Customer Reviews

That Cold Day in the Park [VHS]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Desperate for companionship, a lonely spinster invites a young homeless boy up to her apartment and then goes to drastic measures to make him stay. Following her Oscar-winning turn in Mike Nichols' ground-breaking drama "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?", this is the gifted Sandy Dennis' finest hour on screen. As the demented heroine, Dennis makes you feel your way into her character's dark and ultimately disturbing world. It's a blissful, strikingly effective performance, and watching it one might wonder why Dennis didn't win a second Oscar. The film is also well-directed by a supremely talented fellow by the name of Robert Altman whom you may know as the creator of such hit films as "MASH" and "NASHVILLE". Unfortunately, "THAT COLD DAY IN THE PARK" bit the dust at the box-office. Like so many of Altman's films(3 Women, in particular), the movie requires a great deal of patience to fully understand its meanings, but those who sit it out will find it to be a rich, rewarding film.

In this old film by Robert Altman, we discover how solitude for a young woman is a plague on her way to happiness and satisfaction. She comes to the point where she cannot even ask anyone for the contact she desires. She lives in a completely artificial and closed world. One day she brings into her world a stranger she finds in a park and she desires him but she treats him like a canaribird in a cage : she feeds him, she bathes him, she dresses him, she provides him with all comfort, she even provides him with a woman, but he cannot escape, he is a prisoner. It is only within that frame and after a long evolution that she finally finds the courage to ask for what she wants, and yet with no promise that the cage will be reopened. In other words, after a long life with her mother after the death of her father and among people who are from her mother's world, she is totally handicapped in society and unable to navigate properly among desires and obstacles. She can only take and possess. The other is no longer a human being but a toy, a doll in a way. A very sad picture of the loneliness of the solitary young lady in the upper middle-class....

Sandy Dennis is at her best in this film set in Vancouver in 1969. She plays a lonely woman and takes in a guy who pretends to be a mute. The most powerful aspect is what's going on in her mind..her break with reality when she realizes her vision of their relationship is an illusion. This mute guy is one evil dude. It's easy to empathize with Sandy's character. Another unique experiment in '60s revolutionary film: smashing many societal barriers.

I've been on something of a "quest" to see films from 1969 lately; the most obscure film of this project so far strangely enough comes from one of the most famous directors, Robert Altman, and stars a rather famous actress who had won an Oscar a couple of years before, Sandy Dennis. Critic Jonathan Rosenbaum in a rather disparaging capsule review called this the first Altman film that is recognizably "his"; not having seen COUNTDOWN, THE JAMES DEAN STORY, THE DELINQUENTS or any of his earlier TV work or shorts, I couldn't say. But it certainly does feature many Altman trademarks, most notably several instances of overlapping dialogue that are mixed quite forwardly on the soundtrack. Why the film languishes in obscurity is something of a mystery; it doesn't have a decent commercial DVD release anywhere and has fewer votes than every one of his succeeding films, including some reputedly dire stuff like HEALTH.

While I like most of what I've seen from Altman, I don't LOVE most of it; he remains a director that I'm not entirely convinced by; and while this film isn't likely to change my mind, it is for most of it's running time quite an interesting psychological drama, with two characters playing games that gradually get more serious and intense, games they ought to know better than to keep playing - but of course if they did, where would the film be? Dennis plays Frances Austen, a wealthy 30ish spinster who lives on an upper floor in a fancy older apartment building across from a park in Vancouver (it's not really important where the film takes place, but the titles tell us, so I'm telling you). We see her at the beginning of the film hosting a gathering of several much older men and women; at first it's unclear as to her relationship but we eventually piece together that her mother was a member of this group and she has more or less succeeded to the same place. She notices a young man sitting on a bench in the rain in the park across the street; when the group leaves, she goes out to invite him to come in out of the rain.

Right away we can see that Frances is a little weird - maybe a lot weird. Just inviting some stranger into her very nice apartment - that she lives in all alone - is the act of somebody who is lonely and more than a little bit delusional. From the get-go, we can almost feel her desires - a combination of motherliness and sexual attraction - for the man, a very beautiful 20ish blonde boy (Michael Burns) who seems to be mute. She brings him in - gets him food - lets him take a bath - dries his clothes - and lets him stay overnight in her spare room. No advances are made on either part, and we're as unclear as to the young man's motives as to Frances'. As the film continues we see that both are keeping secrets from each other - the young man's are more obvious, but Frances' are perhaps more important - even, in the end, vital.

The psychological game play is generally well handled here, and both Burns and Dennis are really excellent - the first ¾ of the film I have to say I was almost completely entranced, as we slowly find out more and more about each character and wonder just where it could possibly all lead. But unfortunately - for me, anyway - the last act goes in a too-Hollywood conventional direction, making something of Frances that I'm not sure is either necessary or desirable. I'm not going to spoil it for you, see for yourself and judge whether I'm right in my assessment - but I think that in an era where ambiguity and open endings and elliptical narratives were more acceptable, the choices that Altman and screenwriter Gillian Freeman (working from a novel by Peter Miles) make seem a little too obvious and clichéd.

Still it's a fine, creepy mood piece, and though as I said earlier it's not going to turn me around on Altman by itself, it certainly doesn't dissuade me from delving further into his work. It's nicely shot by ace cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs, though many of the virtues of his fine indoor work in Frances' beautifully appointed apartment are lost in this mediocre VHS. Still for fans of Altman or Dennis, this is worth getting, and who knows when a good widescreen DVD or BluRay transfer will be available?

This film still runs through my mind two days after seeing it. The whole film made me so uncomfortable that I couldn't breathe normally while watching it. And I loved every minute of it.

