Rated: R    Runtime: 108 min.
ROBERT ALTMAN VS. FRIENDSHIP!

Quintessential American iconoclast Robert Altman spent fifty-five years exploring human behavior through cinema. In that span, certain themes and authorial viewpoints asserted themselves. For a few nights, the Roxie would like to draw your kind attention to his combative but consistent approach to a trio of topics.

This evening, companionship is simultaneously a laugh riot and game of mutually assured destruction in ROBERT ALTMAN VS. FRIENDSHIP.

Double Feature!

CALIFORNIA SPLIT
United by a long night of drinking and gambling, sullen Bill (George Seagal) and wisecracking Charlie (Elliot Gould) become fast pals. Their friendship and gambling debts deepen at roughly the same pace, which is to say, quickly. “At the end of California Split we realize that Altman has made a lot more than a comedy about gambling; he’s taken us into an American nightmare, and all the people we met along the way felt genuine and looked real.” - Roger Ebert. 1974, 35mm, 108 min. 7:00.

3 WOMEN
Naive Pinky (Sissy Spacey) lands a job at a physical rehabilitation center and is immediately impressed by Millie (Shelley Duvall), whom she views as the pinnacle of modern femininity (although those men Millie flirts with have a different opinion). Pinky and Millie become roommates. They spend a lot of time at a run down bar owned by a has-been cowboy and his silent muralist wife. Several meltdowns later, personalities have switched, subsumed and combined in this hypnotic and haunting masterpiece. 1977, 16mm, 123 min. 9:00.