That Cold Day in the Park (1969), Robert Altman’s third feature, was crudely dismissed by critics upon its first release. Roger Ebert felt let down by its lack of plausibility. Howard Thompson’s piece for The New York Times excoriates the film. The critic viciously labelling it tedious, overbaked, and inane. Of course, Altman’s stock catapulted into the stratosphere soon after with the anti-war satire M*A*S*H (1970). The success of M*A*S*H allowed people to see Altman as the iconoclastic maverick he is known as today.
Altman’s prominent rise has also allowed That Cold Day in the Park to be revisited and re-evaluated in the years since. With the hallmarks of the director, now more well-known and prominent, That Cold Day in the Park has been treated kinder by later critics. Understandably so. It is perhaps not the jolt-filled thriller expected from such a familiar yet oddball conceit. But That Cold Day in the Park is an unsettling exercise in generational culture clashes and female repression, with Altman stating a claim as one of America’s most beguiling genre revisionists.
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Sandy Dennis plays Frances Austen, a wealthy but sheltered woman living in Vancouver. She notices a 19-year-old boy (Michael Burns) sitting in the rain in a park near her inherited family home. She takes him in and provides food and shelter before soon realising that the boy does not speak. His muteness doesn’t seem to hamper the general communication between them. Meanwhile, an attachment to the boy grows within Frances. However, the boy’s laissez-faire attitude to Frances’ naivety and misguided affection creates a tension which soon builds to tragedy.
Cold Day is similar to Ingmar Bergman’s film Persona (1966) in that the apparent muteness of one person quietly allows the unravelling of another. Some may be expecting more edge-of-your-seat drama from their psychological thrillers, however, what emanates from Cold Day is a sense of dread that is quietly disturbing. Dennis’ character lays herself bare in front of a non-communicative, immature young boy who holds conflicting feelings for an emotionally repressed woman.
Dennis’ Frances is trapped within two worlds. The stuffy old-world traditions of her parents before her that have trapped her emotionally, and the exciting, new, and young risk the boy brings. Altman plays similar tricks to greater effect in films like 3 Women (1977). Still, it’s fascinating to see his compassionate look at the female psyche start here, where a man’s immaturity not only opens a woman up to a possible awakening but also serves to be the catalyst for her emotional unmooring.
What makes Cold Day work is the mesmerising turn from Dennis whose face brims with repressed lust and sin yet seems unflinching at the same time. While Altman was more known for his meandering long takes and languid zooms, in films like this he harnesses the power of the close-up with potency. Dennis’ cold stare becomes a sinister representation of isolation. Difficult to both look at or turn away from. Altman’s pacing of the thriller isn’t the strongest, however, his direction of Dennis’ performance is so saddening, that the film’s tragic climax is affecting in a way that perhaps wasn’t expected at the time of the original release.
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In one of the documentary extras found in this two-disc edition, Altman is asked, in archive footage, why Vancouver was the choice for the film’s setting. The response is a quiet one: “For the weather”. It seems to be played for laughs. At the same time, the extras mention twice that Altman originally favoured England. However, the grey, overcast skies and conflicting architecture only help create a feeling of mundane dread which lingers throughout the film.
Film Historian David Thompson appears in an interview on the disc and makes similar connections between Cold Day and Persona. As the writer of the book Altman on Altman, his thoughts on the film are enjoyable. That said, the documentary Altman (2014) by Ron Mann holds similar comments about the early stages of Altman’s career with more depth. This cleaned-up limited-edition disc also comes with behind-the-scenes footage and an extended cut, making this the essential edition of this psychodrama for collectors over the previous Blu-ray release.
That Cold Day in the Park is out now on Blu-ray from Arrow Video and is available to stream on ARROW.
