A Wedding (1978) Queer Film C+

DIRECTOR: Robert Altman

STORY: Robert Altman and John Considine

Robert Altman’s A Wedding (1978) is a sprawling, anarchic ensemble comedy in which the marriage of Muffin Brenner (Amy Stryker) and Dino Corelli (Desi Arnaz Jr.) brings together two wealthy but wildly incompatible families for a single, increasingly disastrous day. With nearly fifty principal characters, Altman turns the reception into a miniature society: adultery, alcoholism, drugs, pregnancy, class prejudice, family secrets and even death accumulate beneath the elaborate rituals of respectability. 

Queerness is part of this catalog of things polite society would rather keep out of sight. Geraldine Chaplin’s Rita Billingsley, the frantic wedding coordinator and mistress of ceremonies, is revealed to be a lesbian when she unexpectedly makes a pass at—and kisses—the bride. It is characteristically Altman: Rita spends the entire film solemnly celebrating the traditions of heterosexual marriage while standing somewhat outside them herself. The film’s most poignant note is the delicious irony of her final wistful observation about weddings after her sexuality has been revealed. 

My Brides are the Only Children I’ll Ever Have

GERALDINE CHAPLIN AS RITA BILLLINGSLY, THE LESBIAN WEDDING COORDINATOR IN “A WEDDING”

Immediately afterward Altman supplies a second, deliberately misleading queer moment. Muffin discovers her drunken new husband, Dino, in the shower with his groomsman, Reedley Roots (Craig Richard Nelson), and the tableau initially appears to reveal a sexual encounter between the two men. It isn’t one: Dino has passed out drunk, and Reedley has put him under the shower in an attempt to sober him up. The apparent “gay revelation” is therefore a visual misunderstanding—although Altman deliberately places it beside Rita’s very real lesbian advance, briefly making the bride believe that both halves of her brand-new marriage have suddenly become queer. 

Overlong and underacted, the film feels like yet another Altman experiment that both succeeds and doesn’t.

The impressive supporting cast also includes Carol Burnett, Howard Duff, Mia Farrow, Vittorio Gassman, Lillian Gish, John Cromwell, Paul Dooly, Peggy Ann Garner, Dennis Christopher, Tim Thomerson, Martha Heflin, Vivica Lindfors, Lauren Hutton, Susan Kendall Newman, Dina Merrill, Nina Van Pallandt, Dennis Franz and John Considine

Several actors who later had notable film or television careers appeared as extras, including John Malkovich, Gary Sinise, Laurie Metcalf, Alan Wilder and George Wendt.