Brewster McCloud
With Bud Cort, Sally Kellerman, Michael Murphy.
US, 1970, 35mm, color, 104 min.
Print source: HFA
Given virtual carte blanche after M*A*S*H’s explosion at the box office, Altman responded with even greater irreverence toward fame, spectacle, civilization and any standard narrative arc. Occasionally digressing from the film’s central location, the Houston Astrodome, and the basic premise that the awkward Icarus of the title wants to fly, Altman discharges a frenzied parade of speculative asides, self-mocking jokes, cinematic allusions, avian lectures, serial killings, freak accidents and red herring characters such as Michael Murphy’s McQueen-like investigator, who is hot on the whole ambiguous scene. Disrupting the relentless satire with truly shocking, tragic bursts, Altman unearths an emotional layer within his slice of absurd Americana and introduces the world to Shelley Duvall as the Astrodome’s tour guide.
PRECEDED BY
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The Party
Directed by Robert Altman.
With Robert Fortier.
US, 1966, digital video, color, 4 min.
Copy source: UCLA
Set to music by Herb Alpert, this brief comedy uses only visual humor to detail a swinging gathering disrupted by an inept guest, with echoes of Jacques Tati and Blake Edwards. Digibeta presentation courtesy of the Robert Altman Collection at the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
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
