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still Cutter's Way (Ivan Passer, US 1981)

Cutter's Way

Ivan Passer / US, 1981 / 109 min.

John Heard and Jeff Bridges are the antiheroes of this neo-noir about the murder of a call girl in traumatised, post-Vietnam America. Ivan Passer’s thriller on manipulation by the powerful became a cult film – and can now be seen as one of filmmaker Albert Serra’s selections.

poster Cutter's Way (Ivan Passer, US 1981)

One night Richard Bone (Bridges), a drifter who earns a bit on the side working the wealthy country club circuit, sees the body of a murdered call girl being dumped in a garbage container. He decides not to get involved, but his friend Alex Cutter (Heard), a traumatised Vietnam veteran, believes he saw the murderer: and that it was oil baron J.J. Cord.

Cutter’s Way was an inspiration to Albert Serra, currently the subject of an exhibition in Eye. Pacifiction, Serra's portrait of a diplomat who challenges the status quo of the French political establishment, unfolds amidst the same atmosphere of paranoia and loss.

This is part of

Details

Scenes from this movie may cause fearThis movie contains scenes of violencePersons under 6 years must be accompanied by an adultThis movie contains foul language

Director

Ivan Passer

Production year

1981

Country

US

Original title

Cutter's Way

Length

109 min.

Language

English

Subtitles

NLD

Format

DCP, 35mm

Part of

Albert Serra

Eye Filmmuseum presents the first exhibition in the Netherlands about the work of Catalan film and theatre director Albert Serra. Transforming the entire exhibition space into an immersive stage, Serra orchestrates nocturnal and clandestine encounters where theatre, cinema, and art converge.

Learn more
campaign image Albert Serra – Liberté

Why in Eye

Both the characters and the viewer are left with an uneasy feeling about the invulnerability of power – I see a parallel with Albert Serra's Pacifiction. The impressive camerawork is by DOP Jordan Cronenweth, who also shot Blade Runner and Stop Making Sense, among others.

Thijs Havens
Programmer Eye Filmmuseum

still Cutter's Way (Ivan Passer, US 1981)
still Cutter's Way (Ivan Passer, US 1981)
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