Customer Reviews

That Cold Day in the Park

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

 

 

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....

Pre - "Fatal Attraction" this "sister to that lady" is also a close cousin to Polanski's "Repulsion".

Quite a nasty tale about a lonely spinster's yearning for compansionship and the devastating result of "being kind to strangers".

An all but forgotten Altman - it deserves a better place, letterboxed and restored with the other odd Altman Jewels "3 Women", etc.

SANDY DENNIS devastates as usual with her unique "portrait of loneliness". Absolutely an award winning performance, DON'T neglect this one!

For more fun? "GAMES" [Simone Signoret], different, but equally piquant!

"That Cold Day In The Park" opens up in a rather innocuous fashion. A middle aged woman, Frances, is entertaining some dinner guests when she notices that a young man is sitting outside on a park bench. It begins to rain and the man attempts to take cover under a newspaper that had been thrown in the trash. After her guests leave, Frances goes outside and invites the young man inside her apartment to dry off. It quickly becomes clear that Frances is quite lonely and she tries her best to make her new guest very welcome. She is in no hurry for him to leave.

Unfortunately, the film ends up doing a 180. At first this appears to be a fascinating look into a woman's lonely existence and her desperate quest for companionship. Instead, it descends into trashiness and an attempt to shock the viewer. Perhaps back in 1969 viewers found this to be something interesting in a freakish sort of way. In this day and age, however, the shock value is gone and its entertainment value lies in its ability to make the viewer laugh at the campiness of it all. Neither character is at all sympathetic so it ultimately leaves the viewer feeling disconnected. Sandy Dennis gives a wonderful performance but it is mostly wasted here. I only recommend this movie for those who enjoy bizarre social behavior.

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.

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.

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.

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.

What lady in her right mind would take in a 19 year old boy in this day and age? Well, since the movie was made in 1969, we don't know. Incest is involved also. The woman wants to keep this boy as a possession.Sandy dennis does a excellent job in this film.