This is a dark movie, both in content and in the degree of lighting. Sandy Dennis plays Frances Austin, a single 32-year old woman living alone. As you learn later in the film, her parents are dead and her only interaction is with a group of older people where, with one exception her actual relationship with them is left ambiguous. The exception is an older man that has "designs" on her. Looking out the window on a cold and rainy day, Frances sees a young man sitting on a park bench.
She invites him into her home and since he is a bit of a prankster, he pretends to be a mute, although we don't learn that until later in the movie that it is an act. Frances takes his wet clothes, lets him take a hot bath and feeds him. This begins an odd relationship as she buys him things and begins to treat him as a "kept man." She goes out and buys him a complete set of new clothes and tries to get him interested in other things such as music.
Frances is a woman whose loneliness had driven her to the very edge of madness, although it is clear that she is a disturbed personality, we have no idea to what extent she is unhinged. The movie moves very slowly in building the situation between Frances and the young man and there are also hints of bizarre behavior on the part of the man.
The young man goes back to a houseboat where he lives and finds a woman that lives there in bed with a man. The woman has very little modesty around him, so at first it appears that there is a two-on-one threesome. However, later he uses the word "Mom" to her in a context that indicates that they share a mother. This is especially creepy because the "sister" strips down in front of him and takes a bath and there is a strong hint that they engaged in a sexual act. The "sister" also makes a comment to the young man about not talking for extended periods of time.
At times early on you are uncertain who is the most disturbed between Frances and the young man but at the end it is clear which is sane and which is not. Due to the slow development of the story and the subject matter, this is one of those movies that some will detest and others will love. I doubt if there is a great deal of middle ground.

They play the main theme along with the film openning credits.
What a theme with an extraordinary melody by Mandel.
A great film, a great drama by Altman, always smart.
Music is as nervous as spectacular Sandy Dennis role in her intent to catch love from the boy.

Refer to the story in the Amazon review guidelines.

Unfortunately film and soundtrack are unavailable for USA fans.
This Australian edition plays only in certain countries labeled world DVD area 4 and color standard is not NTSC as in the USA.

The same film's main theme was recorded by Quincy Jones in his 'Walking in Space' album under the title 'I Never Told You'. Beautiful melody.

Sandy Dennis plays Frances Austin an ultra vulnerable boderline psychotic woman who wants to make a big change in her life.

As fate would have it she trys to possess a young man she sees in the park with a bizzare and devastating outcome. Directed with a sure hand by Robert Altman .A Most unusual film.

The plot of Cold Day In The Park is pretty simple: A sexually inexperanced spinceter-Sandy Dennis-sees a young man outside her house in the rain. She takes him in, feeds him, and cares for him. He makes himself at home for the next few days. Soon, his host gets the hots, but, she being very proper in 1969, can't quite bring herself to make the move. He, on the other hand, couldn't care less. He is more interested in eating her food.

Eventually, the lady gets crazy, gets birth contol, and hires an ugly hooker, to do, I guess, what she can't bring herslef to. This women is a lot nuttier than we are first led to think, and things, let's just say. do not end well.

This was the film Robert Altman made before M*A*S*H made him a big star. It was fillmed in Canada, and has a small, stage-like quality. The young man, played by Michael Burns--who played Blueboy on that famous Dragnet acid episode (I am the train, I am the train)-refuses to talk. So much of this film goes by without a lot of dioluge. There are also a lot of theatre games and pantamime Altman works into Cold Day In The Park.

Personally, I like that late 60s style of flim making, where the pace is slow and there are long sections of quiet. The diolouge is almost written AROUND the plot, not in serivce of it, and you really have to sit quietly and watch the story slowly unfold.

In our world of MTV and fast pace editing, 1969s Cold Day In The Park may seem tedious for modern viewers. But for those who enjoy a quiet film that works more on spareness and nuance than action, this is defiantely work watching.

Inncidentally, the theme music is by Johnny Mandel, and Quincy Jones, on his Walking In Space album, covers it. This is also well worth checking out.

This early Robert Altman film is a small (if deeply unsettling) little jewel, distinguished by a superb performance by Sandy Dennis. As a sheltered, naïve, but creepily neurotic woman without a clue as to how the world of human relationships actually functions, she quietly dominates the screen. And she's well-matched by the young Michael Burns, far more cunning & manipulative than his initially mute charade suggests -- but he's in over his head, horribly so, as he discovers much too late in the game.

And what is the game?

Sandy Dennis' Frances is a spinster, emotionally swaddled & smothered, yearning for human love & human contact, but utterly lost in the real world outside her apartment. When she encounters Michael Burns (simply The Boy) in the park, she takes him home, which is fine with him. It's only as the story continues that he & we begin to understand just how troubled & dangerous Frances really is ...

In some ways like "The Collector," only with the roles reversed, this film differs in that its leads aren't really that sympathetic. Altman tends to shoot them through windows & panes of glass, distancing them, creating a detached & voyeuristic atmosphere. Add to that the washed-out lighting that exposes every bit of grime & decay, and the result is both clinically & uncomfortably intimate.

The fact that it was made when movies were pushing against the last vestiges of censorship gives it a peculiar intensity. Nowadays everything can be said & shown; back then, it was genuinely daring to even try. So even though what we see is comparatively tame beside the explicitness of modern films, it possesses a genuine & powerful perversity that most modern films can't approach.

It's not for casual viewing, and not something you'd want to watch too often. But it'll stay with you, whether you want it to or not. I'm only surprised that it isn't available on DVD yet, as it's the first of Robert Altman's many films to fully bear his imprint, and deserves greater exposure. Darkly recommended!