Alan Rudolph

  • Songwriter (1984)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, April 2022) I don’t have much to say about Songwriter’s plot – it’s something about country singers, the predatory elements in the genre, and holding on to song rights – but neither does the film itself: It’s a film of moments and observations loosely structured around a narrative clothesline. I do have much nicer things to say about the film’s quasi-documentary atmosphere, its portrayal of the country music industry and its performers: Director Alan Rudolph makes the good choice to film things as if the camera was almost irrelevant to the staging and actors, and this allows the performers to be showcased in a quasi-documentary fashion. It certainly helps that the film was first conceived by singer-actor Willie Nelson as a semi-autobiographical rant, and that he was able to rope in the always-likable singer-actor Kris Kristofferson as co-star. They know what they’re talking about, and that credible authenticity carries to the end product. The music is terrific if you’re in that genre, and having Nelson and Kristofferson as performers makes for a nice time-capsule capture of their performances. Kristofferson had a great run of films in the 1970s and early 1980s, and you can add this film to the list – he always comes across as compelling. The echoes of New Hollywood are apparent in this mid-1980s effort, through gritty cinematography and de-glammed presentation. Songwriter is not going to be for everyone, but country fans will enjoy this throwback to the 1980s, and everyone looking for a specific portrayal of a musical niche at a specific time and place will get the full immersion.

  • Remember My Name (1978)

    Remember My Name (1978)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, January 2021) I have a weird mix of fascination and frustration at those films that straddle the line between straight-up drama and genre thriller. In theory, the line should not exist: Even those who love genres can argue that the slightest drop of genre elements in a film makes it belong to that genre (hence my fascination) but the problem is that some filmmakers will deliberately court genre elements before retreating to a somewhat down-to-Earth conclusion that practically renounces the genre elements that made the film interesting in the first place. (Hence my frustration.)  You can see that dynamic at play in Remember My Name, a gritty could-only-come-from-the-1970s film in which a man’s life is upset when his ex-wife, freshly released from prison, starts threatening everything he holds dear in a psychotic attempt to get back together. His new girlfriend is harassed, he is stalked, and the film clearly suggests that things are going to get much, much worse. Interestingly enough, much of the film is seen from the perspective of the psychotic ex-wife—a haunting portrayal from Geraldine Chaplin, who acts as if her character barely understood the basics of human relationship after spending so much time locked away. Our protagonist doesn’t play well with others, which doesn’t help the suspicion with which she’s regarded around town. There’s a clear disconnect between Chaplin’s frail physique and her toughness in action—maybe there are echoes of that in Linda Hamilton’s performance in the two first Terminator movies. Meanwhile, Anthony Perkin is not bad as the meek man at the centre of her attention, with a young Jeff Goldblum amusingly showing up as a petty store manager who hires her and Alfre Woddard as a resentful co-worker. Much of the genre elements come from the second third of the film, in which a steady campaign of harassment, vandalism, bad behaviour and outright stalkerish actions set the stage for a conclusion that should play according to violent genre conventions. But then… it doesn’t. Writer/director Alan Rudolph (under the tutelage of producer Robert Altman, which makes perfect sense) is not interested in genre elements, and so the conclusion simply walks away after making its point. Revenge is not always about going for maximum damage; sometimes, revenge is just settling scores. Whether I like the result is something else: “1970s New Hollywood Altmanesque drama” is almost a personal code phrase for “you’re not going to have any fun,” and Remember My Name at least exceeded my expectations by refusing to play by formula rules. I am begrudgingly appreciative of that… but it won’t go so far as to earn the film a recommendation or even a second viewing.