| Fool for Love | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Robert Altman |
| Screenplay by | Sam Shepard |
| Based on | Fool for Love by Sam Shepard |
| Produced by | Menahem Golan Yoram Globus |
| Starring |
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| Cinematography | Pierre Mignot |
| Edited by |
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| Music by | George Burt |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | The Cannon Group, Inc. |
Release date |
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Running time | 106 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $2 million[1] |
| Box office | $836,000[2]—$900,000[1] |
Fool for Love is a 1985 Americanpsychological drama film directed byRobert Altman, and starringSam Shepard,Kim Basinger,Harry Dean Stanton,Randy Quaid, and Martha Crawford. It follows a woman awaiting the arrival of her boyfriend in a derelict motel in theMojave Desert, where she is confronted by a previous lover who threatens to undermine her efforts. It is based on the1983 stage play written by Shepard, who also adapted the screenplay.
Altman pitched the idea of a film version of the original play to Shepard, who thereby adapted it for the screen. Shepard, who initially had no plan on appearing in the film, agreed to portray one of the lead roles at Altman's request. Filming took place in the spring of 1985 inSanta Fe andLas Vegas, New Mexico, after which Altman oversaw post-production inParis.
Fool for Love was entered into the1986 Cannes Film Festival before it received a limited theatrical release in the United States throughThe Cannon Group, Inc. on December 6, 1985. The film was abox-office flop but received positive reviews from critics.[3]
May is hiding out at a rundown motel in theMojave Desert when an old flame and childhood friend, Eddie, arodeo stunt rider, shows up unexpectedly fromWyoming. Eddie breaks into May's room and attempts to convince her in argumentative terms that their fates are somehow linked and that they should be together. May vehemently refuses him for a variety of reasons, one being his infidelity with a fashion model known only as the Countess. May says that she has no interest in living with Eddie under any circumstances, assuring Eddie that if she goes back to him their relationship will repeat the same destructive cycle it has followed before. May informs Eddie that her current boyfriend, Martin, is due to arrive that night for a date.
As May and Eddie squabble and goad each other, the motel proprietor, known as the Old Man, observes them. The Old Man offers commentary and anecdotes to May and Eddie, divulging his relationship with both. It is slowly revealed that May and Eddie are in fact biologicalhalf-siblings, each fathered by the Old Man who had led a double life, abandoning their respective families in the same town for different periods during each child's life. Without knowledge of their father's philandering, May and Eddiebecame lovers in high school and when their parents finally figured out what had occurred, Eddie's mother shot herself out of guilt and shame. May has grown to fear that Eddie has begun to emulate his father's feckless womanizing.
Eddie performs rodeo tricks with alasso in the motel restaurant, while May looks on, drinking whiskey. The Countess arrives at the motel in a blackMercedes and opens fire at the restaurant with a revolver, apparently trying to shoot Eddie for his misconduct and mistreatment of her in their affair, before speeding away. As Eddie picks up a raging May and carries her back to her room, the Old Man remarks that he does not recognize himself in either of them. Martin arrives in the midst of the fight and tackles Eddie. May calms the situation, claiming that Eddie is her cousin, and that the two were in the midst of a trivial argument.
In the restaurant, Martin listens to each individual's recounting of events in bewilderment: Eddie confesses to Martin that May is his sister, and that the two fell in love before realizing they were related. May, however, claims they are not siblings, and that this is a fantasy Eddie has created. Meanwhile, the Old Man challenges May's story about Eddie's mother's suicide, claiming he was unaware of her death. The Old Man urges Eddie to come to his defense, but Eddie admits that his mother in fact killed herself with the Old Man's shotgun in a fit of despair. The Old Man accuses Eddie of betraying him as Eddie and May embrace.
The Countess returns to the motel and again opens fire. A stray bullet from her revolver sets off an explosion which ignites the entire motel into a blaze of fire. Eddie flees on horseback after the Countess as she drives away, while May departs on foot in the opposite direction with her suitcase in hand, leaving Martin behind. The Old Man closes himself inside his ramshackle trailer as the entire property is consumed by flames.
