Rudolph, Alan

Mortal Thoughts

Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle

The press kit's historical notes should be standard issue for anyone who sees Alan Rudolph's (The Moderns, Choose Me) look at the famous intellectuals who dotted New York's finest hour in the 1920s. If you only know the names of Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, et al. in passing, this movie will hardly generate more study. These writers and thinkers, most famous for having lunch daily at the Algonquin Hotel, seem as weightless and thin as the fictional ones in The Moderns. Most luminous is Mrs. Parker (Jennifer Jason Leigh), whose passion for unhappiness is rarely interrupted. Leigh, in a performance that viewers seem to love or loathe, swirls "witty" dialogue with pure force and must be praised for keeping your interest in a life that was so dreary. The chief problem is not the performances (Campbell Scott is quite fun in a change-of-pace role); it's that the movie comes off as a taped show on stage: the characters are not real and it's all dress-up. Rudolph illustrates his main character's writing (done far too seldom in writers' bios) by having Leigh speak Parker's poetry directly into the camera. --Doug Thomas

Cigarette smoke and laughter... The hollow clink of martini glasses and biting one-liners... This was the famed lunch scene at the Algonquin Hotel's Round Table of the 1920's home to a circle of mutually supportive young artists that defined the heyday of New York sophistication and a literate era of wit and intellect. At the heart of the round table sat Mrs. Dorothy Parker (Jennifer Jason Leigh) one of the sharpest most biting wits of the past century. But beneath the raucous laughter is a darker and richer tale filled with passionate affairs friendship and tragedy all captured in this striking masterpiece of unrequited love and self-destructive impulses from acclaimed director Alan Rudolph (The Secret Life of Dentists Choose Me).All-Star Cast! Featuring Jennifer Jason Leigh (Single White Female Fast Times at Ridgemont High) Campbell Scott (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) Matthew Broderick (The Producers Ferris Bueller's Day Off) Peter Gallagher (TV's The O.C. American Beauty) Academy Award winner Gwyneth Paltrow (The Royal Tenenbaums Shakespeare in Love) Heather Graham (Boogie Nights Lost in Space) Jennifer Beals (TV's The L Word Devil in a Blue Dress) Andrew McCarthy (Weekend at Bernie's TV's Kingdom Hospital) Wallace Shawn (Clueless The Princess Bride) Martha Plimpton (Parenthood 200 Cigarettes) Lili Taylor (High Fidelity Short Cuts) James LeGros (Living in Oblivion The Rapture) Nick Cassavetes (Face/Off director of The Notebook) Stephen Baldwin (Posse Threesome) Stanley Tucci (Big Night The Devil Wears Prada) Keith Carradine (Nashville The Long Riders) and Jon Favreau (Elf Swingers).System Requirements:Running Time: 124 MinutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 014381208627 Manufacturer No: ID2086LIDVD

Songwriter

Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson as a pair of hard-living Texans in this funny original and very real look at the country music business. Doc Jenkins (Nelson) may be one of C&W s most beloved stars but his private life is a wreck. He s split up with his longtime partner Blackie Buck (Kristofferson) a country outlaw with a heart of gold. Doc s singer-wife Honey Carder (Melinda Dillon) has thrown him out of the house. And now he s gotten involved with a sleazy music manager Rodeo Rocky (Richard C. Sarafian) who s out to steal his material. Teaming up with Blackie Doc takes drastic measures to win back his family and reclaim his songs. It s Willie and Kris on the road again sharing music and raising hell!System Requirements:Running Time: 93 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 043396042636 Manufacturer No: 04263

Intimate Affairs

When a scholar (Dermot Mulroney) is haunted by an overwhelming desire to understand the mystery of sex he decides to conduct an investigation. With two beautiful assistants (Robin Tunney and Neve Campbell) joining the case the stakes are raised. Intimate Affairs is an arousing and provocative exploration of mind and body starring Dermot Mulroney Neve Campbell Nick Nolte Julie Delpy and Terrence Howard.System Requirements:Running Time; 106 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/RACY Rating: R UPC: 025195022767 Manufacturer No: 68102900

Choose Me

Love is a mysterious game for the players in Choose Me, writer-director Alan Rudolph's uniquely eccentric spin on matters of the heart. A comedic drama steeped in a nocturnal, smooth-jazz atmosphere, the production is rooted in the mid-1980s but laced with a timeless film noir attitude. Its chamber-piece characters collide and carom from one to the other, each interaction revealing clues about how passions either cloud or clarify our paths to romantic fulfillment. Mickey (Keith Carradine) isn't the pathological liar he's supposed to be; sex-talk radio host Nancy Love (Geneviève Bujold) uses an assumed name and knows far less about sex than she lets on; and bar owner Eve (Lesley Ann Warren) knows too much about men but not enough about love. When they meet and mingle, Rudolph (using Teddy Pendergrass songs as the perfect mood-setting soundtrack) orchestrates a passionate dance of sex, sadness, and self-discovery that's wittily observant and altogether beguiling. --Jeff Shannon

