Fool for Love
With Sam Shepard, Kim Basinger, Randy Quaid.
US, 1985, 35mm, color, 107 min.
Print source: HFA
Sam Shepard’s play Fool for Love became Altman’s fourth independent, small-budget theatrical adaptation during his estrangement from Hollywood. Altman explores another tumultuous relationship in the Southern, Faulkner-esque tale of a cowboy who comes back to town in an attempt to reunite with his former love May. Altman expertly blends in flashbacks as the camera pans slowly and dreamily around a rundown Mojave Desert hotel bathed in neon and dust. Yelling, kicking and screaming their way through the pain of a volatile relationship, the lovers’ reality swirls feverishly in and out of focus and time. Surveying all the action is the motel's owner Harry Dean Stanton, who watches with a mixture of concern and resignation. Altman miraculously manipulates the beautifully pulp surfaces to expose the dark, unexplored, inarticulate depths of complex bonds.
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
