ROBERT ALTMAN (1925-2006). When I think of my favorite directors, Robert Altman doesn't always come to mind...but he remains one of a relative few American directors whose name on a work always excites my curiosity. One of the first posts on this blog covered an Altman appearance at the Film Forum in 2002; since then I've come back to him and his work from time to time (to link to two examples).

Altman went against the grain of Hollywood's major motion pictures. Sure, he specialized in widescreen movies, but his pacing tended to be slow and his running time relatively long, with dialogue overlapping much more than the norm. Characters, themes, and plots often revealed themselves gradually, without the conventionally "tight" timing of a typical screenplay. As a result, Altman's movies often enabled audiences to "observe a lot by watching" (as Yogi Berra said in another context).

Most if not all of Altman's films are best watched on a full-sized screen. I've seen many but not all of them. Here are some of my favorites:

M*A*S*H
The Long Goodbye
Nashville
The Player
Cookie's Fortune
Gosford Park
The Company

It turns out that a friend, Susan Thea Posnock, briefly interviewed Altman on Halloween night. Here is their chat.

Here's a dance scene excerpted from The Company. It features Trinity Hamilton.



Source (2:10)


And here's the extended opening shot from The Player.



Source (8:08)