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Millie Decherico
This is exactly right.
Ryan Seacrest
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Millie Decherico
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Casey O'Brien
21 plus terms and conditions apply.
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Millie Decherico
Oh, Casey.
Alan Rudolph
What's up, Millie? Not much. We are recreating a scene from Remember My Name at. We're recording at the restaurant Dubrovnik and we are drunk and we are making our way. Much like in the movie, we're making our way through the drink list, starting at the bottom.
Millie Decherico
I'm actually not allowed. Millie's smoking, but I'm doing it anyway because I don't give a shit.
Alan Rudolph
Even though they said don't smoke in here. You can't smoke in here, Millie. Puffing, puffing and passing Millie. How great would it be just to fill a little ashtray full of cigarettes at a restaurant inside?
Millie Decherico
Yeah, Dark as hell in here.
Alan Rudolph
Dark as hell.
Millie Decherico
I can't say a thing. I feel like we're drinking double zombies.
Alan Rudolph
I don't even know zombies.
Millie Decherico
What's in a zombie? Tell me.
Alan Rudolph
Tell me what I'm Drinking what isn't a zombie. It's like the most. To me, it's like the most alcoholic drink there is. It's almost like a Long Island Iced tea, where it's so much stuff that it turns you into a zombie.
Millie Decherico
Oh, man.
Alan Rudolph
Let me see. Have you ever had one?
Millie Decherico
Maybe a Trader Vic's is.
Alan Rudolph
It's a tiki drink. Yeah, the one in the movie did look disgusting. And they were like, this is bad.
Millie Decherico
But they had to. They were going backwards, alphabetical order. But they. They also had a beer. They were drinking a beer, which I guess we're drinking now, too.
Alan Rudolph
Yes, we're having a beer. We're having martinis, double martinis, double Manhattan's, double zombies, like in the movie. Honestly, if I drank that combo, I think I would die. And I'm a drinker.
Millie Decherico
Yeah.
Alan Rudolph
But that's like an insane amount of alcohol.
Millie Decherico
I'm puking, you know, as you were talking, I've been puking in the corner.
Alan Rudolph
Puking into, like, a flower pot in the corner. Well, this is thrilling. We're drunk, we're feeling great, and we got a great episode coming up here.
Millie Decherico
Yeah, boy, we do. We are going to talk about a fantastic film, something that I would consider a masterpiece.
Alan Rudolph
I would, too.
Millie Decherico
Yeah.
Alan Rudolph
After watching it.
Millie Decherico
We're going to be talking about the movie Remember my name from 1978, directed by the great Alan Rudolph.
Alan Rudolph
This is a whole Alan Rudolph episode because you also spoke to the man himself. Can you tell us just a little bit about that or, like, where you recorded that and that conversation that we're going to include in this episode?
Millie Decherico
Hell, yeah, I will. You know, I have been a fan of this movie for a very long time. Just a little bit of background. When I was a programmer at tcm, I played Remember My Name on TCM Underground because. Because it is very hard to find, even to this day. Right. It's currently on the Criterion Channel, by the way, so you can check it out in all of its actual glory. But for the longest time, it was not, I think, that maybe a rip on YouTube or Internet or archive or something. But that rip, I think, comes from tcm. Because I threw it up there knowing that I was like, okay, well, this is a great film and people should see it. So cut to, I guess, a few months ago, Videodrome was the local Atlanta video store that I love. And the Plaza Theater, which is the local rep cinema theater that I love, got together and actually all of us collectively brought Alan and his wife Joyce to Atlanta to do two nights of screening so we screened Remember My Name and Choose Me, which I'm sure will come up again in this.
Alan Rudolph
Yeah.
Millie Decherico
But essentially, yeah, the first night I sat down with Alan after the film and talked to him for a while about it because I was such a fan and he was very, very sweet and complimentary towards me and he actually thanked me for putting it on TCM because he claimed that it was like saving the movie by doing that, which was amazing. That was like incredible to hear. Like, I was blown away by him saying that to me. And we became best friends forever. Actually, the three of us are me and Joyce. I just talked to her the other day. So.
Alan Rudolph
Matching tattoos, you three.
Millie Decherico
Yeah, we've got, you know, one of those three part heart necklaces that are cracked and three. Anyway, we all have a piece.
Alan Rudolph
Yes.
Millie Decherico
And I'm just so excited to be talking about this movie because we actually did this movie on. I saw what you did, but I feel like we're going to be talking about it again in a kind of a different way and definitely play a little bit of our conversation. So.
Alan Rudolph
Yes, absolutely thrilling.
Millie Decherico
That's right. So gather your drinks, gather your fallen soldiers and, you know, have one. Have a long, tall one on us. You are listening to Dear Movies, I love you. Dear Movies, I love you. And I've got to know if you love me too. Yes or no? Check the box below. Well, hello there. This is the podcast Dear Movies I Love youe. This is a little ditty that we do every week. It's all about loving movies for people who are in a relationship with movies as we are. My name is Millie Decherico.
Alan Rudolph
I'm Casey o'. Brien. We both sobered up, we drank a bunch of coffee, we're feeling fine. We slept in the back of our car.
Millie Decherico
I put myself in the shower, turned on the cold water, clothes and all. So we're good.
Casey O'Brien
Or.
Millie Decherico
I dunked my head in an ice. Have you ever done that, by the way?
Alan Rudolph
Like put like a bunch of ice in the sink and then put your face right in it?
Millie Decherico
Yeah. Like that Huey Lewis in the news video.
Alan Rudolph
No. Oh, I've never done that.
Millie Decherico
Wow. I've. I've done a. A polar plunge, but I've never put my face in ice.
Alan Rudolph
I've done a polar plunger too.
Millie Decherico
Have you really?
Alan Rudolph
Yes. Being a Minnesotan, repurifying yourself in the waters. The waters of Lake Minnetonka.
Millie Decherico
Yeah.
Alan Rudolph
Yes.
Millie Decherico
Having said that. Yeah. This episode is going to be all about the movie. Remember my name from 1978 and we'll probably Talk a lot more about Alan's career because he's made some super duper interesting movies. And I have to say, like, kind of a director that I think was just sort of doing his own thing for so long and kind of working in this, like, weird independent slash studio space, like, kind of back and forth a little bit. And I feel like he's kind of getting his flowers again recently.
Alan Rudolph
Yeah.
Millie Decherico
Which is so cool and interesting to me. So we'll unpack that. I think that.
Alan Rudolph
Absolutely. But, Millie, we start every episode the same way. We open up the film diary, and it's very heavy for listeners if this is your first episode. Our diaries are very heavy. And we talk about the movies we watched from the last week. Yeah, Millie, what do you got?
Millie Decherico
Oh, Jesus. I actually watched movies this week.
Alan Rudolph
Wow.
Millie Decherico
I'm very proud of myself for that. So I saw this week I went to the movie theater. I went to the Plaza, the aforementioned Plaza theater as part of their. The tail end of their Pride programming month. I watched a movie called pink Narcissus from 1971. This is a movie that I had heard about for many years. First of all, it's a. It's an art house, erotic, gay film.
Alan Rudolph
Does it have any connection to Black Narcissus?
Millie Decherico
I think in spirit, perhaps, but I don't think there's no direct tie. And it was directed by a director named James Biggood, and there's a little bit of drama there. He basically had his name taken off the film because I guess there was some back and forth with him and the people who financed the film. And so I guess his name was removed from it for many, many years. And then he essentially. His name got put back on the project, which I think is really great. But it's basically this really dreamy, avant garde, ish art house film about a gay male sex worker who is kind of in a dream, like, state or has, like, kind of these erotic fantasies. And it was all, like, apparently shot in his apartment or was in an apartment. And if you think about. If you watch the film and you look at it, you're like, oh. Oh. These are, like, really elaborate sets. I can't believe this was actually done in, like, a room in somebody's house or something. But it's kind of like, God, it's like, hard to describe. It's kind of like A Midsummer Night's Dream meets, I don't know, like a fast bender thing meets, I don't know, just like something super. I think it's definitely of the time 71. I mean, it's definitely like, kind of. You know, it's got kind of countercultural elements to it. And so, I don't know, it was really, really interesting. And it was kind of like one of those things that I was like, oh, I wanna. It's been on my list forever to see. And I just, like, crossed it off. So I was really.
Alan Rudolph
Yeah.
Millie Decherico
Really thrilled that I got that actually screened in my town, which is amazing. So then after that, I saw real random here, but we're going for it. Friday the 13th, the final chapter.
Alan Rudolph
Okay, let's talk about this. Did you watch it on Friday the 13th?
Millie Decherico
I mean, I might have. Yep.
Alan Rudolph
Yeah. Well, I watched Jason x Friday the 13th from 2001, which is obviously Jason in space, and it was a damn delight. Yeah, I loved it. I had never seen this one before. So tell me about which one did you see? Friday the 13th, the final chapter. Which one is that?
Millie Decherico
See, this is the thing that I got a little bit of beef with with The Friday the 13th franchise is that I can't remember which. I think it's the fourth or fifth one. I think it's the fourth one.
