Product: That Cold Day in the Park
Rating: 4.0
Mostly successful early Robert Altman feature, a psychological study of a woman's loneliness
I've been on something of a "quest" to see films from 1969 lately; the most obscure film of this project so far strangely enough comes from one of the most famous directors, Robert Altman, and stars a rather famous actress who had won an Oscar a couple of years before, Sandy Dennis. Critic Jonathan Rosenbaum in a rather disparaging capsule review called this the first Altman film that is recognizably "his"; not having seen COUNTDOWN, THE JAMES DEAN STORY, THE DELINQUENTS or any of his earlier TV work or shorts, I couldn't say. But it certainly does feature many Altman trademarks, most notably several instances of overlapping dialogue that are mixed quite forwardly on the soundtrack. Why the film languishes in obscurity is something of a mystery; it doesn't have a decent commercial DVD release anywhere and has fewer votes than every one of his succeeding films, including some reputedly dire stuff like HEALTH.While I like most of what I've seen from Altman, I don't LOVE most of it; he remains a director that I'm not entirely convinced by; and while this film isn't likely to change my mind, it is for most of it's running time quite an interesting psychological drama, with two characters playing games that gradually get more serious and intense, games they ought to know better than to keep playing - but of course if they did, where would the film be? Dennis plays Frances Austen, a wealthy 30ish spinster who lives on an upper floor in a fancy older apartment building across from a park in Vancouver (it's not really important where the film takes place, but the titles tell us, so I'm telling you). We see her at the beginning of the film hosting a gathering of several much older men and women; at first it's unclear as to her relationship but we eventually piece together that her mother was a member of this group and she has more or less succeeded to the same place. She notices a young man sitting on a bench in the rain in the park across the street; when the group leaves, she goes out to invite him to come in out of the rain.Right away we can see that Frances is a little weird - maybe a lot weird. Just inviting some stranger into her very nice apartment - that she lives in all alone - is the act of somebody who is lonely and more than a little bit delusional. From the get-go, we can almost feel her desires - a combination of motherliness and sexual attraction - for the man, a very beautiful 20ish blonde boy (Michael Burns) who seems to be mute. She brings him in - gets him food - lets him take a bath - dries his clothes - and lets him stay overnight in her spare room. No advances are made on either part, and we're as unclear as to the young man's motives as to Frances'. As the film continues we see that both are keeping secrets from each other - the young man's are more obvious, but Frances' are perhaps more important - even, in the end, vital.The psychological game play is generally well handled here, and both Burns and Dennis are really excellent - the first of the film I have to say I was almost completely entranced, as we slowly find out more and more about each character and wonder just where it could possibly all lead. But unfortunately - for me, anyway - the last act goes in a too-Hollywood conventional direction, making something of Frances that I'm not sure is either necessary or desirable. I'm not going to spoil it for you, see for yourself and judge whether I'm right in my assessment - but I think that in an era where ambiguity and open endings and elliptical narratives were more acceptable, the choices that Altman and screenwriter Gillian Freeman (working from a novel by Peter Miles) make seem a little too obvious and clichéd.Still it's a fine, creepy mood piece, and though as I said earlier it's not going to turn me around on Altman by itself, it certainly doesn't dissuade me from delving further into his work. It's nicely shot by ace cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs, though many of the virtues of his fine indoor work in Frances' beautifully appointed apartment are lost in this mediocre VHS. Still for fans of Altman or Dennis, this is worth getting, and who knows when a good widescreen DVD or BluRay transfer will be available?