When Shelley Duvall died last month at the age of 75, the collective reaction among movie lovers was one of pronounced grief, and it’s not hard to understand why. From her long and fruitful collaboration with director Robert Altman (who plucked her from obscurity after being entranced by her fascinating energy at a party) to her stint as creator and host of the beloved ’80s cable series “Faerie Tale Theatre,” Duvall’s unique onscreen presence and real-life career trajectory made her somehow feel more real than just about any other movie star of her era. When we lost her, it was hard not to feel as though we’d lost something irreplaceable.
To celebrate Duvall’s singular career, The Brattle Theatre presents a delightfully eclectic program titled “Hello, I’m Shelley Duvall” (after Duvall’s famous sign-on from “Faerie Tale Theatre”), which runs Friday through Wednesday. The series features three of the seven films Duvall made with Altman: “Brewster McCloud” (1970), Duvall’s debut performance as a free-spirited Astrodome tour guide; “Nashville” (1975), Altman’s masterpiece, which feels eerily relevant in 2024’s political climate; and “Popeye” (1980), in which Duvall creates an unforgettable live-action Olive Oyl. “The Shining” (1980) is on hand, of course, and with it arguably Duvall’s greatest and most famous performance as Jack Nicholson’s terrified wife and prey. But the series also features several of Duvall’s less-heralded roles, in films ranging from Guy Maddin’s expressionistic fever dream “The Twilight of the Ice Nymphs” (1997) to Jane Campion’s 1996 Henry James adaptation “The Portrait of a Lady” (there’s also a free matinee of the 1976 PBS curio “Bernice Bobs Her Hair,” which I wrote about in this space this year). Together, this selection – which is by no means complete – paints a picture of an actor endlessly curious and endlessly watchable. Most of the films screen on multiple days and in various double features; click here for the complete schedule on The Brattle’s site.
The Brattle has another memorial screening of sorts Thursday. The theater had booked “Purple Noon” (1960) long before the iconic French actor Alain Delon died this month at age 88, but it is as appropriate a film as any to celebrate the star’s unmatched, icy-cool charisma. “Purple Noon” is the first cinematic adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s classic suspense novel “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” with Delon inhabiting the role of the titular con artist. As in the best of Delon’s performances, the actor is so unflappable and so devastatingly charming that one can understand instantly how he could pull off the character’s escalating web of deception. “Noon” is paired, naturally, in a double feature with Anthony Minghella’s 1999 take on “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” with Matt Damon stepping into the character’s shoes. It will be a fascinating double feature, particularly for those who have recently binged the recent Netflix adaptation with Andrew Scott.
At the Somerville Theatre, IFFBoston closes out its “Hot Summer Nights” series with three of the most unforgettably steamy thrillers of the ’90s. On Friday, you can catch a double feature of the teensploitation cult classics “Cruel Intentions” (1999) and “Wild Things” (1998), both introduced by author Michael Christopher. Then, on Saturday, the series comes to a close with “Eyes Wide Shut” (1999), hosted by film critic Jake Mulligan. These two nights alone are a perfect microcosm of this wild and woolly series; the cheerfully sleazy films of Friday night’s program could scarcely be more different from the stately grotesquerie of Stanley Kubrick’s final opus, yet, taken together, they paint a revealing portrait of the state of onscreen sexuality at the end of the last millennium. We may have reached the end of these hot summer nights, but as long as folks such as IFFBoston program such continually inventive offerings, we’ll be watching good well into the winter.
This weekend, the Somerville Theatre presents new 4k anniversary restorations of two landmark films that, in their own ways, are each chillingly prescient of modern issues. From Saturday through Monday you can catch a 40th anniversary rerelease of James Cameron’s deathless cyber-thriller “The Terminator” (1984). It should go without saying that the film itself is one of the most influential blockbusters of the ’80s – it gave us at least one of cinema’s greatest catchphrases and launched future governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to superstardom – but its story, about a future in which artificial intelligence ruthlessly enslaves mankind, suddenly plays as a lot less far-fetched than it did in those relatively simpler times. Starting Saturday, meanwhile, you can celebrate the 50th anniversary of Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation” (1974) with a special pretaped introduction from the legendary director himself. Though perhaps overlooked in comparison to Coppola’s other masterpieces of the 1970s (or even of 1974, which also saw the release of “The Godfather Part II”), “The Conversation” is as tense and nervy a thriller as has ever been made, and its themes of omnipresent surveillance have only grown more cogent. As we watch Gene Hackman dismantle his apartment trying to locate the bug microphone he knows has been planted by nefarious agents, it is difficult not to think to oneself: At least he didn’t have an iPhone!
Oscar Goff is a writer and film critic based in Somerville. He is film editor and senior critic for the Boston Hassle and his work has appeared in the monthly Boston Compass newspaper and publications such as WBUR’s The ARTery and iHeartNoise. He is a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, and the Online Film Critics Society.
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