Remember My Name ***½ (1978, Geraldine Chaplin, Anthony Perkins, Moses Gunn, Jeff Goldblum, Berry Berenson) – Classic Movie Review 11,552)

Alan Rudolph’s 1978 drama film Remember My Name is an admirable, offbeat, atmospheric neo-film noir thriller. He called it ‘an update of the classic woman’s melodramas.’ Geraldine Chaplin stars with Anthony Perkins. 

Writer-director Alan Rudolph’s fourth directorial effort – the 1978 drama film Remember My Name – is an admirable, offbeat, atmospheric neo-film noir thriller. Rudolph called it ‘an update of the classic woman’s melodramas of the Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford era.’

Geraldine Chaplin stars as innocent heroine Emily, who is freed after 12 years behind bars, and resolves to avenge herself on her now remarried ex-husband Neil Curry (Anthony Perkins) for letting her take the rap for murdering Neil’s former lover and for dumping her. She arrives in California to destroy Neil’s happy life with new wife Barbara (Berry Berenson).

Remember My Name is very much an Alan Rudolph film. Which means that it is intriguing, intellectually stimulating, precision acted by a fine ensemble cast enjoying rare opportunities, and yet vaguely arty and obscure, gaining it a minority of strong admirers. Chaplin’s creepily raw and internally raging performance is a tour de force. There has to be praise too for Tak Fujimoto’s noirish cinematography and the soundtrack of songs by veteran singer and composer Alberta Hunter.

Also in the cast are Moses Gunn as Pike, Berry Berenson as Barbara Curry, Jeff Goldblum as Mr Nudd, Tim Thomerson [Timothy Thomerson] as Jeff, Alfre Woodard as Rita, Marilyn Coleman as Teresa, Jeffrey S Perry as Harry, Alan Autry [Carlos Brown] as Rusty, and Dennis Franz as Franks.

It follows Rudolph’s Premonition (1972), Nightmare Circus (1974) and Welcome to LA (1976).

It is the film debut of Berry Berenson, who was married to Perkins and died on 11 September 2001 aboard American Airlines Flight 11 when it crashed into the World Trade Center. Berenson, three months pregnant, married Perkins on 9 August 1973 in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. They raised two sons: actor-director Oz Perkins (born 1974) and  singer-songwriter Elvis Perkins (born 1976). They were married until Perkins’s death from AIDS-related complications on 12 September 1992. Berry was the sister of Marisa Berenson.

Later Rudolph films are Roadie (1980), Endangered Species (1982), Return Engagement (1983), Songwriter (1984), Choose Me (1984), Trouble in Mind (1985), Made in Heaven (1987), The Moderns (1988), Love at Large (1990), Mortal Thoughts (1991), Equinox (1992), Mrs Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994), Afterglow (1997), Breakfast of Champions (1999), Trixie (2000), Investigating Sex (2001), The Secret Lives of Dentists (2002) and Ray Meets Helen (2017).

Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,552

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