With Robert Altman's recent honorary Academy Award and his new film, A Prairie Home Companion, out in theatres, I thought I'd look back on Altman's most productive decade, the 1970s. I can't think of another American director who had a better run than Altman did between 1971 and 1977. Great film after great film, and they are as follows:
McCabe & Mrs. Miller d. Robert Altman, 1971
McCabe & Mrs. Miller is my favorite Altman and also, in my opinion, the greatest western ever made. Few films are able to establish such an overwhelming sense of mood and location as this post-modern anti-western. The film is about two people, John McCabe (Warren Beatty) and Constance Miller (Julie Christie), who are not really able to communicate with the outside world. McCabe because of his own insecurities and fears, Mrs. Miller because of her opium smoking. As one of the most beautiful yet saddest films ever made, Altman's ethereal McCabe & Mrs. Miller is a melancholy poem and one of the key American films of all time.
The Long Goodbye d. Robert Altman, 1973
Altman's deonstruction of the crime genre is truly an amazing piece of cinema. Elliot Gould is exceptional as Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe, and Altman takes Chandler's source material and turns it into a film that is definitely his own. At once funny, frightening, suspenseful, and elegiac, The Long Goodbye could be the definitive post-modern exercise of the decade.
California Split d. Robert Altman, 1974
The Museum of Fine Arts will be screening this film in late July, which will be a great opportunity to see Altman's 'Scope compositions on the big screen. Easily one of his best, California Split is in my opinion one of the best movies ever made about gambling. George Segal and Elliot Gould star as the gamblers who go from happy go-lucky pals to being involved in a desparate attempt to win back their money. Truly a heartbreaking (but as with all of Altman's, fun) portrayal of the utter emptiness of vices.
Nashville d. Robert Altman, 1975
One of Altman's most beloved films, Nashville takes place over the course of a weekend in the title city right before a Presidential primary. A film about a diverse group of characters go bump into one another through a series of brilliant scenes, this may be the most perfect example of Altman's signature style: overlapping dialogue, long takes, and an ironic sense of humanty (which crescendos on the final scene). Wonderful performances all around, which includes the singing a lot of these actors did for their role. In essence, Nashville is a film about America.
3 Women d. Robert Altman, 1977
If it weren't for McCabe, 3 Women would have to be my favorite Altman movie. Certainly his strangest film, it resembles something like Ingmar Bergman's Persona (an obvious influence on Altman) than the earlier movies he made. The film is about the relationship between 3 women (you don't say!) brilliantly played by Shelley Duvall (who wont Best Actress at Cannes for this film), Sissy Spacek (Badlands), and Janice Rule. 3 Women is an amazing, if indefinable, film that everyone needs to see; one of the key films of the 1970s.
