Beauty vs Beast: Send in the You-Know-Whats
Monday, August 1, 2016 at 8:30PM Howdy folks it's Jason from MNPP here wishing everybody a candy-colored start to a candy-colored week - that's right, today marks the first day of International Clown Week, held every year right at the start of August, aka the best time to make that make-up run right off your face and give you the time honored "Creepy Clown Effect." But while (in a weird but total coincidence) I may have just started re-reading Stephen King's It this week I'm not going to make you think about Scary Clowns today - oh I know for some of you there is no other kind, but I'm going to try to temper that with Auterism because...
... hey remember that scene in Robert Altman's 1993 masterpiece Short Cuts where Claire (Anne Archer), a professional clown, and her husband Stuart (Fred Ward) get blasted at dinner with new friends Marion (Julianne Moore) and Ralph (Matthew Modine), and instead of the partner-swapping you expect to happen they all just put on clown make-up and dance around instead? I sure do. It's one of the many right turns the film takes when you've braced yourself for a left. So let's face off these two couples for "Beauty vs Beast" this week...
If you need a refresher both couples are in the middle of personal crises -- Marion & Ralph (Moore & Modine) are the couple who have the long fight about her cheating whilst Juli proves she's a natural redhead, while Stuart has just told Claire (Ward & Archer) that he and his fishing buddies fished around a corpse all weekend long. In the grand tradition of Altman-esque character studies, they're all a bit beastly.
PREVIOUSLY Last week we ventured to Mortville with John Waters and his muses for a look at one of his most underappreciated efforts, Desperate Living (and the poll showed just how underappreciated the film remains, with one of our tiniest voting totals ever) - it was Queen Carlotta (Edith Massey) who was carried by her loyal litter of man-servants to the victory, taking 55% of the vote. Said Ken S:
"I'll teach you to arouse royalty! - Team Carlotta all the way!"
Reader Comments (9)
Ward & Archer seem to have a healthier dynamic and better sex.
My first impulse is always to vote for Julianne, but Ralph really brings that team down.
Plus, I love Claire the clown, and Fred Ward in Short Cuts is the sex.
Ready to Wear may be my favorite Altman movie. Everything else is either a chore to get through or a promising disappointment. Short Cuts upsets me. It was too bleak without any emotional catharsis.
The genius of Moore is you watch her face in this instead of her special lady place.
I love Altman movies...he was for a certain taste, but I loved is movies...
Mike & Peggy - i'm with you 100% I have to go with Anne Archer & Fred Ward since its maybe my favorite performance from both of them (and agree the sex is probably good). Modine & Moore have been better elsewhere. Plus the clown makeup is the Archer/Ward team's idea!
For those mentioning Fred Ward's sexiness if you want to ogle him I posted some gifs of him in this movie over at MNPP earlier -- agree with Nat that this is probably his & Archer's finest hours
Ward as Roon in Big Business early awakenings of a young gay.
Ward as Roon in Big Business early awakenings of a young gay.
Is there a scene with him in his draws, a wife beater, and black socks? Those are prevalent in 80's movies.