I got your note about this post a while ago. I saw both films and a few of Altman's earlier films. I'm trying to process those films and organize my thoughts before I read your specific comments about the films. Sorry, I didn't respond sooner Hopefully, I'll read your analysis soon.
Loved Images (when I saw it as a teenager), then a couple more times as an adult. Ambiguous -- not really knowing if she is crazy or the men in her life are plotting to drive her crazy? She had some pretty awful men in her life..... Thanks for the review. My husband's favorite Altman film is Short Cuts (he also admires Carver a lot)!
Great post! I keep coming back to McCabe & Mrs. Miller, both on its own merits, and also as part of different projects. For a class I did on film noir, as well as a film club series I organized for friends, I talked about the noirish overtones of the film. For an upcoming class and film club on Westerns, I’ll be discussing it as a modern, revisionist Western. Your post really nails what’s special about the film.
I’ve always thought that Dylan’s “Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts” could make a good movie. Maybe not the Old, Weird West (when were jackhammers invented?), but close enough.
And, re: the concept of worldbuilding, it's a movie that just presents a community of characters in the background, letting the viewer take it in without ever really explaining things.
Images for me is sabotaged by the decision to shoot at 60fps, which robs it of filmic magic. love the children's story tho. Julie Christie and Altman have bit parts in Robert Wyatt's biography, I wasn't expecting that but she's on the 2nd Matching Mole LP.
To answer your question, the obvious name is Jean Renoir; Gosford Park is a pseudo-spiritual sequel to La regle due jeu.
As for Altman's influences, he cited Hawks & Huston from Old Hollywood and Fellini, Kurosawa and Bergman from midcentury arthouse as his major influences.
I'm a big fan of The Band. Strange and a bit sad to know that they're all dead now.
Hi Robert,
I got your note about this post a while ago. I saw both films and a few of Altman's earlier films. I'm trying to process those films and organize my thoughts before I read your specific comments about the films. Sorry, I didn't respond sooner Hopefully, I'll read your analysis soon.
Brilliant work - love the detail in the appendix as well!
Thanks so much.
Loved Images (when I saw it as a teenager), then a couple more times as an adult. Ambiguous -- not really knowing if she is crazy or the men in her life are plotting to drive her crazy? She had some pretty awful men in her life..... Thanks for the review. My husband's favorite Altman film is Short Cuts (he also admires Carver a lot)!
Another great post. We have done Images as a HookWatch and it's a solid gothic movie more than a horror film.
Great post! I keep coming back to McCabe & Mrs. Miller, both on its own merits, and also as part of different projects. For a class I did on film noir, as well as a film club series I organized for friends, I talked about the noirish overtones of the film. For an upcoming class and film club on Westerns, I’ll be discussing it as a modern, revisionist Western. Your post really nails what’s special about the film.
I’ve always thought that Dylan’s “Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts” could make a good movie. Maybe not the Old, Weird West (when were jackhammers invented?), but close enough.
Yes.
And, re: the concept of worldbuilding, it's a movie that just presents a community of characters in the background, letting the viewer take it in without ever really explaining things.
Images for me is sabotaged by the decision to shoot at 60fps, which robs it of filmic magic. love the children's story tho. Julie Christie and Altman have bit parts in Robert Wyatt's biography, I wasn't expecting that but she's on the 2nd Matching Mole LP.
Thanks so much.
To answer your question, the obvious name is Jean Renoir; Gosford Park is a pseudo-spiritual sequel to La regle due jeu.
As for Altman's influences, he cited Hawks & Huston from Old Hollywood and Fellini, Kurosawa and Bergman from midcentury arthouse as his major influences.
I'm a big fan of The Band. Strange and a bit sad to know that they're all dead now.
I'm a fan. Really love their music and of course The Last Waltz.
At its best, their music is deeply cinematic. Creating a world, a sense of time and place and of the people who live there.