I'm going to respond to your post point by point but i hope you don't take it the wrong way. a lot of times when that's done on these boards it's because someone wants to start an argument or belittle someone but that's not my intention at all. i just really love this movie and find your take on it very interesting so i feel compelled to respond and try to explain at least my feelings about it.
The nudity with the ginger bush was a little strange. I don´t know why that was thrown in as it looked like a lot of scenes were just ¨thrown in¨ as well as the script.
i think that as viewers we've been conditioned to see nudity on film within a certain context. often it's sensationalized, dressed up and put on display. people expect it to be "sexy." so ironically, it's the most natural nudity that tends to make people uncomfortable. jullianne moore and robert altman have both stated that the nudity was meant to be real, not sexy. people within their own homes, in front of their spouses, don't behave as though a camera is on them. as other posters have stated, the nudity isn't pointless, it says something about the character and her choices. personally i feel it has a lot to do with her husband's question about what women are competing for and that she is dressing up a bit for the other husband.
as for the assertion that a lot of things are just "thrown in," this is kind of the tone of all of altman's movies. he wasn't one to follow traiditional story structure or give much attention to plot. he was more interested in showing moments of genuine and telling human behaviour and with that in mind i think he succeeds in this film. he leaves a lot of loose ends because these people aren't meant to have "endings" in the traditional movie sense. we're seeing a particular moment in their life and after the film is over they'll go on living it. we as viewers are meant to wonder how their stories will play out based on their actions.
There were some big names in this and i really don´t know why.
Robert Altman was one of the most respected actors in the industry. Actors especially love him because he allowed so much freedom on the set. actors were encouraged to come up with their own ideas about their characters and improvise freely. after working in films that demanded a strict following of the script or a lot of choreographed behaviour i think a lot of actors would jump at the chance to have more of a say in what they're doing on screen.
It was sad yes, the little boy that was hit by the car and the suicide, but also disturbing how the fishermen liked to take photos of the naked dead girl in the river but did nothing for her.
this is kind of the point of carver's work and altman's take on it. it's meant to be a kaleidiscope of human behaviour which can be tragic, funny, loving and cruel. it's how different people are likely to handle the cards that life has dealt them. we're meant to be disturbed by the fisherman's indifference to human life and it's why claire reacts the way she does. just because altman doesn't wrap the story up or show any kind of justice towards the fisherman doesn't mean he's not disturbed by the behaviour. sometimes that's just how things play out.
Why did Chris Penn kill the girl? Anyone?
it has to do with his own sexual frustration, which we see in his reaction towards his wife's work and his relationship with Bill. Altman said that Robert Downey Jr's character was meant to be like Iago, meaning that he'd never commit an act of violence himself but he would certainly push another person to commit such an act. it's why he's shown talking about putting makeup on a naked girl, he recognizes penn's attitude and he's trying to get a reaction out of him.
I couldn´t connect with any of the characters in their way of thinking.
I didn´t like any of the characters.
i don't think you're expected to like or understand all of the characters, but i can see how the movie would be a chore if you didn't like any of them. personally, i find some of them charming, some tragic, and some repulsive and i appreciate altman's ability to have so many different characters interacting with each other. i think he's acheived the very difficult task of reflecting real life on screen, but i can certainly understand how you might not connect with the characters and this would make the movie very difficult to watch. i don't think that altman's work is for everybody, certainly not if you want a more traditional story arc or characters that you can root for.
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AHegele
16 years ago
in a film where a child dies and three men would rather tie up a dead body and fish then immediately report it to the police, the female figure bothers you???
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