Alberta Hunter

Artist: Alberta Hunter

LP: Remember My Name

Song: "You Reap Just What You Sow"

[ listen ]

Song: "Remember My Name"

[ listen ]

This weekend they're doing an Alan Rudolph retrospective at SIFF Cinema, showing two of his films each night as double-features. I was excited to see that they were screening a film of his from 1978 called REMEMBER MY NAME, which has never been released on video or DVD. In fact, I'd never even heard of it. The film stars Geraldine Chaplin and Anthony Perkins, two actors I like quite a bit, and includes early performances by Jeff Goldblum and Alfre Woodard. I rounded up some cinema buddies from the new book group I joined a few months ago and off we went to the movies.

We were doubly excited to discover that Alan Rudolph was actually in Seattle and would be introducing REMEMBER MY NAME as well as sticking around afterward to talk about the film and answer questions from the audience. We learned that this was Rudolph's second film (after WELCOME TO L.A. in 1976—he evidently doesn't count his two previous horror films, PREMONITION [1972] and THE BARN OF THE NAKED DEAD [1974]) and that shooting on the film was begun even before he and producer Robert Altman had scraped together the funds to finish it. Columbia Pictures showed interest while the production was underway and bought the film rights, sight unseen. Once they watched the finished product, however, they realized it wasn't really their sort of thing and they scrapped all plans for the film's release. Some small company offered to show the film in theaters, but they could only afford one city a year—so REMEMBER MY NAME ended up being screened in approximately seven U.S. cities over the course of five years. It reportedly had a successful debut on television on one of the early cable channels in Los Angeles and was an arthouse hit over in France, but otherwise REMEMBER MY NAME has pretty much dropped off the radar. 

That's a real shame, since it's a brilliant, funny little film that features an incredible central performance by Geraldine Chaplin; it's one of her best. She plays Emily—a nutty, beautiful, unbalanced-but-intelligent woman who's just done time in prison on a murder charge. Now free, she gives herself a makeover, takes a job at a rinky-dink drug store and begins stalking her ex-husband (Anthony Perkins) and his new wife, making their lives miserable and perhaps even putting them in danger. Songs by 83-year-old blues singer Alberta Hunter (who you can read all about here) are used to terrific effect throughout the film, and when I saw in the closing credits that the soundtrack had once been available, I remarked to my friend that it would be a great thing to find on LP. Only then did I suddenly recall that I'd found a film soundtrack at a used record store here in Seattle about a year ago that featured lots of blues tracks by an elderly female singer. I'd never heard of the film, but I liked the cast and thought the music was neat, so I added it to my collection. So I went home last night and checked my shelf and, sure enough, I was delighted to discover that I already owned the soundtrack to REMEMBER MY NAME. Up above are a couple songs from the film, and here are the pictures and notes from the back of the LP:

[ Alberta Hunter ]

[ Geraldine Chaplin ]

 [ Anthony Perkins & Geraldine Chaplin ]

 [ Anthony Perkins ]

 [ Alberta Hunter: April 1, 1895 — October 17, 1984 ]