Auteur director Alan Rudolph (Afterglow) writes and directs this "intriguing, completely spontaneous" (Roger Ebert) and film-noirish tale of romantic entanglements set in hedonistic mid-1980s Los Angeles. An all-star ensemble cast, including OscarÂ(r) nominees* Lesley Ann Warren (Victor/Victoria) and Genevieve Bujold (Anne of the Thousand Days) dances in and out of love with strangers while searching for the true meaning of life. Anne Love (Bujold) is a successful on-air relationship counselor. Her popular show "The Love Line" has everyone in L.A. listening especially her new roommate, Eve (Warren), who calls in for advice and has no idea she's talking to Anne! But when a strange drifter (Keith Carradine, Wild Bill) enters their lives, things take a sudden, confusing and tumultuous turn in the heart department, forcing everyone to take a closer look at what they really want out of relationships, and more importantly just who they really are. *Warren: Supporting Actress, Victor/Victoria (1982); Bujold: Actress, Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)

The Moderns

This witty, elegant, graceful and clever film (Los Angeles Reader) stunningly evokes the legendary milieu of Paris café society. Starring Keith Carradine, Linda Fiorentino, Genevieve Bujold,Geraldine Chaplin, Wallace Shawn and John Lone, The Moderns is 'tantalizing unabashedly romantic [and] a glowing evocation of an era (The Hollywood Reporter)! Paris, 1926. A time whenanything could happen and usually did. At the center of this world is Nick Hart (Carradine), a struggling painter who makes a meager living drawing caricatures at his favorite café. Nick longs for success and even agrees to forge masterpieces for a wealthy divorcée (Chaplin). But what he really desires is Rachel (Fiorentino), the seductive wife of an obsessively jealousand lethally dangerous businessman (Lone).

Roadie

(Headline): Great music. Hilarious comedy. [It s] everything a rock n roll movie should be! The Hollywood ReporterBands make it rock but roadies make it roll! Meat Loaf stars in this rollicking (Variety) road film featuring incredible live performances by Alice Cooper Blondie Roy Orbison Hank Williams Jr. and Asleep at the Wheel!Down-home Texas boy Travis Redfish (Meat Loaf) falls hard for Lola a glitter-spangled groupie determined to lose her virginity to Alice Cooper. Hoping to woo her Travis signs on with a traveling rock band and soon finds himself celebrated as the greatest roadie of all time ! But Lola s date with destiny (and Cooper) looms. Can true love survive rock n roll? Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 027616884633 Manufacturer No: 1004384

One the strangest musical curiosities of the 1980s, Roadie stars Meat Loaf as a good ol' Texas boy who turns himself into the world's greatest roadie to win the heart of a teen-age groupie (Kaki Hunter). She, however, is obsessed with Alice Cooper, just one of the musical guest stars in this rock & roll road movie farce. Meat Loaf single-handedly saves concerts by Hank Williams Jr. and Roy Orbison (who duet on "The Eyes of Texas") and Blondie (who crank up "Ring of Fire") as well. Directed by Alan Rudolph, from a slapdash story he co-wrote with producer Zalman King (which surely qualifies as one of the most unlikely creative partnerships in film history), this high-energy cinematic jam is a raucous, disjointed goof. But only the comedy is played out of key. The music rocks. --Sean Axmaker

Love at Large

Oscar® nominees* Tom Berenger (Platoon) and Anne Archer (Fatal Attraction) team with an all-star cast including Elizabeth Perkins (He Said She Said) Ted Levine (Ali Monk ) Ann Magnuson (Panic Room) Kate Capshaw (Love Affair) and songwriter Neil Young in this giddy quirky and wonderful-to-watch movie (Judith Crist) that delves into more than just the mysteries of love! Harry Dobbs (Berenger) takes his job as a private detective seriously. Hired by a mysterious seductress (Archer) to follow her boyfriend Harry soon discovers that the man he s following is not so much the marrying kind as he is the murdering kind! And it ll take the help of another sleuth (Perkins) hired to keep an eye on Harry to capture this dangerous lothario and steal Harry s heart in the process! *Berenger: Supporting Actor Platoon (1986); Archer: Supporting Actress Fatal Attraction (1987)System Requirements:Running Time: 97 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: MYSTERY/SUSPENSE Rating: R UPC: 027616901347 Manufacturer No: 1005904

