By Erin Free
In the seventies and eighties, Alan Rudolph quietly emerged as one of the most original and idiosyncratic voices in American cinema, with a series of highly unusual films.
A renowned juggler of genre, and a protégé of the great Robert Altman, Rudolph has mixed deeply personal projects (Welcome To LA, Remember My Name) with mainstream work (Mortal Thoughts), genre curios (Endangered Species), superior period flicks (The Moderns, Mrs. Parker And The Vicious Circle), and near-non-definable cult gems (Trouble In Mind).
And now, after a fourteen year directorial lay-off (his last film was 2002’s little seen The Secret Lives Of Dentists), Alan Rudolph returns to the big screen with Ray Meets Helen, which will reunite him with frequent collaborators, Keith Carradine and Lesley Ann Warren, who so memorably starred in his 1984 cult fave, Choose Me.
A typically unconventional comedy drama, Ray Meets Helen follows two sixty-somethings whose wrecked, ramshackle lives take a strange, encouraging turn after their surprise meeting. Welcome back, Mr. Rudolph!
Nice interview with him in Eddie Muller, ed., 2015 Film Noir Annual.