I wanted to like this more than I did - setting of Paris in the 20s, cameos from Hemingway and Stein, art, Keith Carradine as an artist offered to do forgery. It's effective and Linda Fiorentino is magnificently sexy, John Lone is fun. Genevieve Bujold is under used again - do better Alan!
The film is two hours. It's ambling. Needed more sex and laughs and satire. There's a boxing match and other scenes. Too much time was spent on development. I wish it had been made in teh late 70s as planned.
Alan Rudolph's success with Choose Me made it a little easier for him to raise finance for his next movie, this neo-noir about a man out of prison (Kris Kristofferson) whose paths cross with a couple (Keith Carradine, Lori Singer).
This is two movies really - a more serious noir, with Kristofferson kicking ass and falling for Singer, and gangsters - and a campier way out one with Carradine having wacky hair and Divine playing a gangster (quite well). The tone isn't quite right it feels inconsistent.
Singer is lovely, Carradine has a ball, Kristofferson isn't bad, Genevieve Bujold feels a little under utilised. The movie doesn't quite work tonally but I enjoyed the love story with Singer and Kristofferson and the violent bits do keep things going.
Alan Rudolph's one hit - a minor hit but it made a splash, helped by having some names in the cast (Keith Carradine, Rae Dawn Chong, Lesley Ann Downe, Genevieve Bujold). Carradine is another f*boi sleeping with Chong, Downe and Bujold. Chong is married to Patrick Bauchau (excellent) who is sleeping with Downe, who listens to sex talk back Bujold who moves in with Downe without saying who she is.
It's familiar to Welcome to LA - there's even a sountrack of the one artist. It's always watchable. Carradine's character is unstable, so is Downe's, so I guess it'll work out. There was something lacking in this for me - wasn't quite sure. Maybe it didn't feel like a progression from Welcome to LA.
The public liked it - more sympathetic to Indians than normal though it distorts as much as traditional Western, throws in some exotic ceremonies, and is still about a white man who manages to survive, shag a native girl, and become a leader. Richard Harris holds the screen, the direction is poor, the colour enjoyable.
Alan Rudolph's fourth feature, though second "proper" one, is full of interesting moments, including a lead for Geraldine Chaplin and Tony Perkins as a stud opposite his wife Betty Berensen. Perkins and Berensen are married when his ex Chaplin gets out of prison and chaos ensues.
The film keeps you guessing. No one feels entirely well cast but everyone works. There's an unsettling mood of madness, violence and sex. It's got a standard set up but it's given a non-standard production.
Washed over me and I went with it. Sort of Son of Nashville with Keith Carradine as a fboi musician once more, only this time in LA. Carradine is back in LA and old flame Viveca Linsfors wouldn't mind shagging him but instead he shags real estate agent Sally Kellerman (married to John Considine), a receptionist Diahnne Abbott, model Lauren Hutton (mistress to Carradine's dad Denver Pyle), and Geraldine Chaplin (married to Harvey Keitel). Kellerman and Considine try to hook up with other people but wind up together. Sissy Spacek is seeing Keitel and offers to sleep with Considine for money.
Carradine has a silly beard. The movie has a wonderful tone. Spacek goes topless and Chaplin full frontal - the seventies!
So much great stuff I wish it was better - John Wayne being manly, Dean Martin as his brother (great team), the concept, the locations, the colour, Dennis Hopper as a coward (fantastic work), George Kennedy as a gun man. Henry Hathaway. But too much much is underwhelming - Earl Holliman (in the film to die basically but I wish he'd had more to play), Michael Anderson (less good than original choice Tommy Kirk), bland Martha Hyer.
Lots of fun still - just could have been a classic, that's all.
