Robert Altman

[Pubrick]

Actually, Altman's first feature was The Delinquents in the mid-50's. 

that barely registered. GT was talking as if Altman preceded Scorsese like Cassavetes did in significance. Altman didn't mean shit until MASH which was 3 years after scorsese's first feature, and 3 before his breakthrough. hardly a precursor, more a contemporary.

[soixante]

Altman's second feature in the 50's, The James Dean Story, received a fair amount of critical acclaim.  Altman's work on Combat was highly acclaimed.  A few years back, TV Guide named one of Altman's episodes of Combat the best single episode of any TV program ever.  In additiion, Altman was pretty much the first major Hollywood filmmaker to create original programming on HBO -- Tanner 88 also influenced all the political shows that followed, such as West Wing.

Scorsese's early success, while well deserved, was also the result of timing.  In the late 60's, more money was available to young filmmakers fresh out of film school.  Altman worked in TV for most of the 60's because the old studio system, up til 1967, was reluctant to take chances on new filmmakers.  After Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate were hits, young filmmakers (like Scorsese) were in high demand.  Altman did what he could do until his big opportunity came along. 

On a technical level, MASH broke a lot of ground, especially in sound design (not just the overlapping dialogue, but the ambient sound as well). 

[MacGuffin]

Lindsay Lohan's "adequite" eulogy

Robert Altman's death is a tragedy for all those who love cinema. And among them is Lindsay Lohan, who just appeared in his film The Prairie Home Companion. She has released a self-penned statement of condolences that shows not only how much she appreciated Altman, but also that stars should not pen their own statements of condolences. It seems only fitting to reproduce it in full from People magazine:


I would like to send my condolences out to Catherine Altman, Robert Altman's wife, as well as all of his immediate family, close friends, co-workers, and all of his inner circle.

I feel as if I've just had the wind knocked out of me and my heart aches. If not only my heart but the heart of Mr. Altman's wife and family and many fellow actors/artists that admire him for his work and love him for making people laugh whenever and however he could.

Robert Altman made dreams possible for many independent aspiring filmmakers, as well as creating roles for countless actors.

I am lucky enough to of been able to work with Robert Altman amongst the other greats on a film that I can genuinely say created a turning point in my career.

I learned so much from Altman and he was the closest thing to my father and grandfather that I really do believe I've had in several years.

The point is, he made a difference.
He left us with a legend that all of us have the ability to do.

So every day when you wake up.
Look in the mirror and thank god for every second you have and cherish all moments.
The fighting, the anger, the drama is tedious.

Please just take each moment day by day and consider yourself lucky to breathe and feel at all and smile. Be thankful.

Life comes once, doesn't 'keep coming back' and we all take such advantage of what we have.
When we shouldn't.....

Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of yourselves' (12st book)

– Everytime there's a triumph in the world a million souls hafta be trampled on. – Altman

Its true. But treasure each triumph as they come.

If I can do anything for those who are in a very hard time right now, as I'm one of them with hearing this news, please take advantage of the fact that I'm just a phone call away.
God Bless, peace and love always.

Thank You,
"BE ADEQUITE"
Lindsay Lohan

[Pubrick]

to whoever wrote the article, if you're gonna try to own someone for writing like a stupid teenager, at least get the title of his last film right.

[Ravi]

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/55673

[FORT]

He left us with a legend that all of us have the ability to do.

i've met n spoken lindsay..
yea, she's as dim as u'd think. as in; lacking in brightness.
she does keep an entourage of stupider friends around her tho..
..so that she looks less stupider in comparison.

n yo pertaining to p's last post..
did mac really call it THE Prairie Home Companion?
or was that like part of the quote.

[Pubrick]

n yo pertaining to p's last post..
did mac really call it THE Prairie Home Companion?
or was that like part of the quote.

it's the writer of the article he quoted. it's dumb cos they're trying to own her and they owned themselves in the process. it's like having a great comeback all lined up and then choking on shrimp.

[gob]

Saw McCabe and Mrs Miller for the first time yesterday. It's definitely (along with Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid) in my top westerns and probably in my top 100. Brilliant brilliant filmmaking. A great example of every department pulling their finger out and Altman seamlessly blending all the elements together.

[modage]

40 minute audio interview with Robert Altman from the Museum Of The Moving Image after a screening of Kansas City last year...

Robert Altman - April 29, 2006
Robert Altman's films play with the viewer's conceptions of American film and of America itself. Altman has created a unique cinematic style, with a trademark mixture of documentary camerawork, semi-improvised performances, multi-layered dialogue, and overlapping narratives. His films reinvent Hollywood genres while revealing the layers of spectacle that make up American culture and society. A month after winning an Honorary Academy Award, Altman opened a 22-film retrospective of his career by speaking at the Museum following a screening of Kansas City, a panoramic and jazz-like melodrama about politics, race, crime, and the movies, which is set in Altman's home town.

http://www.movingimage.us/pinewood/mp3.php?media_id=236

[MacGuffin]

Hollywood plans tributes to Robert Altman

Three months after the death of Robert Altman at age 81, several tributes have been announced for the maverick director.

Film Independent, the organizer of the annual Independent Spirit Awards, the arthouse world's version of the Oscars, has created the Robert Altman Award, given to one film's ensemble cast and director; the first one will be given out next year.

At this year's Independent Spirit Awards ceremony in Santa Monica on February 24, where Altman will compete for best director for his last film, "A Prairie Home Companion," he will also be bestowed with an honorary award "for his body of work and contribution to the ensemble genre."