Alan Rudolph
Yeah, I've seen this one, 1984.
Millie Decherico
It has Crispin Glover in it.
Alan Rudolph
Yep.
Millie Decherico
And most memorably, Corey Feldman.
Alan Rudolph
Also not the Final Chapter. It should be noted.
Millie Decherico
It's not. I mean, you obviously saw Jason 10.
Alan Rudolph
Yeah, he's in damn space. You know, I will say of the big, you know, heavy hitters, like Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Friday the 13th. I would say Friday the 13th is my least favorite of the. Those franchise. Of those, like, kind of famous slasher franchises.
Millie Decherico
Yes. I will go even further and say that it's probably on. It's probably one of my least favorite of the horror. Big horror franchises. But Jason Voorhees is my most attractive of the horror villains, if that makes sense.
Alan Rudolph
Ah, your horniest for Jason Voorhees. What is it about him? I think it's a hockey player.
Millie Decherico
It's the height, it's the weight, it's the countenance, it's the outfits.
Alan Rudolph
He's a big boy.
Millie Decherico
Yeah, I love him. I would climb that tree real fast.
Alan Rudolph
I do like with Friday the 13th, though, that they take bigger swings than the other. Like, they're less beholden to some sort of format of their films because they like Jason Goes to Manhattan, Jason Goes to Space, Jason Goes to Hell. Yeah, he's going all over the place.
Millie Decherico
Yeah. And let me tell you, God, it like, I. The kills are brutal in this one. Like real brutal. I was shocked, actually. I was like, damn. There's a lot, a lot of hardcore, like trauma to the face type of stuff. And I got to tell you, the. I mean, spoiler alert. For anybody who hasn't seen this somehow.
Alan Rudolph
Spoiler alert.
Millie Decherico
That, that Tommy Jarvis turn, that Corey Feldman turn at the end is so ins. Insane. Obviously a star making role in this, but I like the end of Friday the 13th, the final chapter is how I felt at the end of Barbarian where I just screamed in delight the entire time because I'm like, this is so fucking stupid and ridiculous. But I'm here anyway. Enjoyable, enjoyable.
Alan Rudolph
Very good. Okay, my turn. Okay. Like I said, I watched Jason X from 2001. Brilliant. Then I watched so on the Criterion Channel they have all of the movies, or maybe not all of them, but a ton of movies by Handmade Productions, which is this production company from England that I don't even know if they're around anymore. But it was like co founded by George Harrison and they did a lot of like, kind of weird avant garde comedies in the 80s and 90s. Like they did with Nail and I and like Mona Lisa with Bob Haskins, Bob Hoskins, Excuse me. And one of their maybe most famous movies is time Bandits from 1981 by Terry Gilliam. And this was a movie I used to watch as a kid a lot and it really scared me and I was like, oh, I'd like to watch that again. So I watched it for the first time in probably 30 years and it was freaky again, but it was like so great and so imaginative and it makes me sad that Terry Gilliam is such a monstrous creep and I like hate him as a person so much, but I really do like his movies.
Millie Decherico
Yeah, well, that's amazing. Like I. I have never seen Time Bandits, even though every person I know has probably seen it.
Alan Rudolph
So yeah, it's good. It's fun and interesting and weird and idiosyncratic and yeah, it's great. I don't know. I had a great time watching it.
Millie Decherico
Yeah, that's. Yeah, that's cool.
Alan Rudolph
It really shouldn't. Children really shouldn't watch it because it really messed me up as a kid. So it was kind of fun to watch that again.
Millie Decherico
Oh, well, that's exciting. I'll have to check that out on criteria.
Alan Rudolph
Yeah, there's a lot on there.
Millie Decherico
I'm.
Alan Rudolph
I'm very interested. I have never seen with Nail and I. And I'm curious to watch that.
Millie Decherico
Oh, that's fun.
Alan Rudolph
That's a fun one. And then I watched, as I promised I would watch, the Accountant. Two, and here's the thing. Two criticisms, okay? Number one, the Accountant. It is. The way the title is, it's actually the Accountant squared. So, like, you know, that's kind of doing a cutesy thing. But if the. But the character of the accountant would not like that. Because that doesn't make any sense. You know, it's not the same as a number two, squaring it. It just doesn't mathematically make sense. And I think he'd have a real problem with that. So my biggest complaint about this movie, not enough accounting. There should have been way more accounting. There was a ton of accounting in the first one. Not enough in this one.
Millie Decherico
So what are you talking. So you're mad that there wasn't enough of fucking Ben?
Casey O'Brien
Yes.
Alan Rudolph
Going through papers, literally. There's so much of that in the first one, and it's thrilling and interesting. And in this one it's much more of an action beat em up. And they kind of got rid of the accounting, but they forgot about the basis for the whole series. He's an accountant.
Millie Decherico
So you're mad that they didn't show enough of him tinkering with someone's adjusted gross income.
Alan Rudolph
Correct.
Millie Decherico
Okay.
Alan Rudolph
There wasn't enough spreadsheets, not enough calculators. There wasn't enough whiteboard writing and circling. You know, there wasn't enough papers being pinned to surfaces on the wall. There's just so. Well, that's my big point.
Millie Decherico
Well, to that exact point, I mean, I don't know a lot about math. I was in really bad remedial math when I was in high school. But I do believe that squaring the accountant would just mean doubling the first one. And it's clear that it's not the first one.
Alan Rudolph
No, it's not doubling the first one. It's multiplying the first one by the first one. So it would be the accountant multiplied by the accountant, not by two.
Millie Decherico
Oh, Sam. This is why I'm not in math. Like, I'm not a math or an accountant. So to that exact point that you just made, that's also not what the accountant was.
Alan Rudolph
That's correct. There was. There was a subtraction, not. Not a multiplication. Wow. Anyways, God bless you.
Millie Decherico
That's it.
Alan Rudolph
Yeah, that's it for our film diary.
Millie Decherico
Close them up.
Alan Rudolph
Close.
Joyce Rudolph
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Alan Rudolph
All right, we are back for our main discussion about Alan Rudolph and his 1978 movie Remember My Name Millie. You've talked to the man, you've seen his movies. Who is Alan Rudolph?
Millie Decherico
Alan Rudolph, as being my best friend that's right, is a really great American director and screenwriter. He writes pretty much all of his movies, but he came from I mean, I think he's an LA boy and his father was a director and an actor, but I think he sort of got his real kind of start in Hollywood working alongside Robert Altman, the director Robert Altman, and he was an ad on the Long Goodbye and Nashville.
Alan Rudolph
Which is interesting to go from. A lot of people do not go from being an assistant director to a director, because it's actually an entirely different job being an assistant director. And AD Is like, the person who's, like, essentially screaming at everybody to get them to do their jobs properly. Or, like, where's this person? We need this person here. Are we ready to go? You know, they're the one that are, like, keeping the shoot moving. So a lot of times that, you know, that doesn't necessarily transition easily into being a director, which is a little bit more of, like, the creative, you know, overseeing the whole creative vision.
Millie Decherico
Have you. Have you ever been in AD you seem like you would be just the type.
Alan Rudolph
That's so rude.
Millie Decherico
That is not rude.
Alan Rudolph
I have done, you know, on a lot of the movies that I've directed, I've had to be kind of an AD because we have such a small crew. And I'm like, where's so and so? I need them here. Or, like, how long on this? Like, my sets have been so small that I have been able to keep it all together just myself. I haven't really needed an AD But I'm. Bigger sets.
Millie Decherico
Yeah, you can yell at people as the director, is what you're saying.
Alan Rudolph
Yes, exactly. But, like, the AD Is the one who's kind of, like, running around while the director is working with the actor, you know, or, like, the set design or the costumes or all the creative stuff. So I have never done it professionally.
Millie Decherico
No. Well, it seems kind of like a consigliere type of job. Like, you're basically, like, doing all the. Doing all the business, which I think is good for you. Like, as a. As a Capricorn, as your film professor noted, this is something that you would easily fall into, I feel like. But, you know.
Alan Rudolph
Yeah, that's not a dig.
Millie Decherico
What the fuck? Ain't no dig.
Alan Rudolph
I just feel like there's no creativity to being a professional AD you're not. There's just the creativity, isn't there? It's more about running the show.
Millie Decherico
Wow.
Alan Rudolph
Well, but thank you. I mean, I. I crack a lot of skulls on this program.
Millie Decherico
That's exactly what I was talking about. I was like, you're the one that keeps the trains on time. You're, like, yelling at me to, like, get my together.
Alan Rudolph
Screaming. I'm screaming at Millie behind the scenes.
Millie Decherico
Well, that's interesting, because, yeah, he did, in fact, become a director. And really, I mean, it was funny because when I was talking to him personally. Cause we hung out, you know, at dinner and things.
Alan Rudolph
Best friends.
