Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Scorsese's 1974 road drama with an Oscar-winning Ellen Burstyn.
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore is a 1974 romantic comedy drama directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Robert Getchell. Ellen Burstyn plays Alice Hyatt, a widow who travels across the Southwestern United States with her preteen son in search of a better life, with Kris Kristofferson, Diane Ladd, Jodie Foster and Harvey Keitel in supporting roles.
Quick Facts
- Director
- Martin Scorsese
- Producer
- Audrey Maas; David Susskind
- Writer
- Robert Getchell
- Starring
- Ellen Burstyn
- Kris Kristofferson
- Alfred Lutter
- Harvey Keitel
- Jodie Foster
- Vic Tayback
- Diane Ladd
- Valerie Curtin
- Cinematography
- Kent L. Wakeford
- Editing
- Marcia Lucas
- Distributor
- Warner Bros.
- Released
- 9 December 1974, Los Angeles, 29 January 1975, New York City
Facts from the source article.
Background
After her husband dies in a traffic accident in Socorro, New Mexico, former singer Alice sets out for her childhood home of Monterey, California, with her son Tommy, hoping to restart her singing career; money troubles keep her working as a lounge singer in Phoenix and then as a waitress at Mel's diner in Tucson, where she meets the rancher David. Burstyn brought the project to Warner Bros. and, on Francis Ford Coppola's advice, chose Scorsese after a screening of the still unreleased Mean Streets, because she found the script a little slick and wanted something more gritty.
It was Scorsese's first Hollywood studio production. Judith Crist criticized his direction for its 'handheld pursuit of the image'. Released on December 9, 1974, the film grossed $21 million on a $1.8 million budget and competed for the Palme d'Or at Cannes; Burstyn won the Academy Award for Best Actress, and it was adapted into the CBS series Alice (1976-1985). Scorsese makes a cameo in the film.
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