This screening features an introduction by Caitlin Quinlan. Caitlin Quinlan is a freelance film writer from London with work published for Sight & Sound, the Financial Times, and Little White Lies. She programmes women-led film events with the Bechdel Test Fest and is a member of the London Critics’ Circle.

“If anything, Robert Altman's self-styled ‘anti-western’ looks even richer, stranger and more daring than it did when it first appeared back in 1971”- Guardian ★★★★★

The first of Altman’s masterpieces, this lyrical, decidedly non-heroic western sees gambler McCabe (Warren Beatty) team up with Cockney madam Miller (Julie Christie) to open a brothel-bar-casino in a remote, wintry mining community. McCabe’s reputation as a gunman attracts unwelcome attention, however. This wry meditation on the pitfalls of fame and capitalism boasts a melancholy beauty, thanks to Vilmos Zsigmond’s images and Leonard Cohen’s songs.

Riverside Studios are proud to screen this film in our restored repertory weekend timeslots as part of 1971: The Year Hollywood Went Independent, a touring package in partnership with Cinema Rediscovered and Park Circus film distribution.

Following the success of EASY RIDER in the late 60s, Hollywood was searching for the next big thing and gave the greenlight to outsiders, mavericks and cultural renegades. 1971 marked their zenith. Including the following titles – all released in 1971 – this programme reveals a parallel Hollywood universe of personal, complex, nuanced and countercultural cinema.

See the season at Riverside:

FIVE EASY PIECES - screening at Riverside 14th August 2021.

TWO-LANE BLACKTOP- screening at Riverside 15th August 2021.

McCABE & MRS MILLER - screening at Riverside 21st August 2021.

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW - screening at Riverside 22nd August 2021.