Millie Decherico
Best friends. We, you know, he told me a lot about working with Altman and just about how, you know, he just sort of like became part of that universe and how he just would like smoke weed and hang out with. And he kind of created his own sort of, I don't know, troupe of actors that he would use over and over and over in his films like Keith Carradine and Genevieve Bujold and, you know, Leslie Ann Warren and stuff. So it's like, you know, he feels like there's this sensibility to him that feels very Altman. Like, which is that like, Altman kind of like makes movies with like a bunch of cool creative people and they're like, not necessarily. They're kind of like driven by relationships and conversations and dialogue. And there's no. He's not making these like action packed, huge, you know, sort of blockbuster Y type of movies with a lot of narrative and a lot. I mean, sometimes, like, we're gonna talk about this and Remember My Name. There's so slow kind of unraveling of details and there's a lot going on in the background. He also uses, I think in Remember My, which feels very Altman esque. And I feel like he talked about this maybe a little bit. I don't know if we were going to have it in the conversation, by the way. I'm just saying it. He talked about this a little bit in Atlanta where, you know, he did kind of. He kind of worked on California Split, which kind of has that. If you've seen California Split and you know this about Altman films, that kind of layering of background audio.
Alan Rudolph
Yeah.
Millie Decherico
Where you can hear like people in the background hanging out of the bar on top of. Or just.
Alan Rudolph
It's like a messier scene than you normally see in movies. You like hear everyone talking all at once and you're not necessarily picking up entirely everything what the main characters are saying all the time.
Millie Decherico
Right. Like, it's like the bartender talking to some dude in the corner is mic'd just as loudly as like the main characters. And you're hearing all these like bits of conversation, which I feel like comes up in Remember My Name a lot. And I feel like that was something that maybe was an influence. But I feel like his filmography is. I mean, if you look at it kind of comprehensively, he made a lot of different types of movies. Some of them are studio films, some of them were a little bit more independent. And I personally think that he just has. He's very focused on the relationships between people and sort of all his movies are very romantic to me and they have like or they have elements of romance and sort of this like off kilter kind of way. And I don't know, there's something like cute and interesting about that to me when I'm watching his films where I'm just like, oh, I don't know if I should be rooting for these people to get together, but I kind of am.
Alan Rudolph
And it's clear that definitely felt that. And remember my name.
Millie Decherico
Yeah.
Alan Rudolph
I was like, wow, why am I pulling for this?
Millie Decherico
Yeah, well, because it's like this weird, like you don't know necessarily where people's intentions are coming from, but you kind of feel they're. The character has a need for somebody in the film and you're kind of like, you're like okay with that. You're like, oh, I'm just like, I understand these people are bonded or connected on some level, even though it makes like no sense. Yeah, but that's what I think is so great about his movies though, is that they're kind of a little bit off the beaten path in a very like non obvious way. And I feel like that was like by design. He was like, from what we talked about in person when he was in Atlanta, you know, he was like, I just want to make the movies I want to make. Like I'm not trying to be, you know, Ron Howard or Spielberg or any of these people. I just want to make my movies and hang out with the people that I like. And there's something so great about that. And I feel like Altman was kind of like that too. I feel like it comes from this pure desire to just like want to make movies with cool people. And you know, and his wife Joyce is also a total boss. She was an on set photographer for her career. She, by the way, I have to say she did the on set photography for both Terminator and the first Nightmare on Elm Street. The picture of the COVID on the first Nightmare on Elm street with Heather Langenkamp sitting, laying backwards. She did the original photography for that.
Alan Rudolph
Incredible.
Millie Decherico
So she has a copy of that photo which was obviously rendered later by some kind of artist because it looks like a paint a paint portrait. But I mean she was traveling the world taking photography for all these really, really popular movies. So they're kind of this, they're kind of relationship goals, I gotta say. Love it.
Joyce Rudolph
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Alan Rudolph
Do you mind if I do the synopsis for Remember My Name?
Millie Decherico
Do I?
Alan Rudolph
Here we go. Jumping right in. Emily, played by Geraldine Chaplin, aka Charlie Chaplin's daughter. She's fresh out of jail of a 12 year stint in jail in New York. You can tell immediately she does not quite know how to fit back into regular society. She has kind of a every's interaction is weird and she's set up camp in Los Angeles now because an inmate at the jail with her said that her son would give Emily a job. She gets this job at a kind of A convenience store, grocery store, goods store run by a very young Jeff Goldblum. But most of her time is spent inexplicably stalking and tormenting this couple, Neil, played by Anthony Perkins, and Barbara, his wife, played by Barry Berenson. And for most of the movie, it's very unclear why she has her laser beams sort of focused on this couple and this man in particular. But it soon becomes very clear why she is focusing in on them, which we'll get into, I'm sure, this movie. Well, spoiler alert, I will say. But, yeah, something we had talked about before we started recording was just these kind of. These two leads, Anthony Perkins and Geraldine Chaplin. And I thought it was very savvy casting because these are people I guess, we recognize, you know, but we both agree there's something. They both look off. They both have a look of they're not quite right and aren't fitting in society properly. Wouldn't you say they have kind of an odd look to them?
Millie Decherico
Yeah, I think I would. I mean, I. First of all, I have to apologize to anybody who has ever. Like, I wrote about this movie in the TCM Underground book. I've. You know, she's obsessed. I'm obsessed. I am just as obsessed. I'm Geraldine Chaplin smoking cigarettes in the window of this movie, basically. But I've talked about this movie a lot because I'm a huge fan of it. And I. I feel like. And again, there was a moment when I was in the Q and A with Alan where I was like, I want to go so hard on all of my, like, weird, like, film nerd ism. Like, I just want to ask, like, what's the motivation behind this and stuff, which is, like, the most irritating shit you could ever do.
Alan Rudolph
What does this mean?
Millie Decherico
What does this mean? You're like, did you intend for the movie to be, you know, so dumb? I'm horrified by the Even thought that I had that thought.
Alan Rudolph
We should have some Q A Horror story episode segments. Yes.
Millie Decherico
Because we could be like, an offshoot of film regrets.
Casey O'Brien
Yes, exactly.
Millie Decherico
But to me, I. And I picked up on this, and I'm not sure it, like, again, like, I don't know if this was intentional or if this is my read of it, which is kind of great. I can have a read. That's like, the thing that I love about this film in particular is that it's so. It's such a rich text to where you're, like, noticing a lot of stuff in the background, noticing all these, like, character quirks. And you're just kind of forming your own opinions about who these people are, which I feel like, you know, I have my own thoughts about who I think the Geraldine Chaplin character is and where she comes from and what motivates her. But I feel like there is this kind of oddness of them in the sense that the Geraldine Chaplin character, Emily, feels slightly butch to me. And I know that there is a big runner in the film is her trying to adapt to her re. Entry into society. Right.
Alan Rudolph
Yeah.
Millie Decherico
Where she almost is sort of relearning femininity totally, in a way. Right.
Alan Rudolph
And there's some very telling scenes where she's buying clothes.
Millie Decherico
Yes.
Alan Rudolph
At this department store. And it's very hostile with. It feels very hostile with the woman she's purchasing the clothes from. In a way that's like, why is this so loaded?
Millie Decherico
Yes.
Alan Rudolph
You know, so.
Millie Decherico
Right. And you know, her physical body, she's small and she's tiny, but she's also like wearing like kind of, you know, when she. Especially when she first comes out, she's wearing kind of like work clothes and she's smoking cigarettes and literally is like stubbing out a cigarette in her fingers, which is so insane. Did you catch that? Where she would just like rub the.
Alan Rudolph
Yeah, she's. She's always rolling the cigarette, like, to put out a cigarette. Sometimes you like, roll it to, like, get the spark out of it.
Millie Decherico
Yeah.
Alan Rudolph
The cherry out of it. And there's several close ups of that in this movie.
Millie Decherico
Yeah. And there's just scenes of her, like, kind of trying to put on makeup and being very like, you know, trying to figure out if this is something that she should be doing as a woman and this kind of stuff. So there's that component. And then you, like, look at the flip and you look at the Anthony Perkins character, which, by the way, there's like a whole story about him and trying to. Him trying to be in this movie. And he, you know, actually was like, I don't think I should be in this movie because I don't think I would make a convincing construction worker. Right.
Alan Rudolph
Yes. Which I think he doesn't feel like a construction worker, but that's intent, like, that feels right for this movie. Yeah.
Millie Decherico
And it was kind of like, it was hard to say. Like, upon rewatching it most recently, I was kind of like, he sort of has an architect vibe, but he's also hammering nails into, so he's kind of doing it all. But, like, you're right. If you know Anthony Perkins, you know, the career of Anthony Perkins and, you know, his life. I mean, you're basically like, oh, here's a life. Tall gay man trying to act like a. Yeah. Construction worker. Which you're kind of like, there's something weird about that. And he.
Alan Rudolph
Yeah, it feels, you know, it feels wrong in the movie.
Millie Decherico
Yeah.
Alan Rudolph
Like, everyone, like both Geraldine Chaplin and him are not fitting in correctly. Like, they don't fit in easily.
Millie Decherico
Right. And I would even go as far as to say. So Barry Baronson, who was his wife in real life.
Alan Rudolph
Anthony Perkins.
