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Robert Altman: Director Robert Altman
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One month ago today, maverick filmmaker Robert Altman was at the Hamptons International Film Festival in Long Island, NY, reflecting upon his career behind the camera at a tribute in his honor. The 81-year-old American director walked on stage to a standing ovation at Guild Hall for the annual "A Conversation With..." event and afterwards, was toasted during a Nick and Toni's dinner hosted by Picturehouse. That evening, he held court in the middle of the restaurant, receiving well-wishers. Altman died at a Los Angeles hospital last night (Monday) from complications due to cancer, according to his New York City production company, Sandcastle 5. For the last 18 months Altman continued to live and work with the disease and was in pre-production on a new film which he planned to shoot in February.
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Robert Altman is 80 years old in February 2005. He is the director of 33 feature films since his first major Hollywood film in 1967. He is a notorious renegade from the standard operating procedures and finished products of the motion picture industry, and he has been critically acclaimed as one of the most pre-eminent directors in American cinema during the last quarter of the twentieth century. His two most recent films reflect the independent director continuing to make independent films: The Company (2003) is at once a fictional meditation on ballet and a documentary on the work of the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago. Tanner on Tanner (2004) reprises Tanner '88's (1988) fictional cast, real presidential politics, and creative collaboration between Altman and Doonesbury's Gerry Trudeau to cast a caustic and mockumentary eye on the American presidential campaign of 2004. The unusual diversity of his work, as well as its prestige, is represented by William Bolcom's opera adaptation of A Wedding (1978), currently performing at the Chicago Lyric Opera, under Altman's direction.
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When he died in 2006, director Robert Altman left a rich legacy of films, from MASH, his breakthrough black comedy, through masterpieces like Nashville, Short Cuts, and Gosford Park. But many would agree that his crowning achievement was McCabe & Mrs. Miller, a daring downbeat film about a gambler and a prostitute. Robert Self now provides an illuminating new look at this long neglected classic.
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Just as MATCH POINT refreshed Woody Allen's fortunes, Robert Altman's late-career trip to the UK did wonders for his creativity. A classic English murder mystery, complete with country house and upstairs-downstairs intrigue, proves a great fit for Altman's sprawling-castwith- overlapping-dialogue dynamic. Some of Britain's best actors light up the screen, including Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren, Michael Gambon, Emily Watson, Alan Bates and Clive Owen. Seven Oscar nominations, including Altman's fifth as director, with Julian Fellowes winning for Best Original Screenplay.
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Robert Altman has been nominated for Best Director four times. In 1970, he was nominated for MASH. (He lost to Franklin J. Schaffner, the director of PATTON.) In 1975, he was nominated for NASHVILLE. (He lost to Milos Forman, the director of ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST.) In 1992, he was nominated for PLAYER. (He lost to Clint Eastwood, the director of UNFORGIVEN.) In 1993, he was nominated for SHORT CUTS. (He lost to Stephen Spielberg, the director of SCHINDLER’S LIST.)
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When it was first released A Wedding received a cooler reception than director Robert Altman was used to with previous films Nashville and 3 Women. It is frenetic and confusing with Altman himself confessing, "It probably had too many characters and it gets a little unwieldy." With no fewer than 48 significant speaking parts, that was something of an understatement. However, even with its flaws, this is one of Altman's funniest and most ebullient films.
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Director Robert Altman