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IMDbPro

A Perfect Couple

  • 19791979
  • PGPG
  • 1h 50m
IMDb RATING
6.0/10
931
YOUR RATING
A Perfect Couple (1979)
Trailer for this romantic comedy
Play trailer2:26
1 Video
16 Photos
  • Comedy
  • Musical
  • Romance
A repressed, middle-aged divorced U.S. Greek meets a young singer through a dating service and becomes smitten.A repressed, middle-aged divorced U.S. Greek meets a young singer through a dating service and becomes smitten.A repressed, middle-aged divorced U.S. Greek meets a young singer through a dating service and becomes smitten.
IMDb RATING
6.0/10
931
YOUR RATING
  • Director
    • Robert Altman
  • Writers
    • Robert Altman
    • Allan F. Nicholls
  • Stars
    • Paul Dooley
    • Marta Heflin
    • Titos Vandis
Top credits
  • Director
    • Robert Altman
  • Writers
    • Robert Altman
    • Allan F. Nicholls
  • Stars
    • Paul Dooley
    • Marta Heflin
    • Titos Vandis
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 16User reviews
    • 23Critic reviews
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Videos1

    A Perfect Couple
    Trailer 2:26
    A Perfect Couple

    Photos16

    A Perfect Couple (1979)
    1 sheet
    Robert Altman in MASH (1970)
    Paul Dooley and Marta Heflin in A Perfect Couple (1979)
    A Perfect Couple (1979)
    A Perfect Couple (1979)
    A Perfect Couple (1979)
    A Perfect Couple (1979)
    A Perfect Couple (1979)
    A Perfect Couple (1979)
    Paul Dooley and Marta Heflin in A Perfect Couple (1979)
    Paul Dooley and Marta Heflin in A Perfect Couple (1979)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Paul Dooley
    Paul Dooley
    • Alex Theodopoulosas Alex Theodopoulos
    Marta Heflin
    Marta Heflin
    • Sheila Sheaas Sheila Shea
    Titos Vandis
    Titos Vandis
    • Panos Theodopoulosas Panos Theodopoulos
    Belita Moreno
    Belita Moreno
    • Eleousaas Eleousa
    Henry Gibson
    Henry Gibson
    • Fred Bottas Fred Bott
    Dimitra Arliss
    Dimitra Arliss
    • Athenaas Athena
    Allan F. Nicholls
    Allan F. Nicholls
    • Dana 115as Dana 115
    Ann Ryerson
    Ann Ryerson
    • Skye 147 Veterinarianas Skye 147 Veterinarian
    Poppy Lagos
    • Melpomeni Bottas Melpomeni Bott
    Dennis Franz
    Dennis Franz
    • Costaas Costa
    Margery Bond
    • Wilmaas Wilma
    Mona Golabek
    • Monaas Mona
    Terry Wills
    • Benas Ben
    Susan Blakeman
    • Penelope Bottas Penelope Bott
    Melanie Bishop
    • Staras Star
    Fred Beir
    Fred Beir
    • The Perfect Couple Manas The Perfect Couple Man
    Jette Seear
    • The Perfect Couple Ladyas The Perfect Couple Lady
    Ted Neeley
    Ted Neeley
    • Teddyas Teddy
    • Director
      • Robert Altman
    • Writers
      • Robert Altman
      • Allan F. Nicholls
    • All cast & crew
    • See more cast details at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The role of Sheila Shea was originally written for Sandy Dennis. Paul Dooley was seriously allergic to cats though, and when cat-lover Dennis would come to the script readings with up to five cats at a time, he was briefly hospitalized. The role was then offered to Shelley Duvall, who turned it down. As a result, 'Allan Nichols' re-wrote the role of Sheila Shea from an Earth Mother type to the young singer/groupie played by Marta Heflin. Both stars had appeared in the director's previous film, "A Wedding."
    • Quotes

      ER doctor: [to Alex] You've got to stay in bed for a while. Do you want somme pain killers?

      Sheila Shea: Yes.

      Alex Theodopoulos: No!

      ER doctor: Some doctors don't like to give out painkillers, but when you've seen as much pain as I have, it makes you want to kill it.

      ER doctor: [to both] I don't think you two should be kissing while I'm suturing,

    • Connections
      Featured in Sneak Previews: Hair/Murder By Decree/A Perfect Couple/The Champ/Buck Rogers in the 25th Century/Love at First Bite/In Search of Dracula (1979)
    • Soundtracks
      Romance Concerto (Adieu Mes Amis)
      Written by Tom Pierson (as Thomas Pierson) & Allan F. Nicholls (as Allan Nicholls)

    User reviews16

    Review
    Top review
    10/10
    A Glorious Oddity, An Altman Gem
    I finally got around to seeing this for-many-years-as-good-as-lost Altman film, and I must say, I was extremely impressed. It is a highly unusual piece. Altman biographer Patrick McGilligan says "There is not another movie like it in the Altman canon," and he's not kidding; there is scarcely another movie like it in anyone's canon. The closest I can think of is George Romero's also criminally underrated There's Always Vanilla, which also deals with the arc of a romance between "ordinary" people with no touch of Hollywood iconography about them.

    The film is conceived in terms of a number of binaries: two families, a rigidly patriarchal Greek family and a rock music collective with its own sort-of-patriarch; classical music and pop music, which join hands in the climax; a "perfect couple" of two decidedly imperfect, non-glamorous people, and a near-silent "imperfect couple" of two glamor-pusses, whose path repeatedly crosses that of the perfect couple, but in ways that only the audience perceives. (The perfect couple meets through a video dating service that is a direct precursor to the Internet dating services of our own day; that lends the film an oddly timely-contemporary touch.)

    The rock music collective, Keeping 'Em Off the Streets, co-formed by Altman collaborator Allan Nicholls, actually existed and concertized a couple of times, but failed to win a recording contract. (The soundtrack was preserved on Altman's own Lion's Gate label; I recently scored a copy of this rare LP.) As many of the reviewers here at the IMDb enthuse, the music is quite delightful, and rather difficult to pigeonhole, with rock, pop, jazz, and theater music elements. There are a lot of musicians, a lot of singers, a lot of people (and even a dog) just hanging around, in somewhat elaborate and rather magical spaces (courtesy of master designer Leon Ericksen), and the musical numbers seem to emerge from the ambiance. The film is very driven by the songs.

    Adding to the flavor of A Perfect Couple is a remarkably casual-positive attitude toward several gay and lesbian characters, so much so that Vito Russo singled the film out in his book The Celluloid Closet as being "special" for its era in its recognition of a "happy, well-adjusted" lesbian couple as a "family."

    In the lead roles, Paul Dooley is remarkably winning, and Marta Heflin has a mysterious, somewhat withdrawn quality that suddenly announces itself forcefully in her one solo number, "Won't Somebody Care", which is also one of the great musical sequences in all of movies, if you ask me -- right up there with Keith Carradine's "I'm Easy" in Nashville.

    The next forgotten Altman film that needs to be rehabilitated is H.E.A.L.T.H., which Helene Keyssar praises most interestingly in her book Robert Altman's America. I saw it only once many years ago and am eager to see it again.
    helpful•8
    3
    • mark_r_harris
    • Dec 29, 2006

    FAQ1

    • Why did Robert Altman decide to make a romantic comedy ?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • January 5, 1981 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • A Romance
    • Filming locations
      • Los Angeles, California, USA
    • Production company
      • Lion's Gate Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $1,500,000 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 50 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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