I just saw Robert Altman's MCCABE & MRS. MILLER for the first time. Overall, I did not enjoy the film. I think it deserves praise for its sheer ambition, but that does not hide the fact that it is dull, lifeless, and unengaging. Nonetheless, I stumbled across two pieces of criticism on the film that I really enjoyed.

The first piece is from Roger Ebert.

All of the characters know each other, and the camera will not stare at first one and then another, like an earnest dog, but is at home in their company. Nor do the people line up and talk one after another, like characters in a play. They talk when and as they will, and we understand it's not important to hear every word; sometimes all that matters is the tone of a room.

The second piece is from Cinephobia.com's Stephen Rowley. He touches on something I found very difficult to deal with at first: the film's sound design, which is, by design, very inaccesible.

Which isn’t to say the chaotic, hard-to-discern sound of McCabe doesn’t have its detractors. Beatty hated it, feeling Altman had pushed a style which worked in MASH too far. Even the film’s editor, Lou Lombardo, has said it was poorly recorded and compared its sound to an out-of-focus picture. Certainly the film treads a fine line; not being able to hear every word adds has its own inherent realism, but at the same time missing things tends to take you out of the experience. (Pauline Kael wrote that “it takes a while to realise that if you didn’t hear someone’s words it’s all right,” which sounds like a rationalisation to me.) But perhaps having something that is a borderline stuff-up work anyway is part of what makes a great director great. When I saw Altman’s final film, A Prairie Home Companion, I kept thinking that nobody else would get away with the slapdash construction Altman did there, and I still haven’t made up my mind whether that’s a testament to Altman or an indictment of critical double standards. In McCabe, however, the case for greatness is clearer cut. The sound, considered on its own, might not work, but as I’ve said it makes possible other aspects of Altman’s technique that definitely do: improvisation, realism, and atmosphere. These qualities give the film life and character, and McCabe & Mrs Miller is a beautiful mood piece that creates an almost trance-like effect.

I think I actually enjoyed reading these pieces more than I did watching the film. I especially liked Rowley's description of the film. He said it was "a film based on atmosphere and character rather than narrative." This is a great way to explain some of my favorite films, for example Francois Truffaut's work and Sofia Coppola's work. But the key difference between these director's films, which I love, and MCCABE, is that the former are centered around character's I care about. MCCABE, on the other hand, is centered someone I never get to know and therefore never grow to care about.3/21/2009