Horace

The previous long-form Alan Clarke thing was kinda untypical for him — i.e., “spiritual” and stuff.

This looks like more of the real thing.

I don’t really find this guy’s performance very convincing, and he’s the eponymous Horace. He’s supposed to be developmentally challenged, but it’s kinda eeeeh…

I betcha there’s gonna be a tragedy.

Pretty convincingly dirty, but they’ve spent too much time on the hair — you can see all the work that’s gone into making it look uneven and jagged.

This is quite strange, even as social realist BBC TV movies from the 70s go. I mean, just the way Clarke has filmed it makes it very tense… Where is it going!? It feels like it’s going towards a tragedy, but what is the tragedy going to be? There’s so many possibilities.

OK, this guy is even more odd than the two protagonists. Nice to have a contrast!

Did I misjudge the movie altogether? Is this a comedy instead of a tragedy?

His performance has grown on me. It’s not quite convincing, but it’s interesting.

OK, this wasn’t as sad as I thought it was going to be, but it’s still plenty sad. So I was half right.

Pretty good, though.

Horace. Alan Clarke. 1972. ⚃

The Long Goodbye

I don’t think I’ve seen this before? I’ve always been thinking “I should watch all of Robert Altman’s movies”, but it’s never happened.

And Elliott Gould? He was always around, like. I mean, when looking at lists of 70s movies, he was in so many of them… but never in the really great movies?

OK, there’s some notable movies there — M*A*S*H and Bob & Carol & etc, but also Capricorn One and S*P*Y*S.

Gould has always seemed like such a cool actor… but then he’s in these awful roles…

Oh, I didn’t make the connection — this is a Philip Marlowe movie! Right, I knew that…

Hehe, I love all this rigmarole with the cat food.

I really like the way Altman frames his shots. Often from quite a far ways away, and through various doorways or whatever.

Hey, that’s whatsisface!

I also like these caps the nurses wear. When did they stop doing that?

This movie is really terrific. Gould is perfect in this role — insouciant, exasperated and funny — and it’s just got this flow… I really should watch all of Altman’s movies.

Do those exist!?

Wow. Not any more, but they did.

I think this is supposed to illustrate that we’re in Mexico now.

Is this where Trump got the idea for his hairdo?

Hey, that’s Arnold!

Heh, I wonder how much of these shenanigans were in the original novel — it’s like a parody of an insane crime boss: It’s like all the Fraudian subtext of a character is made into text.

And presumably the yoga women are a new invention.

Anyway… with good movies you often say “it seemed so short!” This one didn’t — I found myself checking the clock, thinking an hour had passed, and it was fifteen minutes. But I kinda liked that, too.

The Long Goodbye. Robert Altman. 1973. ⚄