Alan Rudolph
Birth dateDecember 18, 1943 (age 82)
Birth placeLos Angeles, California, U.S.
OccupationFilm director, screenwriter
Years active1972–present
StyleComedy-drama · Satire · Erotic thriller · Erotic comedy-drama · Erotic dramas · Noir · Thriller · Dramas

Alan Steven Rudolph (born December 18, 1943) is an American film director and screenwriter.

Early life

Rudolph was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Oscar Rudolph (1911–1991), a television director and actor, and his wife.

Career

He became interested in film and was a protégé of director Robert Altman. Rudolph worked as an assistant director on Altman's film adaptation of Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye and later on Nashville.

Rudolph's films focus upon isolated and eccentric characters and their relationships, and frequently are ensemble pieces featuring prominent romanticism and fantasy. He has written most of his films. In addition, he has repeatedly worked with actors Keith Carradine and Geneviève Bujold, and composer Mark Isham (see list of film director and composer collaborations).

Director Rudolph came to prominence with Choose Me (1984), the story of the sexual relationships among a handful of lonely, but charming, people – an ex-prostitute bar owner (Lesley Ann Warren), an emotionally repressed radio talk show hostess (Bujold), and a disarmingly honest madman (Carradine). Trouble in Mind (1985) featured Kris Kristofferson as well as Bujold, Carradine and Divine, in a rare, out of female drag, performance. The film was entered into the 36th Berlin International Film Festival.[1]

The Moderns (1988) is a fictional love story set in 1926 Paris among well-known American expatriates such as Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, whom the film's characters briefly encounter. Expatriate American artist (Carradine) re-ignites his love for his former wife (Linda Fiorentino), despite her marriage to a sinister, philistine art collector played by John Lone.

In 1990, Rudolph wrote and directed the private eye love story Love at Large, filmed in Portland, Oregon.

After the thriller Mortal Thoughts (1991) starring Demi Moore, he directed Equinox (1992), with Matthew Modine playing a pair of separated twins. His Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994), was a biopic of Dorothy Parker, with Jennifer Jason Leigh in the title role.

Breakfast of Champions (1999) was an adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's metafictional novel, with Albert Finney as the wildly prolific but terminally under-appreciated writer Kilgore Trout. The film was entered into the 49th Berlin International Film Festival.[2]

Rudolph has also turned to painting, and In April 2008, presented a solo show of his paintings at Gallery Fraga, Bainbridge Island, Washington. In 2017, he directed Ray Meets Helen, a love story between two quirky outsiders, depicted by veteran Rudolph actor Keith Carradine and Sondra Locke, in her final film.

Filmography

YearTitleDirectorWriterProducer
1972Premonition
1974Terror Circus[a]
1975Welcome to My Nightmare
1976Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson
Welcome to L.A.
1978Remember My Name
1980Roadie
1982Endangered Species
1983Return Engagement
1984Choose Me
Songwriter
1985Trouble in Mind
1987Made in Heaven
1988The Moderns
1990Love at Large
1991Mortal Thoughts
1992Equinox
1994Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle
1997Afterglow
1999Breakfast of Champions
2000Trixie
2001Investigating Sex
2002The Secret Lives of Dentists
2017Ray Meets Helen

Personal life

He married Joyce, a photographer.[3][4][5][6][7] A couple of years after 1985's Trouble in Mind, Rudolph bought a house on Bainbridge Island.[8]

Further reading

Notes

  1. ^ Credited as "Gerald Cormier"[9][10]

References

  1. ^ "Berlinale: 1986 Programme". berlinale.de. Archived December 28, 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved January 8, 2011.
  2. ^ "Berlinale: 1999 Programme". berlinale.de. Retrieved January 29, 2012.
  3. ^ Alan Rudolph : encyclopedia.com
  4. ^ "2002 Toronto Film Festival - Roots and ICM Party". Getty Images. 21 October 2011. Retrieved 19 April 2025. Robin Tunney, Elizabeth Berkley and Joyce Rudolph during 2002 Toronto Film Festival - Roots and ICM Party at Brasserie Aix Bar in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by George Pimentel/WireImage)
  5. ^ "2002 Toronto Film Festival - Roots and ICM Party". Getty Images. 21 October 2011. Retrieved 19 April 2025. Robin Tunney, writer-director Alan Rudolph, Elizabeth Berkley and Joyce Rudolph (Photo by George Pimentel/WireImage)
  6. ^ "American Cinematheque Hosts Book Signing With Carolyn Pfeiffer For "Chasing The Panther" And Special Screenings Of "Choose Me" And "Remember My Name"". Getty Images. 25 September 2023. Retrieved 19 April 2025. SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 24: Artist and photographer Joyce 1985's "Trouble in Mind."attends the book signing with Carolyn Pfeiffer for "Chasing The Panther" and the special screenings of "Choose Me" and "Remember My Name" hosted by American Cinematheque at the Aero Theatre on September 24, 2023 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Amanda Edwards/Getty Images)
  7. ^ "Montée des marches du Festival de Cannes 1994". Getty Images. 31 January 2023. Retrieved 19 April 2025. American director and producer Robert Altman (L) with his wife Kathryn Altman and American director Alan Rudolph (R) with his wife Joyce Rudolph arrive for the screening of the movie "Mrs. Parker and the vicious circle" at the 47th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, southern France on May 14, 1994, in Cannes. (Photo by Patrick BILLARD and Patrick HERTZOG / AFP via Getty Images)
  8. ^ Moore, Michael C. (April 30, 2018). "Indie filmmaker's latest premieres in LA, NY ... and Bainbridge Island". Kitsap Sun. Retrieved 19 April 2025. Updated May 3, 2018
  9. ^ "Maria's B-Movie Mayhem: Scream / Barn Of The Naked Dead (Review)". DVD Verdict. Archived from the original on November 27, 2013. Retrieved December 29, 2013.
  10. ^ Everman, Welch D (2000). Cult Horror Films: From Attack of the 50 Foot Woman to Zombies of Mora Tau. Citadel Press. pp. 27–28. ISBN 0806514256.

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