Alan Rudolph

[John Cope]

Felt obligated to bump this thread as I just found out that Rudolph's great early 00's film Investigating Sex (see above) only recently got a region 1 release under the absurd title Intimate Affairs, which, as Nathan Rabin points out, sounds like it should star Shannon Tweed. Anyway, this is certainly Rudolph's finest film in the years since Afterglow and deserves much wider recognition. I hope it starts to receive that now. On a side note, despite the fact that the Amazon specs list this as 1.78 it was most definitely shot 2.35 and I would assume the listing is therefore a typo. I will check it out though and amend this post accordingly if it turns out to not be.

[Barmy]

One of my fave American directors. IMDB has nothing listed for him after 2002 (Dentists). Does anyone know of a bootleg source for "Premonition"?

[ogygia avenue]

We can dream! Unfortunately, Rudolph himself told a friend just a couple of years ago in NYC he understood the negative for Remember My Name was either lost or had perished!

According to folks at the George Eastman House, RMN has never been released to video due to music rights issues. Apparently Alberta Hunter died before she was able to sort out the rights.

[ogygia avenue]

That's hopefully something that could be sorted out in time. But is there an extant vault negative? Or even Positive print?

If the Eastman House has a copy of a print that they were screening within the past ten years...

It does seem as though one shouldn't give up hope yet. After all, the negs for Altman's Images were thought lost once.

[Cronenfly]

A new R2 DVD of Trouble in Mind from Nouveaux Pictures is coming August 4th. The lone extra is a Rudolph/Carradine interview; the widescreen transfer is said to be from a restored print. And it already seems to be available from Amazon UK.

[Cronenfly]

Attention all Rudolph cultists: Made in Heaven now available from Warner Archive.

[John Cope]

An excellent new interview with Rudolph in honor of his retrospective program at this year's Seattle Film Fest. Those able to attend will want to be made aware especially of a very rare screening of Remember My Name (which I still haven't seen).

Amongst other things, this interview makes it clear where Rudolph has been for much of the last decade (i.e. not securing funds). His comments on the Czech screening of Trouble in Mind are particularly memorable. The UK DVD release of this, mentioned by Cronenfly above, is quite fine though obviously it would be nice to see a film like this get a more elaborate presentation.

Wish I could share Rudolph's enthusiasm for Breakfast of Champions (his film, I mean). I re-watched that a year or so ago and still disliked it. On the flip side, I only just re-watched The Moderns a week or so ago and that holds up beautifully. What struck me this time, having not seen it for a period of years, is the extraordinary elegance of its narrative construction. It all just flows so smoothly; even The Big Themes feel like completely natural developments. What a quiet accomplishment that is. Its aesthetic achievement is equally subtle despite the fact that one is never unaware of the aesthetics. In an age obsessed with adherence to some faux simulated notion of "realism", which generally impoverishes the comprehensive experience of reality, Rudolph's body of work must seem a foreign object on a distant planet. And this despite the fact that few film artists have ever managed such a sophisticated observation of real truth, an observation only made possible through the integration of heightened style with familiar emotional beats. Rudolph wants us to recognize the whole of our entire reality as primarily an aesthetic one and thus one for which the sincere treatment of artifice is justified.

[GaryC]

The BFI Southbank (London) is showing Remember My Name on Wednesday 16 June at 8.45pm, as part of its Flipside strand. (This doesn't necessarily mean a BFI Flipside DVD will follow, though...)

The June programme booklet is also quoting a 12A certificate, so I don't know if that means BBFC submission and new print...? (No entry on the BBFC database yet, only the original AA certificate from 1978.)

The film is showing with a 3-minute short called "No Sir, Orison!" from 1975, directed by Owen Land.

I saw Remember My Name a very long time ago when Channel 4 showed it - probably the showing listed on the BFI database, 28 September 1984 (a few days before I went to University). I barely remember it, and it would be good to see again - I first saw Choose Me and Trouble in Mind at Southampton University's film society.

[GaryC]

Well, I saw Remember My Name at the BFI Southbank, last night - the showing date was put back a day.

For the record, an earlier post in this thread says that the film is in Scope. It's not - the OAR is 1.85:1.

It was shown in 35mm, in what appeared to be an old UK distribution print, with a blue AA certificate at the front. (It would get a 15 now, most likely - mostly for language, but also due to a not-especially-explicit sex scene and the use of a pencil as an offensive weapon.) The print was faded in parts, especially at the beginning - the highway surface was pinkish. In the matching shot at the end of the film, it was more naturally grey. But other sequences seemed quite okay (judging by what late 70s colour films often look like). There were scratches but not much in the way of missing frames, except possibly at the ends of reels. And there seemed to be some damage to the soundtrack around the middle of the film. But given that this is a rare print (I've no idea how many prints there were in the UK, given the film's limited release) of a 32-year-old film, it was quite acceptable.