Millie Decherico
Anthony Perkins, wife in real life. But she plays his wife in the film as well. There's something a little butch about her, too. 100%. She's got a short kind of haircut and she's beautiful, and she was a model. So it's kind of like, okay, but she kind of has this, like, butch energy of her own. Right. So there's this point where I was thinking, you know, when I was watching this movie going like, oh, so here you have these, like, two women who are kind of like a little, you know, when it comes to sort of that femininity question, you're like, okay, they're kind of not towards the, you know, tail end of being super feminine. And then you have this sensibly a gay man playing this, like, butch archetype, like the construction worker. Yeah. And there's this inversion, to me, that exists in this movie that I think is really fascinating.
Alan Rudolph
Yeah.
Millie Decherico
And it kind of contributes to the story in the sense that you're like, who is. If you want to think of this movie as like a noir or like a neon or. Or like some kind of thriller, who is the femme fatale? Like, who is the person who is wreaking havoc, you know, running rampant through the hearts and minds of these main characters? Right. And that whole question is like, one of my favorite things about this movie. It's sort of like, who? Like, as the movie unfolds, you're like, okay, well, you have this woman who seems to be, like, stalking this man and his wife. But then what is happening with him where he, like, as his character unfolds, you're like, oh, maybe he is like a dog. Maybe he has these moments where he's, like, been with women and kind of run through women and, you know, do these women, Are they scorned? You know, and then you really figure that out towards the end. I don't know. It's one of the best parts of the movie for me. So there's something too, about the. There's a lot. Again, we're Going back to the audio question of this film, there's a lot of audio in the background that plays throughout the film. And one of them is the sound of jail. The sound of, like, bars clanking and clanging, jail doors being shut. And it typically comes into the film when Emily is alone. And maybe that's, you know, for a reason. And then you have the sound of airplanes, which I think in the film is because the Anthony Perkins and Barry Berenson character live near the airport or something.
Alan Rudolph
Yeah.
Millie Decherico
But there's that whole, like, audio comparison of, like, incarceration and freedom. So it's like jail and air travel, flying, whatever you want to call it and that. Again, not to be this obnoxious, you know, grad school film program person, but I'm like, that, to me, seems intentional. There seems to be some intention behind that, which I think is super interesting.
Alan Rudolph
Can we talk about the scene where Emily Geraldine Chaplin goes into their house?
Millie Decherico
Yes.
Alan Rudolph
And is, like, walking around. Of course we can, because that was so. This movie has an element that, to me, was scary.
Millie Decherico
Yes.
Alan Rudolph
And Emily's our main character. We're with her, like, the whole movie. But there's something so off about her that it's scary. And basically, she goes into Anthony Perkins and Barry Berenson's house when Barry Berenson is making dinner. And she's sort of just floating around the house, like, just like out of eye shot of Bari Berenson. And she seems so at ease and so comfortable infiltrating these people's space. And it is really. You're like, I'm so tense. You're like, when are they going to see each other? And then all of a sudden, Emily's just kind of, like, standing there in front of her and freaking Barbara out, you know?
Millie Decherico
Yeah.
Alan Rudolph
But she, like, seems more at ease, like, being breaking into this person's house than she is in, like, regular society, you know, Because I feel like she's, like, in regular society. She is, like, a straight. She's a stranger everywhere. She's out. She's not welcome anywhere. So how is this any different?
Millie Decherico
Right.
Alan Rudolph
You know, like, breaking into someone's house and just kind of, like, floating around. But that scene was so scary to me.
Millie Decherico
Oh, yeah. It's intense. And when I saw it in the theater, you know, back a few months ago, there was a lot of people in that movie theater, hadn't seen it, and everybody gasped when she finally shows up in front of Barry Berenson's face with the knife or whatever, or.
Alan Rudolph
Well, there's A jump scare.
Millie Decherico
Yeah.
Alan Rudolph
Like Emily does something unexpected that really made me jump.
Millie Decherico
Yeah.
Alan Rudolph
And like it's a scary, like. I mean, basically she like pulls out a knife and is like, like literally like that.
Millie Decherico
Yeah. And.
Alan Rudolph
But you're like so not expecting it.
Millie Decherico
Yeah. There, there is this. Okay, this is such a. This is such a sidebar observation, but I have to talk about it. So in that scene, Mary Berenson is like making some kind of salad or some. She's cutting up some vegetables and.
Alan Rudolph
Romaine.
Millie Decherico
Yes. Or she's got a head of romaine lettuce and she pulls out. This was. This feels like a very LA apartment thing. But there's this.
Alan Rudolph
The wood cutting board.
Millie Decherico
Yes. That comes out of the. Almost like underneath the countertop.
Alan Rudolph
Every LA apartment I had had a built in wooden cutting board that you could. That kind of comes out from the countertop and you could chop on it.
Millie Decherico
That's how I know. So there's like a couple different things that when I watch movies after having lived in la, I'm like, oh, I know that's an LA apartment. Number one are book the built in bookshelves that are always in every LA apart. The second is that wood cutting board.
Alan Rudolph
Can I say watching this movie. So this movie was primarily filmed. I looked this up in Culver City, Marina del Rey and Santa Monica. I believe I lived in all three of those places a long time. That's the west side of la, particularly Culver City. A lot of this was shot in Culver City. I think their apartment or the house that they lived in was in Culver City. And the department store where she worked was in Culver City. And if you don't know Culver City, it has a very specific kind of bland 70s feel. It looks the exact same as it does did in this movie. And watching this instantaneously, I was like, this is. This is shot in Culver City. I knew it like before any sort of landmarks came up. I was like, I know exactly this place. And it's kind of an interesting place to set the movie because Culver City is not. It's not touching the ocean, it's inland Los Angeles. It's kind of suburban within the city. It's kind of boring. A lot of people consider Culver City boring and so. But it's still California. It's still like the land of freedom, but it's kind of like boring in a way. And I don't know, I just felt like the vibe fit perfectly with this movie.
Millie Decherico
Yeah. I gotta say, first of all, it's so it's so interesting that you have lived. You were like a West side boy for a long time.
Alan Rudolph
Well, I would say about half my time I lived in la. I was a West side boy. Because the east side is where the cool kids.
Millie Decherico
Yeah.
Alan Rudolph
That's where Silver Lake and Los Feliz is, which. I lived in both those places, too.
Millie Decherico
Yeah.
Alan Rudolph
But I have a special appreciation for Culver City because everyone shits on it.
Millie Decherico
That's so funny. I. I think the only time that went to Culver was to go to Arcana, the bookstore. Arcana, okay.
Alan Rudolph
The cool bookstore.
Millie Decherico
Yeah. Oh, and Apple pan. Isn't that in Culver City?
Alan Rudolph
That's west la.
Millie Decherico
Okay.
Alan Rudolph
Not Culver City, but it's kind of close to.
Millie Decherico
There is the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City.
Alan Rudolph
That's, I believe, Mar Vista. But, yeah, it's near Culver City. See, Culver City has the Sony Studios, and it doesn't have much else for landmarks, which is why it's kind of, like, un. Unimpressive in a way. Yeah.
Millie Decherico
They had that big. But there's that big complex now that has the Arcana. And there's like a Poketto, or. What is it? It's like a huge.
Alan Rudolph
Now it's becoming cooler.
Millie Decherico
Yeah.
Alan Rudolph
There's like, all this built. There's all these things being built there now. The paquetto. Yeah. Which is like, kind of like cute, little expensive design.
Millie Decherico
Yeah, exactly. Well.
Alan Rudolph
But, yeah. So I love Culver City.
Millie Decherico
Well, that's cool. And that. And like, that's the thing is that I. When she pulled out that wooden board. So I remember when I first moved in that apartment, I was, like, looking around in all the drawers, and I saw that wooden. And I kind of clocked that it was a cutting board. And there was like, there's no way I'm using this. There's probably, like, 50 or 60 years of people.
Alan Rudolph
Like, that's what I always thought. I'm like, am I gonna use meat on this? Heavens, no.
Millie Decherico
No. There's probably, like, germs from, like, World War II on that board.
Alan Rudolph
Exactly.
Millie Decherico
But she. She uses it very easily. And then I was like, oh, here's somebody who's actually using that board. Interesting. But, yeah, that part is harrowing. It's really, really. It's really, really harrowing. And you kind of at that point going, okay, girl, I was kind of rooting for you, Emily.
Alan Rudolph
But now she crosses a line there that you're like, oh, I wasn't sure if she was capable of that, because before she's like, destroying and just sort of stalking them. I mean, she does throw something through their window, but then she actually just, like, casually enters.
Millie Decherico
Ugh.
Alan Rudolph
What would you do in that situation, Millie, if you were confronted by an Emily just standing in your apartment?
Millie Decherico
Oh, I'd have, like, an instant heart attack while you talking. I live by myself. I'd be like, what are you doing? And knowing Geraldine Chaplin having that face with her huge eyes. I would fucking. It's like when you watch TikToks of, like, people who are trying to scare their partners by, like, hiding under the bed and, like, grabbing their ankles and stuff.
Casey O'Brien
Think it's cruel.
Millie Decherico
I'd be like, divorce, don't prank me. I am not good with this shit.
Alan Rudolph
And I'm not good at. I don't like getting. I. I don't like when people try to scare me, like, startle me. Pisses me off.
