Short Cuts (1993)
(Robert Altman, US 1993, 188 min., 35mm)
Dozens of Angelenos intersect over a long weekend across nine short stories and a poem written by Raymond Carver. Director Robert Altman’s immense, immersive film follows characters on various levels of the Los Angeles community, from waitresses and phone sex workers to doctors and broadcasters. As their lives cross over these fateful days, they deal with art, infidelity, music, fishing, family, divorce, revenge, life, and death. Altman’s incredible cast includes Julianne Moore, Andie MacDowell, Jack Lemmon, Matthew Modine, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Robert Downey, Jr., and Frances McDormand, among others. Altman and frequent collaborator Frank Barhydt took on the task of harmonizing the multiple stories into a single, complex narrative, and it’s easy to see the influence on Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia.
35mm print courtesy of the Robert Altman Collection at the UCLA Film & Television Archive