Helen Mirren, Robert Downey Jr., Elliott Gould, Christopher Guest, Sally Kellerman, Andie MacDowell and John C. Reilly are among the stars scheduled to pay tribute at the ceremony.

In addition, memorial services for the director have been slated for February 20 in New York and March 4 in Los Angeles.

The New York memorial will feature such Altman collaborators as Bob Balaban, Harry Belafonte, Kevin Kline, Julianne Moore, Tim Robbins, Alan Rudolph, Joan Tewkesbury, Lily Tomlin, and Gary Trudeau. Altman's children Michael, Stephen, Robert Reed and Matthew will appear, and Annie Ross, William Bolcom, Elvis Costello and Robert Altman's Kansas City Orchestra are expected to perform.

Altman's New York memorial service is set for noon February 20 at Broadway's Majestic Theater. The Los Angeles service is scheduled for 2 p.m. March 4 at the DGA Theater.

The director of such films as "MASH," "Nashville" and "The Player," received an honorary Academy Award last year for "a career that has repeatedly reinvented the art form and inspired filmmakers and audiences alike." Altman succumbed to complications from cancer last November.

[MacGuffin]

Altman memorial tribute is a hit
Source: Hollywood Reporter

NEW YORK -- It was a tribute even the irascible Robert Altman would have loved.

On what would have been the director's 82nd birthday, three months after his death from cancer, hundreds of stars and filmmakers came to Broadway's Majestic Theater on Tuesday to pay homage to Altman.

The ensemble cast that took the stage ranged from actors Julianne Moore, Kevin Kline and Tim Robbins to collaborators Paul Thomas Anderson, Garry Trudeau and Picturehouse president Bob Berney. The equally high-wattage audience included Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Lauren Bacall, Susan Sarandon, Glenn Close, Patricia Neal, Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi and Stanley Tucci.

Onstage stories were peppered with memorable quotes from a sometimes impatient Altman, who could turn down a suggestion with "Yeah, let's not do that" or try to speed things along with "Just get to the verb." Trudeau, the writer-producer of HBO's series "Tanner '88," said Altman's first words to him were, "I eat writers for breakfast." And as "The Player" star Robbins noted, "He would not only not suffer fools, he'd make fools suffer."

But despite the "occasional volatility" Trudeau felt was likely key to Altman's creative process, each tribute invariably ended with a testament to his role as an on-set father figure, a loving husband to wife Kathryn, a director who perfectly captured the chaos of life and an actor's best friend. "You never felt Bob's disappointment or disapproval with you as an actor," his "Nashville" and "A Prairie Home Companion" star Lily Tomlin said.

Moore remembered asking him, "Was that OK?" on the "Short Cuts" set, to which he replied, "Of course, it's OK. It's exactly what you're doing. You're perfect."

The overlapping dialogue of New York filmmakers Jim Jarmusch, Sidney Lumet, Michael Lynne, Christine Vachon, Pam Koffler, John Penotti, Jonathan Demme, Marcie Bloom, Dylan Leiner and John Sloss could be heard in the audience. Keith Carradine, David Brown, Cynthia Nixon, Buck Henry, Lee Grant, Sam Cohn, Richard Kind, Sally Kellerman, Lori Singer, Richard E. Grant and Kurt Vonnegut also were in attendance.

The event opened with a series of photos from throughout Altman's life and wrapped with a montage from his films. In between were performances from "Short Cuts" star and jazz singer Annie Ross (singing the Depression-era tune "One Meatball") and a song from an opera based on his film "A Wedding," written by William Bolcom and performed by Lauren Flanigan.

Sandcastle 5 producers Wren Arthur and Joshua Astrachan gave details of the film Altman was set to start filming Feb. 12, an adaptation of the endurance-test contest docu "Hands on a Hardbody." Meryl Streep, Billy Bob Thornton, Jack Black, Jack White, Chris Rock, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Tomlin and Tommy Lee Jones were set to appear in the two-week shoot.

"In our last conversation, he was as clear and present as ever," Arthur said in one of the event's most touching speeches. "Bob walked off this planet with his boots on. He was the most inspiring person right up to the end."

Set up for release at Picturehouse, "Hardbody" might be restarted with another director in a style paying tribute to Altman, Berney said after the ceremony.

Others offering reminisces were Altman's sons Michael, Stephen, Robert and Matthew, along with Bob Balaban, Joan Tewkesbury, Alan Rudolph, E.L. Doctorow and Harry Belafonte. The latter revealed Altman's one-time plans to make what would have likely been his most controversial film, "Cork," tackling the subject of blackface and minstrel shows.

Tewkesbury and Robbins noted that the homage would have been the perfect Altman project. "It's called 'The Memorial,' and we are making the film as we speak," Robbins said. "There are cameras everywhere with subplots, subterfuge, whispered conversations and backstage preening. He's going to find us out, and God will laugh."

Added actor Bud Cort of the Kansas City, Mo., native: "Bob would love to be here. It's not only his birthday, it's also Fat Tuesday. He'd also see a chance to secure additional territories."

But Cort, who Altman discovered and cast in his 1970 films "MASH" and "Brewster McCloud," ended on a serious note by summing up what was lost three months ago. "There's a hole in the acting community that I pray to God can be filled," he said. "I don't think it can. Prove me wrong."

[Pas]

Very long thread for a no search function : is Quintet worth a watch ?

[Pwaybloe]

I couldn't get through it. 

[modage]

the thread that is, i'm sure quintet is great!

[New Feeling]

Quintet is hard to get through but I thought the ending was cool enough to make it worth the effort.