MovieChat Forums > The Long Goodbye (1973) Discussion > Do the Wades have a framed photo of Leon...

Do the Wades have a framed photo of Leonard Cohen in their house?


Seriously. I just watched the movie last night (in a theatre, so I couldn't pause it or play back to check). At one point in the Wades' house I saw a framed, B&W, close-cropped photo of a man that looked like Leonard Cohen to me. Was it? Can you say "insignificant detail"? Yeah, I know, but it's the kind of little directorial in-joke that would make a good Trivia entry here on the IMDB. Of course we know that Altman liked Leonard Cohen from the soundtrack to the one Altman movie I like even more than TLG: McCabe & Mrs. Miller.

Come to mention it, I once heard an interview that told this story--only thing is, I can't remember whether the interviewee was Cohen or Altman. Anyway, the story was that Leonard Cohen went to see Brewster McCloud in a theater and was kind of blown away by it. He went home, and that night got a phone call. The voice on the other end said "Hello, I'm Robert Altman, you may have heard of me, I directed a film called Brewster McCloud...and I wanted to ask about using your music in my next picture." A dazed Cohen sort of weakly nodded and said "Why, yes..yes, you can use my music." Reportedly Altman wrote the McCabe screenplay with Cohen's first album playing on repeat the whole time.

Anyway--was that his picture in the Wades' house?

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Indeed it is a picture of Leonard Cohen. Altman was a big fan of Cohen's. I seem to remember a scene from 'A Wedding' where they were singing 'A Bird on a Wire' I wish Altman could have had a movie with an appearance of Leonard Cohen.

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If you look really close you can also see a statuette that slightly resembles the Maltese Falcon (or at least the fake one everyone's chasing after in the Bogey version). There are lots of little touches like that all over the place that make this movie worth watching multiple times.

I'M MAD AS HELL AND I'M NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!

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Maltese Falcon. Thanks for heads up!

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Thou shall´t not forget that the McCabe & Mrs Miller´s soundtrack consisted of Cohen´s songs.

"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

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Thanks for noticing those little details. I have to watch more closely next time.

It's too bad Leonard Cohen didn't appear in an Altman film. He would have been perfect in "The Player" or "Kansas City." Really, I think Altman could have accommodated him in anything. His music is very good on soundtracks as well.

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Damn,
I am jealous that you got to see this on the big screen. I have always wanted to see this and other older movies in a theater.
I had a chance to see Hitchcock's "Vertigo" at the Uptown in Washington DC. We got some friends together but alas traffic from VA to DC kept us from arriving in time.
One if these days I am going to spend a couple of days attending a local film festival.

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