Tag: Robert Altman
-

Reel 90: At the Ballet
One of the tough things about films that are focused on a specific, rather niche topic is that the creators have to find a way to turn the audience into feeling as though they’re experts in the field without being such an information dump that they lose track of the story itself. In some cases…
-
Shelley Duvall and Robert Altman
There’s been a lot written about the great director/actress relationships, ranging from the seven movies Marlene Dietrich did for Josef von Sternberg to all the movies Ingmar Bergman did with many different actresses, including Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin, and Liv Ullmann. One of the stronger actress/director pairings in America was director Robert Altman and actress…
-

McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) – Review
On the surface, Robert Altman’s McCabe& Mrs. Miller may sound like your traditional Western film. The title character, John McCabe (Warren Beatty), is a gambler with a mysterious past who comes to town to set up a business, and he partners up with people in the town, including a saloon owner (Sheehan, played by…
-

Reel 75: The Western as Allegory
Webster’s (online) Dictionary defines allegory as “the expression by means of fictional figures and actions of truths or generalizations about human existence.” How’s THAT for an eye-opener? Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “Wait, isn’t that a metaphor?” No. A metaphor, in its broadest sense, is a symbolic representation of a concept. So while…