Mal ,'Shindig'
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
Winterbottom is Altman's true heir
Interesting. I really must get around to reading that issue. My biggest problem is that I hate reading lengthy pieces on-line, and there isn't really a good option with THH for printing (though I did slog through the Peckinpah articles using cut & paste one day when I had nothing to do at work).
I'm also a big Popeye fan. But I'm one of the few people who's actually read some of the original Segar Thimble Theater strips and owns the Fleischer animated Popeyes too. I appreciated the fidelity to both of those visions you get from Feiffer's script, but also the originality of Altman's vision. Plus Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl. "He needs me / he needs me / he needs me / he needs me / he needs Meeeeee!"
The Long Goodbye is one of my favorites too. Sterling Hayden! Jim Bouton! That ending. That coke bottle.
Hmmm, I've got McCabe on the TiVo right now...
1. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (possibly my favorite film of all time)
2. Gosford Park (Gets better on repeated viewings)
3. MASH (not only a great fim, a great influence in attitude and technique)
4. The Player (Just saw it recently--it holds up beautifully)
5. Nashville (amazing cast, so many of whom step way out of their comfort zones)
Oh, and Long Goodbye.
The Long Goodbye is one of my favorites too.
Hec and I are sharing a brain again. I need to see McCABE (and CALIFORNIA SPLIT and NASHVILLE) again (and THIEVES LIKE US period), but as of right now, THE LONG GOODBYE is my favorite Altman. Heh, given how much Elliot Gould mutters and asides, it was practically a dry run for POPEYE.
POPEYE is a flawed film. In his script, Jules Feifer was writing E.C. Segar's Thimble Theater comic strip, while Altman was attempting to film a Max Fleisher cartoon. The differences between the comic and the cartoon are too great that it could ever work.
The Fleisher cartoons, BTW, are a big influence on Altman's style of overlapping dialog, which is probably took on the project to begin with.
Hec and I are sharing a brain again
I didn't even mention how much I like Rudolph's Choose Me.
Hec's been stealing my brain, too.
I LOVE Choose Me. I assigned it to one of my screenwriting classes, and it got incredibly strong reactions. People either loved it or loathed it. One of my students almost quit the class, he was so furious that I would assign such a film.
I didn't even mention how much I like Rudolph's Choose Me.
Proof that Leslie Ann Warren could have been another Susan Sarandon if she'd gotten the right roles (I always thought they looked a bit alike anyway), among other revelations.
People either loved it or loathed it.
I kind of get that since Rudolph's other movies are so incredibly mannered. I thought I'd like Trouble in Mind, but didn't really. But the script is so tight and surprising on Choose Me and the performances are great. Damn, Keith Carradine's character is interesting. The slow series of reveals about him is just awesome storytelling.