McCabe & Mrs. Miller

Constantly challenging expectations and reinventing genres, Robert Altman subverts tropes of the traditional Western with this offbeat and quintessentially American story about untamed capitalism. Riding into a small boomtown, McCabe, rumoured as a gunfighter, capitalises on his notorious reputation and persistent confidence to establish a hugely successful brothel with the help of British prostitute Mrs. Miller. What the pair of arrogant misfits eventually gets, however, is their downfall. With evocative cinematography by the legendary Vilmos Zsigmond and Leonard Cohen’s haunting music as an anachronistic backdrop, Altman paints a portrayal of the frontier’s life in grounded realistic light, and even stages his finale gunfight under a blanket of snow rather than the scorching desert sun.

Academy Awards: Best Actress nomination

16/12 (Sat): Film talk with Joyce Yang