Fool for Love is a 1985 American psychological drama film directed by Robert Altman, and starring Sam Shepard, Kim Basinger, Harry Dean Stanton, Randy Quaid, and Martha Crawford.
It follows a woman awaiting the arrival of her boyfriend in a derelict motel in the Mojave Desert, where she is confronted by a previous lover who threatens to undermine her efforts.
Filming took place in the spring of 1985 in Santa Fe and Las Vegas, New Mexico, after which Altman oversaw post-production in Paris.
Fool for Love was entered into the 1986 Cannes Film Festival before it received a limited theatrical release in the United States through The Cannon Group, Inc. on December 6, 1985.
[3] May is hiding out at a rundown motel in the Mojave Desert when an old flame and childhood friend, Eddie, a rodeo stunt rider, shows up unexpectedly from Wyoming.
The Countess arrives at the motel in a black Mercedes and opens fire at the restaurant with a revolver, apparently trying to shoot Eddie for his misconduct and mistreatment of her in their affair, before speeding away.
Eddie flees on horseback after the Countess as she drives away, while May departs on foot in the opposite direction with her suitcase in hand, leaving Martin behind.
[11] Altman completed post-production of the film in Paris, where he was shooting a television adaptation of Marsha Norman's play The Laundromat, starring Carol Burnett and Amy Madigan.
[13] Following its premiere at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival,[14] Fool for Love had a limited theatrical release in New York City and Los Angeles on December 6, 1985,[9] grossing $55,637 during its opening weekend.
[3] Journalist Jay Carr of The Boston Globe wrote at the time of its release that it was "taking a bit of a critical beating because it's nothing like the play," but added that he felt the film version was "something quite different, and in some ways more interesting.
"[17] Sheila Benson of the Los Angeles Times stated, "As played by Shepard himself and a ferociously wonderful Kim Basinger, it's a raw, explosively funny, elemental tragicomedy about the pure willfulness of love.
"[18] Lawrence O'Toole of Maclean's wrote that "the performances of Shepard and Basinger are often mannered and too emotionally confined for all the noisy fighting that takes place.
"[20] Vincent Canby of The New York Times had an ambivalent assessment of the film, writing that it "has several exceptional things going for it, namely the performances by Mr. Shepard as Eddie, Kim Basinger as May and Harry Dean Stanton as The Old Man."
His main criticism was finding Altman's close-ups and cross-cutting too frequent: "You don't have to know and admire Mr. Shepard's text to want to shout out to the director to pull the camera back and sit still.
"[21] A negative review in Variety wrote that the film made the material "look like specious stuff filled with dramatic ideas left over from the 1950s.
"[22] Victoria Mather of The Daily Telegraph similarly criticized the film's screenplay, writing: "Sam Shepard is an anarchic writer.
He ridicules the traditional American values of the ordered life on the homestead... Basinger has descended with careless ease... to the flaky nylon trappings of Fool for Love.