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Chafed Elbows
58m
Directed by Robert Downey Sr. • 1966 • United States
This riot of bad taste was a breakthrough for Robert Downey Sr., thanks to rave notices. Visualized largely in still 35 mm photographs, it follows a shiftless downtown Manhattanite having his “annual November breakdown” as he wanders from one odd job to the next, coming across all sorts of sordid types, from a desperate independent filmmaker to a destitute dirty-sock sniffer. And there is something to offend everyone: incest, murder, bad pop songs, you name it.
Preserved by Anthology Film Archives, with funding provided by The Film Foundation.