A Perfect Couple
With Paul Dooley, Marta Heflin, Titos Vandis.
US, 1979, 35mm, color, 111 min.
With a clear adoration for quirky, offbeat performers usually relegated to “character actor” status, Altman selected Paul Dooley and Marta Heflin as the little-known, unassuming leads for his romantic-despite-itself comedy. “Sheila312” and “Alex207” meet through a video-dating service, and the unlikely match endures a battery of awkward trials, including facing each other’s unconventional, patriarchal families: Alex’s eccentric, overbearing Greek dynasty and Sheila’s bohemian rock band community. With a naturalistic emphasis on co-screenwriter Allan Nicholls’ actual, fleeting Seventies’ rock/funk/disco group formed with out-of-work actors, A Perfect Couple perhaps mirrors many of the dynamics within Altman’s own ramshackle ensembles. Ultimately, the film celebrates the socially mutant members of a mixed-up America and posits a comic, if at times melancholic, possibility of hard-earned tolerance, forgiveness and love in the face of profound difference.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson
Vincent & Theo
Fool for Love
Prêt-à-porter
California Split
Thieves Like Us
A Perfect Couple
A Prairie Home Companion
O.C. and Stiggs
That Cold Day in the Park
Corn's-A-Poppin'
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
The Gingerbread Man
Dr. T and the Women
Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