Millie Decherico
No way.
Alan Rudolph
Yeah.
Millie Decherico
To that point, this back and forth between whether or not you're rooting for Emily or not. I think generally I'm rooting for her. I do think she goes a little ham at points. Here's the thing that's really interesting to me is that ultimately I feel like. And again, this is kind of spoiler alert. I know we shouldn't be, like, talking about this if you haven't seen the movie, but I don't care. This is like. Yeah, this is too enticing.
Alan Rudolph
It's too.
Millie Decherico
And I have the platform. I want to diarrhea out all my thoughts. I'm sorry. That was a bad analogy. But whatever. I. There's something that happens at some point in the film that flips the script about all of it. Right?
Alan Rudolph
Yeah.
Millie Decherico
Which is that eventually Emily gets busted for being a creep stalker and she gets sent to jail. Okay. Anthony Perkins character, Neil, comes to visit her and is basically like, I have to. Like, this is. I have to. Like, I know this woman. We gotta talk it out. And there's this moment that makes me gasp every single time, and it made everybody in the theater gasp, which is that they have the big conversation, the big reuniting, which had been building and building and building throughout the entire movie. And then he turns to. What is it? The officer or the detective and says. He says this line, but he basically says, my wife. My other wife. And it's clear that he is like, oh, this is my wife. Emily is my wife. My other wife is the woman that was being stalked by my wife.
Alan Rudolph
But Emily's the primary wife.
Millie Decherico
Yeah. And you're like, holy. Like, at that moment, Were you not like, oh, this is on, baby. This is on. Like.
Alan Rudolph
Well, yeah, because, like, Neil, you can tell, has, like, the whole movie. You're like, something's wrong. Something's. Something's up here. Something's wrong with this guy. He's got something going on. He's got something going on. And so when he's like, my wife, my other wife, you're like, oh. I was like, we're.
Millie Decherico
We are.
Alan Rudolph
We are so back, baby. I felt like it was. But the weird thing that this movie does is like, my body was saying, oh, yeah, they should go out on a date. They should. They should, like, hang out. Like, let's see where this goes. Which is, like, so weird because his other wife, Barbara, she's done nothing wrong. She has been the victim of all of this, this whole movie. And yet the movie makes me want to see where things go with these two, with Neil and Emily, those two crazy cats.
Millie Decherico
Like, there's some. Okay, like, we're talking about this in the context of this narrative film, right? Yeah, there's something kind of. I don't know if it's camp, I don't know what it is, but the idea of this, like, character being like, oh, yeah, this woman loves the shit out of me. Like, look at all the stuff that she's doing for me. Like, she's been kicking over my flowers and putting knives in my woman's face and stealing my artful photography that is, you know, in my house.
Alan Rudolph
If I can make a comparison just for everybody to understand this better. It's kind of like on Vanderpump Rules, when Stassi was like, I want nothing to do with Jax. But then Jack's got a tattoo of Stassi's name on his chest, and she's kind of like, I kind of like it. I kind of like that. So that's exactly this sort of scenario where it's kind of like, I shouldn't like this, but it's working for me.
Millie Decherico
It's devotion, right? You're like, devotion. The devotion of this fucked up story. Like, you're kind of going. And again, it plays with this. It's morally very murky. Yeah, right. But if you're just a fucking romantic. Like, if you're just a romantic, big hearted bitch like I am, you're like, oh, there's some devotion happening here. And this is so up. But, like, he is loving it. Why the hell else would he call her his wife again? Go out for cocktails at the restaurant. Yes.
Alan Rudolph
The scene we were reenacting at the top, Anthony Perkins, AKA Neil and Emily, go out to this restaurant and get blasted together.
Millie Decherico
And not that I think that women should be fighting for straight men in this way at all, but the idea that there's like a history there and there's kind of like, it's kind of again, going back to the idea of these, like, weird romances. Like these kind of quirky, but not even really quirky in that when I say quirky romance, it's like, I'm not talking about like 500 days of summer. I'm talking about something that's real, real based, real, like under the surface. And it again, as a text, as a film, as a story. There's just so much going on there where you are like, yeah, I don't know. Like, I want this to kind of happened between them, even though it's so problematic and so not probably what should happen.
Alan Rudolph
Yeah.
Millie Decherico
For any of their mental health at all.
Alan Rudolph
Well, and you kind of. You don't really know the full story, but she was in jail because she ran over a secretary that Neil has having an affair with. But he kind of gets interrupted in this. So you don't hear the whole right story. So it wasn't murder, but it was an accident. That's kind of like something he's saying.
Millie Decherico
But yeah, it's very. To me, and I think that this is. I think that maybe Alan at some point would agree with this. I don't know. It feels very like 40s melodrama. Bette Davis, Joan Crawford in this way where you're like. And I think that's maybe why I think it feels campy, is because it kind of comes from this, like, old tradition of the, like, women's picture, quote unquote, the melodrama of, like, you know, I killed the man I love or whatever. You know, just like that very, very, very over the top, you know, storyline of, of like a, of. Of women being scored but then still being in love with the person that hurt them. And then, you know, and then you realize, okay, also, Neil has probably been cheating on every girlfriend that he's ever had. And yeah, he's a femme fatale. Like, he's the one that's like, you know, wrecking shop. And you know this because at the end of the film, spoiler alert, you see Barry Berenson smoking a fucking cigarette, looking out the window. Like she becomes the Emily. Like, she's smoking pensively and intensely like another scorned woman would, you know. So there's just so much, so much about this Film that is great. And I don't know. This is. Again, I think that this movie is really unique and rare because it's not giving you all the information.
Alan Rudolph
No.
Millie Decherico
So it allows for this really rampant interpretation, which I am obsessed with. I love when something is ambiguous and I can just have my own theories about things and. But I will say that I think that that's why maybe this film and maybe his homography was never, like, commercially huge and successful, because people can't live in that. They, like, want the answers so badly.
Alan Rudolph
I. I feel like these movies, they're. I feel like they're what my mom would describe as weird, which is just sort of like an umbrella term of, like, this doesn't. This isn't holding my hand. I don't know what's going on. Who are these? Like, you are unsettled while watching the movies. You don't know exactly what people's intentions are or what they're going to do. And I can see why that didn't necessarily equate to commercial success, because watching these movies, they don't feel like commercial movies.
Millie Decherico
Ye. I would have to say that too. And I feel like a lot of his other movies are that way. I think it's interesting because his film choose me from 1984, which is kind of the other movie that people have been talking about. I think it's on the Criterion channel. It was actually released as a Criterion disc on Blu Ray. That movie is kind of strange and has its own weird pacing and its own ambiguities, even though that seems to be one of his more popular films, at least sort of currently. But a lot of his films are challenging, I mean, like, I would say, to like, whatever multiplex people. Right. Like, I think one of his most famous films, or notorious films, if you want to say that, is his adaptation of Breakfast of Champions, which is the Kurt Vonnegut book. And it was kind of like people were really upset by it, I think, when it came out. But then it's kind of getting this, like, reappraisal right now, and a lot of people are kind of going back to it and kind of looking at it in a different way, which I think is really interesting. I think he's. He's got. He's got his own unique, rare vibe to him that I feel like, especially now. Damn. You don't see people doing shit like this now. Like, you're not like, everybody. Everybody has to have, like, the whole thing, the whole kit and caboodle in front of you, you know? And I Just the idea that his career seems to be kind of on his own terms and he got to kind of do what he wanted when he wanted. I mean, I'm sure he probably wanted to do other things that didn't come to fruition, but you know what I mean? Like, in terms of his filmography, like, he's making different types of films using people that he loved and wanted to work with, and he was writing his own stories, and they got to be as complex or as understated or ambiguous as he wanted them to be. And I don't know, I mean, I just think it's. It's like when you find the work of, like, a really great author and you're just like, I want to know everything. I want to come up with my own stories and theories and interpretations. I don't know. It's just fun.
Alan Rudolph
Yeah, absolutely. Well, fabulous. Are you okay if we move on from.
Millie Decherico
No, I want to live here forever. I think the whole podcast, the podcast run should be about this film. No, I had you watched this film before. Have you seen it?
Alan Rudolph
No, I'd never seen this before and I'd only seen Choose Me prior to watching this. So, I mean, I said this to you before we started recording. I thought, this is like a perfect movie. Oh, God, it just felt so. Just felt like a masterwork. You know, when you just feel like a filmmaker is, like, operating at the top of his powers. It just felt great.
