My Altman Vacation Ends

Over a week and 13 films. Here are some thoughts:

1. Altman is an artist.
2. He is a quintessential American artist.
3. Mia Farrow is powerfully miscast in A Wedding.
4. Altman made bona fide masterpieces in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and the first decade of the new millennium.
5. These blogs were an experiment for myself about an experimental artist.
6. Lists suck; as do some of these blog entries. However, there are some that I'm quite proud of.
7. Seven is a good number to stop.

A Perfect Couple (1979)

Dooley and Heflin are decent peeps. They're normal peeps. It's easy to want them to be together.

This, the last Altman film of the 70s, is more about the music. It's dated and it took me out of it. Easily the most commercial and traditional film of 70s Altman.

I would have been four this year and more than likely have been running around outside. I wanted to be doing that while I watched this film. Not a bad film and not a fair mood to be in while watching it. Easily the most forgettable of an unforgettable decade of cinema.

Quintet (1979)

Part of me or perhaps a lot of me has a profound dislike for logical and deductive reasoning. I rely upon it for the majority of the day. Language should be so freeing and discursive.

Quintet is a game. Its rules are never formally announced in the film. I ain't going to ask Sartre for a ruling neither. Vivia, Brigitte Fossey, and Ambrosia, Bibi Andersson, are wonderful characters and both actresses give wonderful performances.

This futuristic film feels set on a film set and looks like it. Even the snow feels artificial. Some beautiful quiet and vulnerable moments, mostly with Newman with Fossey and Andersson.

One film left in the vacation.

A Wedding (1978)

This film is the progeny of M.A.S.H. "Dairy Queen. Sound's perfect."

This is a film where the sane people are doped up which makes them crazy. It is also the film where shouting "don't panic" gets everyone into a panic.

Irony abounds. It's also a film where the filmmaker and the audience are on the outside looking in.

3 Women (1977)

A long, long time ago (1977) in a galaxy (California "which sure does look a lot like Texas") far, far away, there were three women: Pinky, Millie, and Willie.

This is the film I had in mind when I wanted to start blogging about cinema. I don't know what the future holds for the digital age of cinema. I have to admit I absolutely love softly- lit films. There's a certain lack of literal focus to the image, and the light hits everything in a wonderfully blended and blurred way.

I had no idea how little Sissy Spacek is; or maybe, Shelley Duvall is quite tall. No matter. Spacek has beautiful golden hair in this one. The painted murals in the pool are amazing against the backdrop of the desert. I love all of the images in the film of Janice Rule.

The score is something else; it's a mix of dark tones with whistles. See it...at least three times.

Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976)

Included as a supplement on the DVD is the original featurette, made by the studio, which lets potential moviegoers in the know. There are scenes of the film's star, Paul Newman, walking around with a cup of coffee in one hand and his script in the other. There are shots of the director, Robert Altman, directing the film's star in the film's final scene.

Sitting Bull is Buffalo Bill's newest diva. He competes only with Buffalo Bill for top billing and biggest ego. Annie Oakley's a star, as well, and from time to time, she lets everyone know that.

A film which is a curiosity at its inception is still a curiosity and an oddity, today. Absent are any Altman quiet moments, which I've grown accustomed to during this vacation. There is perhaps one, but it's lost on me. The scene comes off as a character, an aging star, having a bout of morning DTs. Little resonance beyond that.

This is a film more looked at than watched.

Nashville (1975)

The year of my birth. The preceding year, Nixon resigned, and the following year was an election year. I was born in Georgia and I remember my parents having a crazy amount of Carter buttons in junk drawers around the house. 1976 marked a special occasion for the United States of America.

I went to Opryland once as a child on a vacation and I don't remember it. However, I would probably remember all of the events of this film over the course of a couple days, regardless of my age.

I watched this film with English subtitles. I wanted to read the lyrics of all the songs. The subtitles were probably hell in the making for the person making them. However, almost every audible piece of language is transcribed. The subtitles do not distract from the images. I have no idea how Altman would have felt about subtitles for his film.

The actresses really standout in this one, all of them. Lily Tomlin, Karen Black, and Ronee Blakley standout amongst them. This is a wonderfully dated film which perfectly dates the period in which it was made.