Thursday, March 19, 2009

McCabe & Mrs. Miller @ the Charles Theatre this week


Showtimes:
Saturday, March 21 at Noon
Monday, March 23 at 7 PM
Thursday, March 26 at 9 PM

(1971 Robert Altman) Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Rene Auberjonois, Keith Carradine. 120m.

MCCABE & MRS. MILLER 1971 Among the flurry of revisionist Westerns crowding screens in the late '60s and early '70s, few were destined to transcend their status as cultural artifacts-try sitting through Little Big Man today if you don't believe me. But when Altman applied his touch to this protean genre, he redefined the redefinitions. McCabe and Mrs. Miller has not only come to be regarded as a masterpiece; it's an essential reference point for nearly every Western made since. Channeling classics as diverse as My Darling Clementine and High Noon, McCabe is both an earthbound critique of the myths that fueled those movies and a fever dream of otherworldly beauty. Beatty and Christie as the title characters are heartbreaking, Vilmos Zsigmond's cinematography is evanescent, Leonard Cohen's songs cast an unforgettable spell of melancholy and loss. McCabe is Altman's most affecting film, and yes, probably his best. 120 m. (Linda DeLibero)


Robert Altman has made a dozen films that can be called great in one way or another, but one of them is perfect, and that one is McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Roger Ebert)