Millie Decherico
Yeah, I loved it. Well, I'm glad. To me, I don't like saying this, but it feels like a handshake movie for me. Like, it feels like a movie that if you love it, like I love it, then we are bonded for life. And it's sad because, I mean, I won't go off on this too much, but, you know, this movie is unavailable. There's a lot of issues with it in terms of the music, because Alberta Hunter and now I know a little bit more than I did, I don't know, back when I was writing the TCM book, just having talked to Alan and Joyce and certain people where, you know, her music is. It's always a music thing, obviously. And I think for her in particular, it's just a matter of somebody, literally somebody at Sony finding the time or the desire to just do the paperwork, do the accountant to paperwork that you love so much. And I hope that happens. And I know that there are people who are actively trying. Like, I know that there's people in my nerdy corner of the re release and archivist universe that are trying really hard to kind of figure something out. And I hope so, because I know that Alan wants it really bad and he loves this movie. It would be great. But it's not in his power. That's the unfortunate thing. It's not in his power to figure it out, which is sometimes the case. And a director cannot control where his movie ends up. And it's sad, but it is a reality, especially with studio people. And if you work at a major studio and you have a huge back catalog of films and everybody wants it to, you know, be rereleased and restored and on Blu Ray, it's like, you know, there's. There's people who are, like, thinking they're. They're prioritizing other things before other things, and it's stupid, but it is what it is. And, yeah, I hope that it happens. I will do everything I can to help. If anybody knows how to help, I'm putting the call out there. You can email us, we can talk about it. But yeah, I just hope that one day it gets. I mean, I hope it comes on Criterion. It obviously should come on the disc collection, not the channel.
Alan Rudolph
If you're interested in watching this, go to the Criterion Channel, subscribe to the Criterion Channel and watch it now. It's on there now.
Millie Decherico
Yeah, it is on there now. And like I said, probably the best quality it could be. And. I don't know, tell me what you think. I mean, honestly. Email us. Dear moviesexactlyratemedia.com I'd love to shitty chat about it with you, so very good. Okay, so we do have a bit of a treat for everybody. This is actually a bit of the audio from the night that I did with Alan Rudolph in Atlanta. This was recorded on April 10, 2025 at the Plaza Theater. So, yeah, enjoy. So I wanted to kind of ask you a little bit about the beginning of your film career, because you started.
Casey O'Brien
I don't have a career. I have a careen.
Millie Decherico
But you started with Robert Altman, right?
Casey O'Brien
No. Oh, not true.
Millie Decherico
I knew this was going to happen. We talked about how this was going to.
Casey O'Brien
Well, Allman was the start of understanding with film what I was doing. But I was an assistant director, which is a really good job. And I mean, first assistant director is in charge of the whole production for the director. And I was, I think about three, four years, and television mostly. And I said, wait a second, I want to make my own films. But there was absolutely no way to get that done. You didn't pick up your phone then and start shooting? Phones were all dial. And I didn't work. I just turned down work. And then I got a call to work with Altman as a second assistant director, which I hadn't been for years and years and would. Wouldn't go back to. And then I met him and I just said, anything you want.
Millie Decherico
I want to talk a little bit about. Well, there's obviously the big question hanging in the air about the movie, about why it's not on home video. But I wanted to talk about Anthony Perkins and Barry Berenson. They were a couple when they made this film.
Casey O'Brien
They were married.
Millie Decherico
Right.
Casey O'Brien
They had two children. Oz Perkins is a big hit now, isn't he?
Millie Decherico
Yeah, he's a director. I had read. I had read that Anthony Perkins was a little hesitant to.
Casey O'Brien
Great. Reminded me of that. No, no, I wouldn't. Oh, these answers are nothing simple.
Millie Decherico
Yeah.
Casey O'Brien
Altman had a way of making things happen because he was just a force and no one could handle him except on his terms. And he had a deal. I didn't know about the back room stuff, but now I know he was making, I think, a wedding for fox. He called me up one day and he said, I want to see you right now. And this is the truth. I mean, this is how movies get made. No, this is how movies never get made. But this one did. And he said, I want to see you. Can you come over? I said, sure. So I drove over, and when I was driving into daytime, and there was an art revival house, and it had a marquee, and it said Femme Fatale double feature. I can't tell you what the movies were, but I'd seen both of them. I'd seen all of them, most of all of them. And I got to his office. He said, let's go have lunch or something. And we sat down across the street. His office was not in the studio. It was a little compound in Westwood that you thought was a fake Tudor building that, you know, handicrafters occupied or something. But it was Altman. And we went across the street and he says, I think I got a deal here. I can get a movie made for you. I had turned down several things because I really want. After Altman produced Welcome to LA and I wanted to stay with him, I actually turned down a movie after Welcome, a big one. It wasn't a movie yet, but it would have been. And I just wanted to stay in that atmosphere. And he says, I think I can get a movie made for you. What do you got? And I said, oh, I want to make a movie about Paris in the twenties. It's a script. I wrote the first thing I ever wrote. And I really. No, I said, I have another idea where the vice president of the United States is having an affair with the first lady. I like that. No, we couldn't afford that. This is going to be as low a budget as Wellcome, which both of them under a million. And I said, well, I got an idea about a femme fatale, only updated. He said, great. Who do you want to be in it? I mean, that's what Bob's always. His first question was casting, whether he had a script or anything. And I said, geraldine. He said, oh, this is good. He said, I'm going to New York. This is like Monday. He said, I'm going to New York Friday. Have you written the script yet? I said, well, I'm pretty much through with it. I need about a week. And he said, get it to me before I get on a plane. I said, okay. I didn't sleep for a week. But the thing wrote itself. One side. It just came. And I didn't want to write a. I didn't want to make a movie. I just wanted to make American art films, which wasn't a category. And Altman was doing them, but I couldn't do what he did. And I just wanted to make these little things that nobody pays attention to, but they don't bother you. And so I just wrote 192 hours or whatever it was. And I came in and handed him a script, which I probably hadn't even read or reread. And he took it on the plane. He called me. He says, perfect. And I said, well, what do you want me to do? He said, I'll call you in a few days. And he went in. I didn't know this. He went into Fox and he made a deal with them that he was going to do another film for them and this film with me. And they sort of had to take it to get his other film. And he said, you know, keep it under a million. We'll get some actors. And they bought it. So we went to New York. Joyce went to see Equus, the play, and Tony Perkins was starring in it. And Tony Perkins was a big star to me growing up. I mean, friendly persuasion and fear. I mean, it was really something. And I knew nothing about his life or anything about him. And I thought, well, he's not going to do this. And we sent him a script, and he said, yeah, which is really something. So Bob had a. As he always did, had some kind of big session at his house for various reasons, in his apartment in New York. And we were there and. And everybody's having a good time and about a variety of things. But I knew we had a movie and I thought I called Geraldine before I said, tony. She said, oh, perfect. What a great idea. So during this affair, somebody taps Bob on the shoulder and he goes in the other room and he comes out and just angriest look in his eye. And party continues. And he's charming and all that. And I said, what? Something happened? He said, are you sure? And he said, yeah, that was Fox. They don't want to do the movie. And we had just cast and I had a crew set and in la and I'd scouted all the locations myself because we didn't have anybody working. And I said, what do we do? He said, I'm coming back to la. You go back there, we're going to make it. So I go back, he arrives, I go to his office and we were supposed to start shooting in like two weeks. And I said, and he said, just keep prepping, Just. Just keep doing what you're doing. And I said, well, you don't have any money. And he said, yeah, people will work with you for nothing for now. I mean, I had a lot of people who work with Bob, but not all of them. I'm the cameraman I'd never even met. And the day we started shooting on a Monday, the day before Saturday or something, I went in with Bob and his associate producer and I said, what do we do? He said, we start shooting Monday. I said, how can we do that? He said, because you get two weeks before you have to pay anybody when you start anything. I said, yeah. He said, so we'll work for two weeks. If we get the money, we'll keep going. If not, just shut down. And then he lit a joint or something and I thought, well, I guess if he says that's okay, I'll do it. So we started shooting. And the first day shooting, I think the first day was Geraldine in the car up. But the first day with actors was in the thrift store Mark, or whatever it was called, with Alfre and Geraldine coming in. And Altman had something that I absolutely picked up on and did religiously, which is dailies, which today dailies don't exist. Nobody sees dailies are the day's work from the day before. And they're on 35 millimeter film, which means you can't watch them on your shower head or whatever people watch now these days. And you have to either go to the lab and watch your day's work or you're Altman. And he told somebody along the by we did that. Drill a hole in the wall, put the projector behind here. And in his office, he said, we'll just watch dailies on that wall, on a screen. So dailies every night for the longer by in California split were in his office. And then he illegally built a screening room in the alley. This is all in a residential neighborhood in the alley out back where he had a screening room that we did Nashville on. And so that's where we watched dailies. And I invited Tony to come to see his wife because she was in the first day shooting and he wasn't. And Geraldine and I think Jeff was in. That's Jeff's first speaking role, I believe Goldblum and Alfre Woodard's first movie. She was in theater. And so we're watching dailies. And then after dailies, you know, you get up dawn, you go shoot a day's work, you come home, and then we're in Altman's office, which was home, and you watch dailies for two hours and you're drunk and it's midnight and you have to get up at 4, but you don't care until you get up at 4. So Tony's there and he's watching this. And he told me beforehand. I said, listen, Bob, has everybody come to Daly's? I did it. I'm, well, I want you to come to Daly's. And he said, never come to Daly's. Not for Hitchcock, not for Orson. Well, I never come to Daly's. I won't watch Daly's. I said, well, come tomorrow because you're not on camera and you can watch at least the movie you're in, sort of. So he comes and he watches Barry, who I don't believe had ever been in a film. She may have, but I don't think so. Tony cast her. I said, who do you want to be and who would you like to play your wife? He said, my wife? I said, okay. And he looks at dailies, which were kind of good. All that stuff the first day with the butt can and the cigarettes and cigarettes. My God. And he's like this, Tony. And I said, everybody's pretty good. He says, I can't do this movie. I said, what? You got to do this movie. You got to call tomorrow. He says, no, I'll pay for the. You gotta shut down. Little did he know we had no money anyway. But I said, what are you talking about? And he said, I can't do that. I'm like a traditionally trained actor. These people are like real people. I don't know how to do that. I said, you're a real person. You just. I said, what are you talking about? Altman, who could hear in a noisy room, he could hear you talking in the next block. So he comes right in our faces. What are you guys talking about? I said, tony just quit. What'd you say? And Tony's standing right there. I said, if he quits, I quit. Well, I guess we don't have a movie then. And Tony said, well, no, wait a sec. I mean. And he says, you going to quit or aren't you going to quit? He said, well, I said, okay, well, show up tomorrow and you won't quit. And that was it. I think if I had just said, oh, how much money are you going to pay us to? But if I'd said, okay, I'm sorry. I will get Sam Elliot or somebody, he would have walked away. But he came. He came every night in dailies. He was one of the most gracious, wonderful persons I've ever worked with in my life. And, you know, you do these movies, you get so close to people, and then you don't see them ever again. But he called me up, oh, many years later. I think he directed one of the Psychos. I'm not sure. Five or six or which. Whatever, 12. And he said, I want you to know something. I've invited everyone to Daily.
