob and I began walking down what seemed to be a mile of maroon corridors in the Red Lion Inn, heading towards his room. ‘How are the portraits coming?’ he asked. 

Don had already completed Andie McDowell, Bruce Davison, Lily Tomlin, Frances McDormand, Peter Gallagher, Julianne Moore, Matthew Modine and Lyle Lovett and we’d have images to show him in a few days.

We talked in shorthand.

Then his voice changed — without skipping a beat in his gait. 

‘I have no idea what I’m going to shoot tomorrow,’ he announced. 

We were at his room.

He opened the door and began undressing. 

‘I don’t know if I can pull this off. I’m exhausted.’

He climbed into bed in his undershorts. 

I said something innocuous like I’m certain it will work out — worried at never hearing this tone before, Bob always the master of assurance when it came to filming.

He pulled up the covers, deep in a maze of thought, then closed his eyes.

‘Turn off the lights as you leave,’ he said.”•

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Classic DVD: Thieves Like Us (1974)

October 18, 2010 in Film | Permalink

It's hard to imagine 1970's American cinema without Shelley Duvall and Louise Fletcher.

Often unfairly consigned to the middle or back of the Robert Altman catalog, Thieves Like Us is a stellar Depression Era drama that’s low-key, atmospheric and sometimes funny, even if it lacks many of the director’s trademark touches. There’s no ceaseless patter or cross-cutting plots, but the relatively straightforward film is undeniably rich.

T-Dub (Bert Remsen), Chickamaw (John Shuck) and Bowie (Keith Carradine) are a trio of cons who form a Deep South crime spree during the 1930s. The guys might not have any money in the bank, but they don’t mind helping themselves–at the point of a gun–to whatever happens to be lying around in the vault. But these aren’t men with merely crime on their mind–they’re also lovers. The youngest con, Bowie, for instance, finds romance with a strange girl (Shelley Duvall) who chain-smokes cigarettes and inhales Coca-Cola. Just as Bowie considers getting out of a life of crime, he may not have that option. As their infamy grows and the fellows become sloppy, it’s just a matter of time until they’ve made their final withdrawal.

Thieves Like Us manages to be very much a film of it’s time, with great supporting turns by ’70s stalwarts like Duvall and Louise Fletcher, as well as a film with an authentic feel for the era in which it’s set. But like the best of Altman, ultimately, the movie feels timeless, like a wave of ideas and emotions that exists in a realm all its own. (Available from Netflix and other outlets.)

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Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: 3 Women (1977)

April 1, 2010 in Film | Permalink

Spacek and Duvall are drawn together in the desert.

This incredibly odd 1977 film is a surreal masterpiece that Luis Buñuel would have been proud to call his own. Torn from Robert Altman’s dreams and set in the California desert, 3 Women is the discombobulating story of a girl named Pinky (Sissy Spacek) who goes to work in a nursing home and becomes very attached to fellow nurse Millie (Shelley Duvall). The story of the relationship is a tortured one, filled with paranoia, accusation and obsession, which slowly melts into a brilliant reveal.

It’s impossible to stress the degree of difficulty that Altman assumed in creating a feature-length film that operates with the eccentricities of the dream stage. He was capable of aiming high and falling into the abyss; Quintet may be the worst movie ever made by a genius-level director. But 3 Women is a masterwork unlike anything else Altman ever directed. (Available for rent on Netfilx and other outlets.)

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