MCCABE & MRS. MILLER (1971) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Robert Altman
Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Rene Auberjonois,
John Schuck, Bert Remsen, Keith Carradine,
William Devane, Shelley Duvall, Michael Murphy
A Robert Altman dreamscape set in the rainy, snowy, mist-shrouded Pacific Northwest, starring Warren Beatty as a gambler who wanders into a rough little frontier settlement called Presbyterian Church, sees that there aren't many women about, and sends off for a wagonload of prostitutes to rectify that. He gets rich in the process, but when the time comes to sell out, he refuses, and that seals his fate. Julie Christie plays the opium-smoking madam. Shelley Duvall has an early role as one of the whores. Keith Carradine makes an impression as a kid who loses his life over a pair of socks. Leonard Cohen's playfully mournful tunes provide the musical backdrop, Vilmos Zsigmond's cinematography looks like nothing else on film, and the themes and images Altman conjures up have a nice way of mirroring Cohen's lyrics. Or maybe it's all just a dream, carved out of the rain and fog, trailing off and drifting away like a half-heard scrap of conversation, or the smoke from Julie Christie's opium pipe.
Leonard Cohen
(1934-2016)
