SYNOPSICS
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) is a English movie. Martin Scorsese has directed this movie. Ellen Burstyn,Kris Kristofferson,Mia Bendixsen,Alfred Lutter III are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1974. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) is considered one of the best Drama,Romance movie in India and around the world.
Despite admitting that she was scared of him in her never-ending quest to please him, thirty-five year old housewife and mother Alice Hyatt is devastated when her husband Donald is killed in an on the job traffic accident. With few job skills except that as a singer, Alice, along with her precocious eleven year old son Tommy, decides to move from their current home in Socorro, New Mexico to her home town of Monterrey, California, the only place she has ever felt happy. She plans on getting singing gigs along the way to earn money to get back to Monterrey by the end of the summer and the start of Tommy's school year. Alice's quest for a job at each stop leaves Tommy often to fend for himself, which may make Tommy even more precocious. His behavior is fostered by Alice, as their relationship is often more as trouble-making friends than mother and son. Alice's plans often do not end up as she envisions, especially as she is forced to take a waitressing job at Mel and Ruby's Diner in ...
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Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) Reviews
A movie of many memorable characters.
This has to be one of Martin Scorses's most enjoyable films. The film follows Alice (Ellen Burstyn) on a journey back to happier times after a tragedy forces her to make important decisions about her life. Needing a job to raise cash for this journey takes her and her son (the remarkably cheeky Alfred Lutter) on a journey of self discovery. Having a small talent for singing she eventually secures a job as a singer in a bar but flees town after meeting psychopathic Harvey Keitel. Eventually working as a waitress in Mel's Diner she becomes involved with the strangely uncharismatic Kris Kristofferson and realises she has finally met someone who really cares for her. The performances make this a remarkable film, Burstyn & Lutter are a great double act as mother and son, Harvey Keitel frighteningly plausible as a mentally unbalanced suitor and Jodie Foster sexually ambiguous as Lutters playmate. Diane Ladd excels as hard-bitten fellow waitress Flo and Jane Curtin and Billy Green Bush make an impact with barely half a dozen lines between them. Add to this a terrific musical score and inspiring cinematography and you have a timeless classic that is just crying out for a DVD release.
Burstyn Is One of the Greats
Ellen Burstyn could play a tree stump and make it interesting. She's one of the unsung heroes of post-studio cinema. At a time when meaty women's roles were becoming more and more scarce, Burstyn was fighting for and winning one great part after another. She's probably never been better than she is here, though she showed tremendous range in "Same Time, Next Year" and gave one of the most heartbreakingly harrowing performances I've ever seen as recently as 2000, in "Requiem for a Dream." Women's picture and Martin Scorsese are not two phrases that would seem to be tailor made for each other, but a terrific women's picture is exactly what Scorsese gives us with "Alice..." Though I hate using the term women's picture, as if men can't enjoy stories about women, or as if women's pictures are isolated from the rest of "real" movies. Actually and ironically, maybe it was Scorsese's penchant for the tough-guy milieu that made him so right for this film, because "Alice" doesn't suffer from the burn-your-bra self-righteousness of other women's lib movies of its era, like "Un Unmarried Woman." These other films ultimately feel phony, because they were created for the most part by men, who, however noble their intentions, simply didn't have an understanding for the material. But Scorsese gets the character of Alice, and Burstyn knows exactly what she's doing. So the conflict isn't between Alice and the male world, but between the Alice who doesn't have the confidence to be anything other than a doormat and the Alice who wants to make a life for herself on her own terms. There are some hilarious scenes between Alice and her son in this film, most particularly the scenes of them driving to California (like when Alice calls him Hellen Keller because he keeps asking "what?" to everything she says). Also, a subplot about the evolving friendship between Alice and Flo (played by Diane Ladd) becomes one of the film's highlights, not in the least because both actresses handle it expertly. This is a winner, and must be seen by anyone who thinks Scorses is out of his element anywhere but the mean streets of NYC. Grade: A
Scorsese's Overlooked Masterpiece
*SPOILER ALERT* This small and oft-overlooked offering from Martin Scorsese (his 4th feature) ranks among his best and most interesting for a number of reasons it's one of the only Scorsese films with a woman as the protagonist, and in typical Scorsese fashion she's tough, if a bit conflicted (like most of his male protagonists) and real, in other words. ALICE...also provides a another great glimpse of his very original style as it was developing the continuum between MEAN STREETS, this film, and TAXI DRIVER in look, mood and performance is perfect, as the post new-wave grit and furious energy of MEAN STREETS is a bit more focused here. Overall, ALICE... is a more subdued character study which like life - swings from gripping to scary to funny to touching in the blink of an eye. Also notable as one of Scorsese's handful of non-New York stories (like LAST TEMPTATION, CASINO and KUNDUN), ALICE... follows Alice Hyatt (Ellen Burstyn, fresh out of THE EXORCIST and at her peak) a California native, living in New Mexico with her truck driver husband. Suddenly widowed, Alice decides that she and Joey are going to take off, on what little cash they have left, for California, so she can pursue her long-dormant dream of becoming a singer. They make it as far as Arizona before Alice runs out of cash and has to stop to find work. After initially landing in Phoenix Alice ends up living in a rent-by-the-week motel in Tuscon, working at Mel's, a trashy diner run by its' amusingly belligerent namesake Mel (Vic Tayback), and staffed by the wild-but-wise Flo (Diane Ladd, in another amazing performance) and psychologically unstable Vera (Valerie Curtin). Before long Alice begins to put down roots, and she takes up with David (Kris Kristofferson), a local rancher. The lone potential flaw is the ending, which feels like a compromise - if after discovering her confidence and independence, Alice feels like she oughta ride off into the sunset of Monterrey, she also wants companionship, and has allowed this desire to lead her into questionable choices in men (witness one of Harvey Keitel's most unforgettable performances) because of it. So, if a somewhat conflicted ideology lingers through a film where tough mindedness and harsh reality (interrupted by the occasional bit of lifelike, randomlike humor) gives way to romance, then perhaps it simply is indicative of how cerebral ideologies sometimes will or should crumble in the face of human emotions and desires. In any case this thoughtful tension at the heart of this beautifully acted, beautifully filmed tour-de-force gives ALICE... a rich, earthy energy that places it among the most thoughtful and multifaceted films (like TAXI DRIVER, RAGING BULL and also the underrated KUNDUN) that Scorsese has ever made.
Priceless
People forget that "ALICE DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE" is a Scorsese film. Look at it again and you'll see it is one hundred percent Scorsese. Totally focused on a female character. I read somewhere that Ellen Burstyn asked Scorsese "How well do you know women" and Scorsese replayed "Not well at all, but I'm willing to learn" The portrait of Alice adds something to film female characters that had never been present on the screen before. All those Joan Crawford fighting working class women seem like a joke compared to Ellen Burstyn's Alice. Jodie Foster steps into the screen with a funny, touching BANG. If you've never seen this film, hurry up! If you've seen it, see it again.
One of Scorsese's best
I actually prefer this film to Mean Streets or Raging Bull. Ellen Burstyn was always a personal favorite and she is absolutely brilliant as Alice. This film bears no resemblance to the sitcom that would spin off from it. This is a textured, touching and humorous look at a woman's journey BACK towards independence. It is far superior and a much more mature film than, say, Thelma & Louise. If you're looking for female "empowerment" movies. Alice is reality. The fine cast also includes, Harvey Keitel and Diane Ladd. Both in fantastic performances. This is just a great movie and very overlooked. If you're getting into Scorsese, don't miss this one!