Frances Austen (Sandy Dennis) is a young, wealthy spinster. She has the problem of living alone and slowly decaying from a lack of love and sex. Then one day during a rain storm and while she is in her flat with friends, she sees a man on a bench. He is soaked to the skin and looks unsettled. She offers him a chance at living and comfort. He follows her to the flat and is offered a warm fire, dry clothing and a room. The problem is that he now must stay in the bedroom and be hers. She wants him…
Sexuality for older women is a hard thing to reflect in film. It is often treated as a cursed thing, a haunted thing. Woman are not allowed to desire and if they do it will never be about a younger man. Here Altman screams at us to see that Frances is a human being with desires. Sandy Dennis gives an understated and controlled performance as the desired object of older male lust but never desired by younger men. She is amazing with slight movements and emotions. Tender and this compels you to hurt as she does…
Also good is the lack of Altman conventions. He holds back the camera and plays the sound with layered compositions. He gives the world a voice and it adds a harmony of visual image and audio space. This is a very convoluted way of saying that it becomes real. The place that Frances inhabits is a prison because the external world is filled with noise. She desires because she is stuck and its captured so well. The extras are good David T having interviewed him myself is excellent and informed….
New high-definition master- Uncompressed audio on the Blu-ray
- New video interview with critic and filmmaker David Thompson, editor of Altman on Altman
- English subtitles for the deaf and hearing-impaired
- PLUS: A booklet featuring new writing and archival images
