New Hollywood II 2008 / McCabe & Mrs. Miller / USA 1971
It is the turn of the 20th century and former gambler McCabe and seasoned “Madam” Miller run a prosperous brothel in an inhospitable mining town in the American West. Warren Beatty and Julie Christie star in Robert Altman’s legendary elegiac anti-western, rounded off with the captivating ballads of Leonard Cohen.
It’s 1901 and a stranger called John Q. McCabe (Warren Beatty) arrives in a rain-drenched mining town at the foot of wooded hills. The former gambler opens a brothel in the inhospitable-looking settlement that turns into prosperous business when seasoned prostitute and later a business partner, Constance Miller (Julie Christie), is brought in. One day, however, representatives of a large mining company take an interest in buying McCabe’s fulfilled dream. The proud entrepreneur refuses, and it is only a question of time before unscrupulous hired guns arrive. The conventional theme served as Robert Altman’s starting point for his now legendary overhaul of the western genre. While the emphasis on the psychology of the characters follows up on Anthony Mann and Sam Peckinpah, the melancholy hero is reminiscent of Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance or Jarmusch’s Dead Man. Leonard Cohen’s captivating ballads and cinematography recalling the photography of the period amplify the elegiac tone of this “autumnal” western, while panoramic long shots of characters blending with their environment and multilayered sound heighten the realism of this, one of the most significant films of the 1970s.
120 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Robert Altman
/ Screenplay Robert Altman, Brian McKay podle románu / based on the novel McCabe by Edmund Naughton
/ Dir. of Photography Vilmos Zsigmond
/ Music Leonard Cohen
/ Editor Lou Lombardo
/ Producer David Foster, Mitchell Brower
/ Production David Foster Productions, Warner Brothers
/ Cast Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Rene Auberjonois, Shelley Duvall, Keith Carradine
/ Contact Hollywood Classics
Robert Altman (b. 1925, Kansas City - 2006, Los Angeles), entered public consciousness with his black comedy M.A.S.H. (1970). One of his most successful films is a sarcastic criticism of Hollywood machinations, The Player (1992). He is the creator of more than three dozen feature films, important among which are his “group portraits” with star-studded casting such as Nashville (1975), A Wedding (1978), Short Cuts (1993), Prêt-à-Porter (1994), Kansas City (1996) and Gosford Park (2001). Altman’s revisionary takes on film genres were made primarily during the New Hollywood period, such as the gangster film Thieves Like Us (1974), the westerns McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) and Buffalo Bill and the Indians (1976), and the Chandleresque crime noir The Long Goodbye (1973). Altman was nominated five times for the Oscar for Best Director, and in his final years was presented with the Academy’s Honorary Award.
Hollywood Classics
Suite 31, Beaufort Court, Admirals Way, E14 9XL, London
United Kingdom
Phone: +44 207 517 7525
E-mail: [email protected]
Geraldine Higgins
Melanie Tebb
Vilmos Zsigmond
Director of Photography
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