Metrograph

Hailed by critic Pauline Kael as “a beautiful pipe dream of a movie,” Altman’s snowbound Western plays out in the ramshackle Washington frontier town of Presbyterian, where extravagantly fur-coated wandering gambler Warren Beatty decides to stick around after striking up a partnership with Julie Christie’s madam, a fraught but profitable teaming that’s threatened by encroaching corporate interests. A film of indelible ambience, thanks to the uniquely foggy photography of Vilmos Zsigmond, achieved by “flashing” the negative before exposure, the droning vocals of Leonard Cohen repeatedly flooding the soundtrack, and the abiding air of wintery chill.

Distributor: Warner Bros.