I've mentioned my history with this film in the post above this one. I'm pretty certain that this was the first Rudolph film I'd seen. Choose Me and Trouble in Mind opened while I was at University, and we showed them both at the film society. I didn't catch up with Welcome to L.A. until later, at a repertory showing at either the Scala or the Everyman (can't remember now). With the benefit of hindsight, it seems like something of a transitional piece - reaching for the mood, and the genre playfulness, of Rudolph's later work without quite getting there. Part of this is maybe because the film's look is quite naturalistic, without the more overt visual stylisation of the 80s films. Also, I found that once we knew what was going on and why, the film didn't really have much further to go in its last half hour. On the other hand, this is one of Geraldine Chaplin's best performances - I'm not convinced that Altman isn't making fun of her in Nashville, for example.

The Alberta Hunter blues songs were great and added a lot to the film (it's a pity that music rights issues have prevented this film from VHS or DVD release, though that shouldn't presumably affect TV showings). On the other hand, the continuing motif of news reports of a (seismologically unlikely?) 8.5 Richter Scale earthquake in Budapest didn't really come off.

[MoonlitKnight]

Shout! Factory to release "Trouble in Mind" on 12/14!!! Woo-hoo!!!

[Cold Bishop]

Woo-hoo!!!! Indeed! It's been out in Europe, so we'll see if this is a new master. But more exposure is good nonetheless.

[Zumpano]

Shout! Factory to release "Trouble in Mind" on 12/14!!! Woo-hoo!!!

Nice. I've been wanting to see this ever since moving to Seattle. Has anyone seen this, and can you tell me how big a role Seattle plays?

[Jack Phillips]

Shout! Factory to release "Trouble in Mind" on 12/14!!! Woo-hoo!!!

Nice. I've been wanting to see this ever since moving to Seattle. Has anyone seen this, and can you tell me how big a role Seattle plays?

None whatsoever. Rain City, on the other hand . . . .

[Zumpano]

Nice try smart-guy, but isn't that the role Seattle plays? "Rain City"?

So, back to my original question: how big a role does "the city" play in the film (ie. its atmosphere, locations, etc.)?

[John Cope]

It plays a very big role. It could, in fact, quite fairly be said to be one of the main characters.

Jack is right to make an issue of the typically Rudolphian brand of artifice on display here--Seattle "becomes" Rain City in that Rudolph manages the impressive feat of aligning the entire texture and sense of the place with his vision. That alters and affects the natural environments significantly.

Having said that, Trouble in Mind is one of my favorite Rudolphs for the way in which he submits himself to the locale. His settings are often either boldly artificial as in The Moderns or more restrained in their appropriation of place as in most everything else. But here he really indulges in the city at his disposal. There is much location shooting for example that takes advantage of not just your standard landmark type stuff. Many different sides of the community are shown. I have no idea how representative its settings are now (it was after all shot in '85 I think) but the alluring, intoxicating effect remains pronounced and undeniable.

And make no mistake. Rudolph is masterfully powerful at casting a very particularized spell of enchantment over the locations he uses. The romantic cast is very tough to resist. I will admit, in fact, that when I moved out to Portland Oregon in 2000 it was a decision not insignifcantly influenced by his quite glorious use of the city in Love at Large.

[Perkins Cobb]

Woo-hoo!!!! Indeed! It's been out in Europe, so we'll see if this is a new master. But more exposure is good nonetheless.

Shout Factory fucked up Streamers, so don't hold your breath.

[MoonlitKnight]

Considering that was a film that always seemed to me to be a major long shot for any sort of DVD release, I'll take what I can get. Ditto for this film.

Anyway, after this is released that leaves only "Welcome to L.A.," "Remember My Name," and "Equinox" as the remaining Rudolph-on-DVD holdouts (well, and "Mortal Thoughts" in its OAR).

[Cronenfly]

Probably too late to catch anybody with this info, but Remember My Name is screening on TCM at 4:45 AM...

[John Cope]

Not too late for me. Thanks tremendously for the tip. Now I can finally rectify this glaring omission in my own Rudolph screening log.

[Cold Bishop]

From the look of the transfer, I wouldn't be surprised if this pops up on Columbia's on-demand service in the next few months.

[Professor Wagstaff]

Thanks for the heads-up about Remember My Name. I just caught up to it on my DVR. This was my first experience to Alan Rudolph and it left a strong impression, especially Geraldine Chaplin who I've always felt to be an underrated actress. The print was very good, and since this in unlikely to come out on DVD anytime soon, I'll have to save it.