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Out of Their Depth: Corruption, Scandal and Lies in the New Hollywood Season at Riverside...
Following the cultural upheaval and racial tensions of the 1960s, the early 70s saw America increasingly in social and political turmoil as opposition to the Vietnam war grew more violent following revelations of the brutality of American forces whilst at home the full scale of the Watergate scandal was beginning to be revealed. The certainties of modern American values were not only tarnished they were found to be mired in corruption, scandal and lies. We are delighted that season curator Andy Willis will once again provide another insightful recorded introduction to this film, and all films in this season.
In his books The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye, novelist Raymond Chandler’s depictions of the sunny mean streets of Los Angeles and his wise- cracking private eye Phillip Marlow became a classic template for Hollywood cinema of the 1940s. Robert Altman gives that format a distinctly 70s LA groove - complete with pot-smoking-all-women-hippie-commune neighbours - and a Marlow who is a closer relative of Jeff Bridges’ The Dude in The Big Lebowski than Bogart’s in The Big Sleep. Gould’s dishevelled PI’s only crime is to try and con his cat into thinking it is getting its favourite brand of food, however a late-night visit from a Mexico bound friend leads Marlow into trouble with both the cops and the mob. Unlike Bogart’s always-in-control detective Gould’s seems to stumble his way to, what turns out to be, an uncomfortable truth.