Come Back To The Five And Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982) (Blu-ray & DVD) (UK Import)

Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean is one of the wonderful highlights of an under-appreciated chapter of director Robert Altman’s career. Between the box office disappointment of Popeye (1980) and the explosive comeback of The Player (1992), Altman returned to lower-budgeted, independent filmmaking, often boldly experimenting with how theatre work could be inventively adapted for cinema and television. This period of Altman’s oeuvre also includes such masterworks as Streamers (1983), Secret Honor (1984), and Tanner ’88 (1988), but was initiated by Come Back, and this funny, touching film of the play by Ed Graczyk (who adapted it for the screen) is a triumph.

Altman’s film also jump-started the serious acting career of Cher, nominated for a Golden Globe for her role as Sissy, one of the “Disciples of James Dean,” an all-women fan club devoted to the late actor, meeting for a reunion at a crumbling Woolworth’s in a small Texas town in 1975. Joined by group leader Mona (Sandy Dennis) and the glamorous, initially mysterious Joanne (Karen Black), the women recall their love for Dean, and the club that began twenty years earlier when the actor was in a nearby town filming Giant, and the fatal car accident that followed. Soon, as more memories of 1955 are recalled, secrets are revealed and old friendships are put to the test.

Reuniting Altman with his previous stars Dennis (That Cold Day in the Park) and Black (Nashville), and providing Kathy Bates with an early feature role, Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean is a study of nostalgia’s ability to distort the past, and another of the director’s fascinating portraits of the friendships between women. It’s also one of Altman’s warmest and most entertaining movies.

Extras

High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation from a newly updated version of the 2012 TFF funded restoration
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
New and exclusive feature-length audio commentary by Lee Gambin
Cutting Jimmy Dean [25 mins] – New and exclusive interview with film editor Jason Rosenfield
Designing Jimmy Dean [11 mins] – New and exclusive interview with art director David Gropman
Original Theatrical Trailer
A collector’s booklet featuring new essays by film critic and writer Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, and Travis Crawford

Rezensionen

Lexikon des Int. Films: "Ein Psychogramm von fünf Frauen mit ihren Träumen, Ausbruchsversuchen und ihren Formen der Selbsttäuschung. Außergewöhnliche Darstellerinnen."