Millie Decherico
I want to get to the, you know, the question I think you and I had obviously talked about before and part of, you know, obviously my history with your movie, which is that, you know, it's unavailable, has been for a long time. And I know that there are certain movies of yours that are now on Criterion, and so.
Casey O'Brien
One.
Millie Decherico
One. Well. But, you know, like, Trouble In Mind is available. There's a lot of other of your films that are kind of out there to see, but this one, I think, has a special distinction, I think. And I was wondering if maybe you wanted to talk about that or how much, you know, or are involved with that.
Casey O'Brien
I live it every second. This was a pivotal thing for me. This film, welcome to la, came out. It made a noise. The west coast loved it. The east coast hated it, which changed later in my life when I moved to New York permanently. And then they loved it, and the west coast hated my movies. But. But when we did, remember, I thought, okay, everything's going to be different on this movie. Me especially, Because I actually have some ideas of how to do this and what I was after. And I have to say it's exactly what I was hoping to do. And I really thought it was for me a real breakthrough. It was broken all right. We made it in la. It got really good review. I think it was the best picture of the year from the LA Weekly, which is. I don't know if it still exists, but it's a free paper which is fitting for this movie. And then the New York Times called me a racist basically. And Columbia, before the release of the movie, I should get that in. Columbia Pictures had called up right before the second week and said to Altman, hey, we hear you're doing a movie. We can't do those kind of movies, but we'll finance it. So like on the eve of shutting down, we got money to finish the movie. Then we finished it, took it to Columbia where the head of the studio, Bob, me, Bob's associate producer and the editor sat in a one of those big studio screening rooms and watch this movie. And lights come up. The guy comes over to me, says, yeah, you did a good job and says to Altman and they talked and Bob comes back, he said, they don't want it. And I said, well, what are we going to do? He said, we'll figure it out. So we kind of didn't figure it out and the to get it released. There was a guy who worked around Bob who was a publicist and a marketing and Mike Kaplan and he had worked with Kubrick and he was quite brilliant. I don't know if anybody saw Choose Me, but those posters on the walls are all his. He's got a world class collection. Anyway, Bob said Mikey will release it. Mikey had a little art house release program company which released film every 10 years or something. So Mikey took hold of it and he had a little money and he said, okay, we can't afford to open it up at any, you know, more than one theater at a time. So we're going to open in LA and open in New York and then it'll be a city a year. So three, four years into the movie he'd say, okay, Philadelphia this year. And I think we got Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle. And that was about it. And there's a hang up with the music rights that is so obscure that it's laughable, but it's not really an issue. It's just one of those mazes that they send you through because nobody wants to deal with this movie. But Columbia still owns or Is there a Columbia, Sony? Whatever it is, they own it. And there was some little. Because when the movie was made, there was no such thing as home video and whatnot. But there was some little paragraph or something, I suppose that said about ancillary rights or whatever. And I guess that's the hang up. I learned that today by reading something about the movie. So that was it. Total gone. So it's never been on video, never been on dvd. You streamed it and saved it from. That means to me there's some technical preservation of the film, which is all I'm looking for anymore for any of my films because they were all made for little companies that lasted a couple years and then just threw them away or gave them away or sold them as part of whatever they had. And you know, now people watch movies on their wristwatches and they just want some. Anything. I don't care what it is, just show me something so I can walk out and every movie but this has been shown. So I have to come to Atlanta, which I'm thrilled about. I kind of find it ironic that a movie called Remember My Name is Lost that nobody knows about it.
Alan Rudolph
Fabulous. A fabulous conversation. Thank you, Millie, for providing that and for introducing me to more of the work of Alan Rudolph. I'm excited to explore more of his films. Anywho, moving on to our next segment, employees picks. These are our film recommendations based on the theme of the episode today. Millie, what do you got?
Millie Decherico
I was going down the list of Alan's filmography and I was kind of like, okay, what is something that maybe. Cause I could talk about? There's a lot of his films that I've seen. I've seen Trouble In Mind. I've seen Songwriter, I've seen Roadie, welcome to la. But I think I want to go with. Because I actually remember this movie coming out because I was in high school and I actually didn't know that Alan Rudolph had directed it until much later. But it's a movie from 1994 and it's called Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle. And this is a biography of the writer Dorothy Parker, who everybody probably knows. She was part of this group of funny, witty intellectuals that were called the Algonquin Roundtable. And they were basically like a bunch of cool people that used to hang out at the Algonquin Hotel in New York in like the late teens, early 20s. And I remember this movie. I saw it in the 90s, not in 94, but like much later. And it's like Jennifer Jason Leigh plays Dorothy Parker and Campbell Scott's in it. He plays Robert Benchley, who, if you don't know Robert Benchley, he was kind of this, like, humorist, and he did these, like, short films that. And we used to run him on TCM all the time. And he's really, really funny. But then it's like a kind of ensemble cast of people playing real people. So, like, Matthew Broderick's in it, Andrew McCarthy and Jennifer Beals and Wallace Shawn. And I mean, everybody in this movie is fucking fantastic. I mean, like, Gwyneth Paltrow's in this movie. Like Martha Plimpton. It's kind of stacked. And, I don't know, like, to me, I feel like if you're gonna watch something of Ellen's that's like, a little bit more on the commercial end, because it was a Miramax movie or a Fine Line movie, this might be something to watch. And I think Jennifer Jason Lee is amazing in it. And I love the kind of relationship between Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley is sort of told in the movie. I don't know. I just think it's really great. And I love Campbell Scott. I think he's fantastic. So, I don't know. Check it out if you want to. It's a great film by Ellen.
Alan Rudolph
Cool. Amazing. Well, I'm going to recommend a non Alan Rudolph movie, even though this whole episode is an Alan Rudolph movie. But I haven't seen as many as you, and so I feel like it would be wrong to recommend a movie I haven't seen.
Millie Decherico
Fair enough.
Alan Rudolph
So I am going a slightly different direction. There's a young Jeff Goldblum in the movie Remember My Name, and I was thinking about young Jeff Goldblum, and he is in a movie that I love, and it came out the year before Remember My Name. And it's by a director who I also feel like is sort of similar to Alan Rudolph in that they weren't, like, they really focused on movies that were human and much more about interpersonal relationships. And the movie I'm recommending is 1977's between the Lines by director Joan Micklin Silver. Between the Lines is about a alternative newspaper in Boston, like this fake alternative newspaper. And it's got John Heard, Lindsey Krause, Jeff Goldblum, Bruno Kirby, Mary Lou Renner, Joe Morton. It's kind of this ensemble cast, and it's really a fun movie about a group of young creative people working on something and their kind of personal lives. And I don't know, it's a really delightful film. And I Feel like more people should see it. So I am recommending between the lines from 1977. Yeah, you can rent it on prime or other streaming services. It's put out by the Cohen Media Channel. It's on the Cohen Media Channel, whatever that is. But anyways, it's a fun. I like movies about like groups of people who are like young and working towards sort of a shared goal. And yeah, it's fun. It's great time.
Millie Decherico
That's awesome. I love Jode Micklin Silver. I should watch this movie because Crossing Delancey is one of my favorite movies.
Alan Rudolph
So, yeah, Crossing Delancey, she's amazing.
Millie Decherico
Hester Street. Yeah, I. Hester street.
Alan Rudolph
That was the other one.
Millie Decherico
I was trying to think, yeah, I gotta watch it immediately. So. Good, good pick. It's good. What's up? Are we done? That's it.
Alan Rudolph
We're done. Hey, let's get out of here.