The film was adapted from Sam Shepard's stage play of the same name, which directorRobert Altman expressed interest in.[4] Shepard later stated that he felt the play was unsuited for a film adaptation, commenting:
What didn't work? The physicality of it. Onstage it was huge. It had a frightening physical reality to it, because of the actors, because of the intensity and the presence of the actors. On film it comes across as kind of a quaint little Western tale of two people lost in a motel room. Know what I mean? It doesn't have the power. In the theater it was right in front of your face, it was so intense and it was kind of scary.[5]
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Shepard's longtime partnerJessica Lange was originally asked to star in the film as May, but she backed out shortly before filming commenced, after which Kim Basinger was cast.[6] Basinger later said that Lange, who was pregnant at the time, was "just too tired to do it. Otherwise I don't think I would've stood a chance. But after I met Sam, I didn't even have to read for the part. He just told me I had it."[7]
Shepard wantedEd Harris, who portrayed Eddie in the original stage production, to reprise the role, but director Robert Altman felt Shepard himself should play the role instead.[5] Shepard later expressed remorse for starring in the film, stating that he felt "too attached to the material. I didn't have enough distance from it... I still think it was a mistake on my part. Ed was better. He had a more clean attack on the character than I did."[5]
Altman originally intended for a $5–6 million budget,[8] though the final production budget amounted to approximately $2 million.[1] The film was shot on location inSanta Fe andLas Vegas, New Mexico, with principal photography beginning on May 13, 1985.[9] Altman chose to shoot the film in the Santa Fe area so that Shepard, who resided there, could go home each night after filming.[10] Filming lasted approximately eight weeks, with a daily shooting schedule spanning 9:00pm–6:00am, as the film takes place over the course of a single night.[11]
The motel in which the film is set was constructed over a six-week period, designed by Altman and production designer Steve Altman (his son), and based on real operating motels they photographed while traveling throughAlbuquerque.[12] The motel set was so convincing that tourists and passersby believed it to be a real operating motel.[9] After production wrapped, the set was dismantled and removed.[9]
Karen Evans, a journalist who visited the set and interviewed cast and crew members, described the shoot as "grueling," noting that Shepard often lost patience with the cast and crew members, including becoming angry with Basinger when she forgot lines.[11]
Altman completed post-production of the film in Paris, where he was shooting a television adaptation ofMarsha Norman's playThe Laundromat, starringCarol Burnett andAmy Madigan.[3] Shepard stated in an interview years after the film's release that he had planned to partake in the post-production process, but that Altman took the film to France where he performed most of the editing himself.[5]
The soundtrack contains eight songs written and performed by Sandy Rogers, who is Sam Shepard's sister: “Let's Ride”, “It Comes and Goes”, “Go Rosa”, “You Lied Your Way”, “Call Me Up”, “Love Shy”, “First & Last Real Cowboy”, and “Why Wyoming” (co-written with Louise Kirchen).
Rogers also wrote a song called “Fool for Love” for the movie, but it was declined by Altman.[13] The song was featured in the filmReservoir Dogs and on itssoundtrack album, and later also on Rogers's own albumGreen Moon (1997).[14]
MGM/UA Home Video releasedFool for Love onVHS in 1986.[15]MGM Home Entertainment released the film for the first time onDVD on April 20, 2004.[16]
Kino Lorber released aBlu-ray edition in conjunction with Scorpion Releasing on June 8, 2021.[17]
Following its premiere at the1986 Cannes Film Festival,[18]Fool for Love had a limited theatrical release in New York City and Los Angeles on December 6, 1985,[9] grossing $55,637 during its opening weekend.[2] It went on to gross approximately $900,000 worldwide,[1] and was considered abox-office flop.[3]
Fool for Love was met with largely unfavorable reviews from film critics.[3] Journalist Jay Carr ofThe Boston Globe wrote at the time of its release that it was "taking a bit of a critical beating because it's nothing like the play," but added that he felt the film version was "something quite different, and in some ways more interesting."[19]
Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four and wrote, "WithFool for Love, [Altman] has succeeded on two levels that seem opposed to each other. He has made a melodrama, almost a soap opera, in which the characters achieve a kind of nobility."[20]Gene Siskel also gave the film three out of four stars, writing that Altman "has served the play well."[21]Sheila Benson of theLos Angeles Times stated, "As played by Shepard himself and a ferociously wonderful Kim Basinger, it's a raw, explosively funny, elemental tragicomedy about the pure willfulness of love."[22]Lawrence O'Toole ofMaclean's wrote that "the performances of Shepard and Basinger are often mannered and too emotionally confined for all the noisy fighting that takes place. Despite those flaws,Fool for Love is sizzlingly effective. What emerges is a portrait of two lives that are painfully, inexorably, even tragically united."[23]Derek Malcolm ofThe Guardian praised the film's performances, describing them as "the best part of this otherwise still slightly theatrical adaptation," remarking that Basinger is "a whole class better" than in9½ Weeks (1986), and concluding that the film is "about twice as gripping as your average American movie."[24]
Vincent Canby ofThe New York Times had an ambivalent assessment of the film, writing that it "has several exceptional things going for it, namely the performances by Mr. Shepard as Eddie, Kim Basinger as May and Harry Dean Stanton as The Old Man." His main criticism was finding Altman's close-ups and cross-cutting too frequent: "You don't have to know and admire Mr. Shepard's text to want to shout out to the director to pull the camera back and sit still."[25] A negative review inVariety wrote that the film made the material "look like specious stuff filled with dramatic ideas left over from the 1950s. Some highbrow critics here and abroad likely will proclaim this a masterpiece, but general audiences will react as they did to the last Shepard-scripted pic,Paris, Texas—with a yawn."[26] Victoria Mather ofThe Daily Telegraph similarly criticized the film's screenplay, writing: "Sam Shepard is an anarchic writer. He ridicules the traditional American values of the ordered life on the homestead... Basinger has descended with careless ease... to the flaky nylon trappings ofFool for Love. At the end of the film she walks off down the road to nowhere carrying a suitcase. One is left wondering what all the shouting has been about, except a terror of understatement. Nothing has been achieved."[27]
As of February 2023[update], the film holds an approval score of 79% on thereview aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, based on 14 reviews, with an average rating of 5.70/10.[28]