Funny Farm

I thought this was going to be Scum — which is probably Alan Clarke’s most famous movie? But it’s Funny Farm instead.

So… this is like a series of tragic fates — people who’ve ended up in an asylum, one way or another.

I like it, but it’s a bit… er… you know. It feels like it’s going to teach us something. Yuck! We hate that, don’t we, lad?

That’s what I want my living room to look like!

OK, now I’m over it.

Yeah:

The working day of nurse Alan Welbeck at a psychiatric ward. Points out the conditions in UK mental hospitals – understaffing, overwork, bad pay, old inadequate buildings and unsatisfactory patient treatment and cure.

It seems more designed to state a position than to make a proper TV theatre.

Uh-oh.

This was broadcast the same year as One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was released, so there was something in the air…

It’s very didactic.

One major difference between this and the Forman film is that everybody here is basically well-meaning. There’ no Nurse Ratched. It’s just an underfunded, understaffed hospital.

That’s all the condiments you need: Salt and brown sauce.

At the start of this movie, I was into it. And then it got really heavy handed — basically a PSA for “Psychiatric Institutions Should Be Better Funded”. But then at the end, I was quite moved by all these quiet stories being told.

Nothing actually “happens” in this thing — it’s just a peek into the lives of some pretty sympathetic people in a difficult situation. It couldn’t be more low key if it tried, and I respect that.

Funny Farm. Alan Clarke. 1975. ⚃

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. ⚄