Millie Decherico
All right, well, listen, if you want to email us for any reason, if you want to, you know, get some film advice from us, we love to give film advice. I don't know why.
Alan Rudolph
We do.
Millie Decherico
We do. If you have a film gripe, if you want to talk more about Ellen Rudolph's filmography with me, if you want to talk about your own film regrets, whatever you got, email us at dear movies@exactlyrightmedia.com and by the way, we love voicemails. We want to hear your voices, we want to hear your regional accents. Please send us a voicemail. If you just record it on your phone, just make sure it's about a minute or less. And you can also email it to us at the same email address. DearMoviesacactlyrightmedia.com Excellent.
Alan Rudolph
You can also follow us on our socials. Earmovies. I love you on Instagram and Facebook. Our letterboxd handles are acle, o' Brien and Decherico. And you can listen to Dear Movies I Love youe on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Millie Decherico
All right, well, let's talk about next week, shall we? Whoop, whoop.
Alan Rudolph
Hooty, hooty hoo.
Millie Decherico
It's gonna be a good one because I feel like it's gonna be. It's not like anchored in a film, right? We're just talking.
Alan Rudolph
We're just. We're just kind of like skit scatting and bebopping all over this one.
Millie Decherico
We are going to talk about VHS era classics, basically thrilling movies that we remember from our childhoods. Putting those big ass tapes in those big Ass slots. And yeah, I'm excited because I feel like this is a whole thing. This is like. And it's been a thing for a long time, people getting back into VHS and collecting vhs.
Alan Rudolph
I know.
Millie Decherico
You are collecting VHS as we.
Alan Rudolph
I'm back on the train. I just bought two this last weekend. It's a cheap collection. It's like, I'm not. I've never been a collector, but this is kind of a cheap one. You know, I bought Fargo and I bought Delicatessen.
Millie Decherico
Yeah.
Alan Rudolph
Both on vhs.
Millie Decherico
It's fantastic. And I mean, the best thing about the VHS stuff is that you can watch the trailer stuff before the movie, which is a lost art.
Alan Rudolph
I feel like Millie put a pin in that.
Millie Decherico
Okay, we're gonna talk about it. I'm excited.
Alan Rudolph
Yeah. VHS Classics. That's thrilling. I'm excited to talk about that too.
Millie Decherico
All right.
Alan Rudolph
That's a lot. I mean, that was like, the birthplace of my film fandom.
Millie Decherico
Oh, mine too.
Alan Rudolph
You know, I'm sure you're gonna hear.
Millie Decherico
Plenty of stories, so stay tuned for that next week. But I don't know. That's our episode. Thank you so much to everybody for listening. I just wanna also thank, like, Alan and Joyce, obviously. I wanna thank AJ and CJ and Matt Booth and Richard, everybody from the Plaza that helped to bring this audio to us because I don't know how to record audio in a movie theater. So they helped. So thanks so much and, yeah, I don't know, thank you to Casey for being here.
Alan Rudolph
Great to be here. Thank you, Millie, for sharing your knowledge of Ellen Rudolph and for bringing me this amazing movie that has enriched my life.
Millie Decherico
Clink. I'm clicking a double Manhattan with you.
Alan Rudolph
Oh, she's back at it.
Millie Decherico
Yeah.
Alan Rudolph
And she's also smoking a cigarette.
Millie Decherico
Let's get hammered.
Alan Rudolph
Amazing. Thanks, Millie.
Millie Decherico
Thank you. Bye.
Alan Rudolph
Bye.
Millie Decherico
This has been an exactly right production. Hosted by me, Millie DiCerico, and produced by my co host, Casey O'. Brien.
Alan Rudolph
This episode was mixed by Tom Bryfogel. Our associate producer is Christina Chamberlain. Our guest booker is Patrick Cotner. And our artwork is by Vanessa Lilac.
Millie Decherico
Our incredible theme music is by the best band in the entire world, the Softies.
Alan Rudolph
Thank you to our executive producers, Karen Kilgariff, Georgia Hardstark, Daniel Kramer and Millie De Chico.
Casey O'Brien
We love you.
Alan Rudolph
Goodbye.
Joyce Rudolph
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Millie Decherico
Loans so you can expand and access.
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Dear Movies, I Love You
Episode: Alan Rudolph & Remember My Name (1978)
Release Date: July 8, 2025
In this captivating episode of Dear Movies, I Love You, hosts Millie De Chirico and Casey O'Brien delve deep into the world of cinema with a special focus on the 1978 film Remember My Name, directed by the esteemed Alan Rudolph. The episode promises an engaging blend of reenactments, insightful film discussions, and personal anecdotes that both seasoned film enthusiasts and casual listeners will find enriching.
The episode kicks off with a spirited reenactment of a scene from Remember My Name, showcasing the hosts' playful chemistry and setting the tone for an evening of in-depth movie analysis.
[04:04] Millie Decherico: "We're going to talk about the movie Remember My Name from 1978, directed by the great Alan Rudolph."
[02:54] Alan Rudolph: "How great would it be just to fill a little ashtray full of cigarettes at a restaurant inside?"
Their reenactment vividly captures the film's ambiance, providing listeners a taste of the movie's unique atmosphere.
Millie shares her recent cinematic explorations, highlighting lesser-known gems and mainstream releases alike.
[09:17] Millie Decherico: "I watched Pink Narcissus from 1971, a dreamy avant-garde art house film about a gay male sex worker navigating erotic fantasies."
[11:45] Millie Decherico: "Then I watched Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. The kills are brutally intense, and Corey Feldman's performance is unforgettable."
Alan Rudolph interjects with his own viewing experiences, including:
The heart of the episode lies in the in-depth conversation between Millie, Casey, and guest Alan Rudolph, where they dissect Remember My Name and explore Alan Rudolph's illustrious career.
Alan shares his transition from working alongside Robert Altman to carving out his unique directorial path.
[22:35] Millie Decherico: "Alan Rudolph is a great American director who began his career working with Robert Altman on classics like The Long Goodbye and Nashville."
[24:07] Alan Rudolph: "I've had to be part AD on my own sets due to small crew sizes, keeping everything together without a dedicated assistant director."
A detailed analysis of the film's narrative, characters, and thematic elements.
[32:25] Alan Rudolph: "Emily, played by Geraldine Chaplin, is fresh out of a 12-year stint in jail and struggles to fit back into society. Her interactions are eerie, especially her stalking of Neil, portrayed by Anthony Perkins."
[36:24] Millie Decherico: "Emily's journey is about relearning femininity, evident in scenes like her hostile interactions while buying clothes at a department store."
[42:07] Alan Rudolph: "The scene where Emily infiltrates Neil and Barbara's house is particularly unsettling. She appears comfortable in their space, which heightens the tension."
[50:25] Millie Decherico: "The revelation that Emily is Neil's other wife flips the entire narrative, blending elements of noir and melodrama to create a morally ambiguous storyline."
Discussion on Rudolph's inspiration and stylistic choices, drawing parallels with Altman's influence.
[28:18] Millie Decherico: "Rudolph's films focus heavily on interpersonal relationships and possess a romantic yet off-kilter vibe, much like Altman's work."
[41:35] Alan Rudolph: "Culver City's bland 70s aesthetic perfectly complements the film's setting, providing a suburban backdrop that contrasts with the characters' internal turmoil."
Alan delves into the challenges surrounding the film's availability and his efforts to preserve his work.
[80:55] Millie Decherico: "Despite its acclaim, Remember My Name has been largely unavailable on home video due to complex music rights issues and studio constraints."
[81:15] Alan Rudolph: "The film never saw a proper release on video or DVD, leaving it to survive only through occasional streaming and rare screenings like the one in Atlanta."
He expresses hope for the film's restoration and wider availability, emphasizing its cultural significance.
To conclude the episode, Millie and Alan share their favorite films, offering listeners a curated list of must-watch movies.
As the episode wraps up, the hosts invite listeners to engage with the podcast through emails and voicemails, fostering a community of film lovers eager to discuss and share their cinematic experiences. They also tease the next episode, which will explore VHS era classics, celebrating the nostalgic charm of vintage tapes and the unique viewing experiences they offer.
The episode concludes on a high note, leaving listeners eagerly anticipating future discussions and deep dives into the world of films.
Millie Decherico [04:05]: "We're going to talk about the movie Remember My Name from 1978, directed by the great Alan Rudolph."
Alan Rudolph [22:35]: "I've had to be part AD on my own sets due to small crew sizes, keeping everything together without a dedicated assistant director."
Millie Decherico [50:25]: "The revelation that Emily is Neil's other wife flips the entire narrative, blending elements of noir and melodrama to create a morally ambiguous storyline."
Alan Rudolph [81:15]: "The film never saw a proper release on video or DVD, leaving it to survive only through occasional streaming and rare screenings like the one in Atlanta."
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This comprehensive summary captures the essence of the podcast episode, highlighting key discussions, insightful analyses, and engaging interactions between the hosts and their guest, Alan Rudolph. Whether you're a fan of classic cinema or new to Alan Rudolph's work, this episode offers a rich exploration of film artistry and storytelling.