Breakfast of Champions

Director Alan Rudolph's adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's novel Breakfast of Champions centers on suicidal car dealer Dwayne Hoover (Bruce Willis), his drug- and television-addled wife Celia (Barbara Hershey), his cross-dressing sales manager Harry (Nick Nolte), his dim secretary and mistress Francine (Glenne Headly), and Vonnegut's alter ego of sorts, pulp writer Kilgore Trout (Albert Finney). Dwayne is desperate for meaning in his life and starts to believe that Trout, who has been invited to the town's impending arts festival, will be able to tell him some truth he's never heard before. The EPA is investigating toxic sludge under property Dwayne owns, Celia is losing her already fragile grip on reality, Harry is growing increasingly paranoid that Dwayne knows about his private habits, and Francine is impatient with Dwayne's increasingly erratic behavior. Meanwhile, Kilgore Trout grouses about his failures and finally decides to attend the arts festival as a final act of self-humiliation. On top of all this, there are four or five other characters, all eccentric to the point of overload. It's difficult to get a fix on what the movie wants to be about, but Glenne Headly makes her character an island of sympathy in the ocean of everyone else's self-absorption, and Albert Finney creates some poignant moments as Trout is confronted by people who either scorn or worship his stories without any attempt to understand them. Featuring a cameo by Vonnegut. --Bret Fetzer

Superstar Bruce Willis (THE SIXTH SENSE) stars in this critically acclaimed, offbeat comedy about a man who's having a hard time getting a grip on his life! A millionaire car salesman who runs the biggest dealership in Midland City, Dwayne Hoover (Willis) is a celebrity, loved and trusted by everyone. Then one day, he wakes up and realizes that his life is a total mess! But between the headaches posed by his pill-popping wife (Barbara Hershey -- FALLING DOWN), a mistress (Glenne Headly -- MR. HOLLAND'S OPUS) who won't leave him alone, and a cross-dressing sales manager (Nick Nolte -- THE THIN RED LINE), Dwayne has picked a bad week for a midlife crisis! Based on the best-selling novel by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., this hilarious comedy and its incredible all-star cast will keep you laughing as Dwayne tries to keep from losing his mind!

Afterglow

Nick Nolte Julie Christie Lara Flynn Boyle and Trainspotting's Jonny Lee Miller star in director Alan Rudolph's wry romance about a handyman who wreaks havoc and builds romance in two marriages. Desperate to have a baby Marianne hires Lucky Mann to remodel a nursery. There's just one problem: Marianne's not pregnant and her husband isn't interested in sex. So what's a handyman to do? Intimate intelligent reckless and romantic "you'll delight in this one and you'll leave in an AFTERGLOW of pleasure!" Gene Shalit Today NBC-TVSystem Requirements:Running Time: 119 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: R UPC: 043396085602 Manufacturer No: 08560

Right from the start there's a wink in Alan Rudolph's dry comedy of sad characters. This film, touted for its Oscar-nominated performance by Julie Christie, is a solid entry for fans of Rudolph's Choose Me and Love at Large. First we meet the amorous Mr. Fix-it, aptly named Lucky Mann (Nick Nolte). Lucky is a big teddy bear who finds joy in construction and womanizing. Nearly every sentence is a smooth entendre or a typical Rudolph witticism. This arrangement seems to be fine with his longtime wife Phyllis (Christie), an ex-B-movie actress who acts as if much of her life is still a bad movie. Lucky's latest client is a young housewife (Lara Flynn Boyle) who also has a muddle of a marriage: Marianne swoons for Lucky's attention, because her husband, Jeffrey (Jonny Lee Miller), has energy for his high-rise business career but little else. Soon Jeffrey espies sad and stunning Phyllis and is on the prowl, unaware that she is Lucky's wife.

Many filmmakers have made statements about the rarity of monogamy but Rudolph is one of the few who finds so much strength in fooling around. He has deep, long answers to why his characters are the way there are, and this leads to scenes that actors relish, even if they don't ring true. Certainly Christie has not had a part this juicy in years, and Nolte, warm and energetic, simply shines. Miller, usually the young ruffian in films such as Trainspotting, gives an intriguing slant to a stuffed shirt. Rudolph has never reached the complexity nor the mastery of his mentor Robert Altman, but he has created his own niche: the comedy of characters usually found in urban dramas. There are laughs in this movie that you simply won't find in the typical Hollywood comedy. Like Altman, he proves that being an independent voice is not about the methods of filmmaking, it's about talent. --Doug Thomas