Alan Rudolph
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American film director and screenwriter

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

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

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.

Year Title Director Writer Producer 1972 Premonition Yes Yes Yes 1974 Terror Circus Yes[a] No Yes 1976 Welcome to L.A. Yes Yes No 1978 Remember My Name Yes Yes No 1980 Roadie Yes Story No 1982 Endangered Species Yes No No 1983 Return Engagement Yes No No 1984 Choose Me Yes Yes No Songwriter Yes No No 1985 Trouble in Mind Yes Yes No 1987 Made in Heaven Yes No No 1988 The Moderns Yes Yes No 1990 Love at Large Yes Yes No 1991 Mortal Thoughts Yes No No 1992 Equinox Yes Yes No 1994 Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle Yes Yes No 1997 Afterglow Yes Yes No 1999 Breakfast of Champions Yes Yes No 2000 Trixie Yes Yes No 2001 Investigating Sex Yes Yes Yes 2002 The Secret Lives of Dentists Yes No No 2017 Ray Meets Helen Yes Yes No