Come back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean

Director: Robert Altman
Screenwriters: Ed Graczyk

Institute History

  • 1991 Sundance Film Festival

Description

Jimmy Dean is the first in a series of stage-to-screen adaptations which have occupied Altman during the most recent part of his career. Altman directed Ed Graczyk's play in New York, and then transferred it almost intact to the screen, creating two sets which are mirror images of each other to effect transitions between the play's past and present. The story concerns the twenty-year reunion of six members of a James Dean fan club in the Woolworth's of the small Texas town of McCarthy, near where Giant, Dean's last film, was shot. Jo (Karen Black) serves as a catalyst for the action; the discovery of the changes she has experienced leads Mona (Sandy Dennis) and Sissy (Cher) to reveal the secrets in their own lives. Jimmy Dean is a study of the impact, both positive and negative, that dreams can have on our lives, and the toll that living with illusions and lies exacts. This film marked Cher's emergence as a serious actress, and her performance is both remarkable and moving.

— Barbara Bannon

Screening Details

Credits

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