Brewster McCloud

1970, Robert Altman, USA

Content Note: Sexual violence theme & domestic violence theme

In 2024, we lost the iconic actor Shelley Duvall whose career was defined by her singular screen presence. What better way to honour her memory than by screening her first film role, the dark comedy Brewster McCloud?

Duvall would go on to do some of her best work with Robert Altman in the 1970s (including Nashville and Thieves Like Us from our 2022 programme) but it all began at the beginning of the decade after he discovered her at an art show in Texas. The actor’s perky, optimistic, almost naïve onscreen persona provided the perfect counterpoint to the cynical worlds of the notoriously grumpy auteur (who would have turned 100 in 2025).

Here, Duvall stars opposite Bud Cort (Harold and Maude) who plays the titular eccentric. Brewster lives underneath the Houston Astrodome dedicating his life to his unconventional project: building a pair of wings that will give him the power of flight. His bizarre vocation hits a snag when he is implicated in a series of murders that are themed around birds, and he gets involved with Duvall’s character Suzanne who works as a tour guide at the stadium. The film is hard to pin down, an odd addition to Altman’s filmography but a genuinely funny one and a great showcase for its quirky cast.

“One of Robert Altman’s most charming exercises in cabaret humor and off-the-cuff modernism.”—Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader