shelley duvall – A Damn Fine Cup of Culture

A Damn Fine Espresso: April 2025

Apr 19, 2025Jul 5, 2025The Barista CollectiveLeave a comment

Back in 2022, we did our first summer series: the Summer of Directors. The episode led by Alan focused on Robert Altman, the “grizzly-bear genius of American cinema”, as Ryan Gilbert put it in The Guardian. Back then, we discussed three of Altman’s most iconic ’70s films: satirical neo-noir The Long Goodbye, revisionist Western McCabe & Mrs. Miller and Nashville, a scathing satire of America through the lens of the country music industry. At the time, we gave a shout-out to one of Altman’s less well-known films, his uncanny psychological drama 3 Women, but we didn’t discuss it in detail. This month’s espresso podcast remedies this: join Alan and Matt as they talk about Altman’s most dreamlike film. 3 Women (1977), starring Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek and Janice Rule, is enigmatic and borders on the surreal, echoing and prefiguring the identity-blurring nightmares of Ingmar Bergman’s Persona and David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive. What did Matt and Alan make of this strange, eerie film, and how does it fit in with their idea of Robert Altman?

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A Damn Fine Cup of Culture Podcast #59: Summer of Directors – Robert Altman

Aug 6, 2022Aug 5, 2022The Barista Collective8 Comments

Our Summer of Directors continues with Robert Altman, the maverick director whose subversive takes on quintessentially American genres helped shape 1970s Hollywood cinema. Join Alan, Matt and frequent contributor Daniel Thron from fellow film podcast Martini Giant as they discuss three Altman classics: the darkly satirical neo-noir Chandler adaptation The Long Goodbye, the revisionist western McCabe & Mrs. Miller and the scathing quasi-musical critique of American society and culture, Nashville. Why is it that many of Altman’s films can rub viewers the wrong way the first time they see them – or is the wrong way in fact the right way, considering the venom of some of Altman’s satire? What changes for us when revisiting these films? What are the targets of Altman’s critique, and what is its collateral damage? To what extent did the director deplore the world and society he depicted – and how much affection does he have for them? And why oh why doesn’t Shelley Duvall, the perfect Olive Oyl, get more recognition than she does?

You can find more of Dan’s movie takes in our podcast episodes on Steven Soderbergh’s Schizopolis and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, and of course at www.martinigiant.com, as well as on YouTube and TikTok.

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Six Damn Fine Degrees #30: Shelley Duvall in The Shining

May 28, 2021Oct 11, 2024Alan Kuhl Graham4 Comments

Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

In the inaugural awards ceremony for The Golden Raspberries back in 1980, Shelley Duvall was nominated for her performance as Wendy Torrence in The Shining. This fact is a useful reminder as to how mixed to hostile the critical reception was for the film on its initial release. And that the annual exercise in lazy trying-to-be-cool snobbery that is the Razzies really don’t know what they’re talking about.