Portal:Robert Altman
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Introduction
Robert Bernard Altman (/ˈɔːltmən/; February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. A five-time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director and an enduring figure from the New Hollywood era, Altman was considered a "maverick" in making films with a highly naturalistic but stylized and satirical aesthetic, unlike most Hollywood films. He is consistently ranked as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in American cinema.
His style of filmmaking was unique among directors, in that his subjects covered most genres, but with a "subversive" twist that typically relies on satire and humor to express his personal vision. Altman developed a reputation for being "anti-Hollywood" and non-conformist in both his themes and directing style. However, actors especially enjoyed working under his direction because he encouraged them to improvise, thereby inspiring their own creativity.
Selected general articles
- A Wedding is a 1978 American comedy film directed by Robert Altman, with an ensemble cast that included Desi Arnaz, Jr., Carol Burnett, Paul Dooley, Vittorio Gassman, Mia Farrow, Lillian Gish, Geraldine Chaplin, Howard Duff, Nina Van Pallandt, Amy Stryker, and Pat McCormick. The story is told in the trademark Altman style, with multiple plots and overlapping humorous dialogue.
The story takes place in a single day during a lavish wedding that merges a nouveau riche Southern family with an established wealthy Chicago family having possible ties to organized crime. Read more...
Robert Reed Altman (born December 22, 1959) has served as a camera operator and director of photography on feature films and television series since the 1970s. He is the son of filmmaker Robert Altman and Kathryn Reed. Read more...- The Player is a 1992 American satirical black comedy film directed by Robert Altman and written by Michael Tolkin, based on his own 1988 novel of the same name. The film stars Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward, Whoopi Goldberg, Peter Gallagher, Brion James, Cynthia Stevenson and is the story of a Hollywood film studio executive who murders an aspiring screenwriter he believes is sending him death threats.
The Player has many film references and Hollywood in-jokes, with 65 celebrities making cameo appearances in the film. Altman once stated that the film "is a very mild satire," offending no one. The film received three nominations at the 65th Academy Awards: Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing. The film also won two Golden Globes, Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical and Best Actor – Comedy or Musical for Robbins. Read more... - Black and Blue is a musical revue celebrating the black culture of dance and music in Paris between World War I and World War II.
Based on an idea by Mel Howard and conceived by Hector Orezzoli and Claudio Segovia, it consists of songs by artists such as W. C. Handy, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Eubie Blake, and Big Maybelle and skits peppered with bits of bawdy humor. Read more... - Secret Honor is a 1984 film written by Donald Freed and Arnold M. Stone (based on their play), directed by Robert Altman and starring Philip Baker Hall as former president Richard M. Nixon, a fictional account attempting to gain insight into Nixon's personality, life, attitudes and behavior. It was filmed at the University of Michigan. Read more...
- The Troubleshooters is an American 26-segment half-hour adventure series starring Keenan Wynn as Kodiak and Bob Mathias as Frank Dugan. The show aired on NBC Television from September 11, 1959, to April 10, 1960. Based on events at international construction sites, the program was directed by Robert Altman early in his career. It was the first series offered by United Artists Television.
The premiere episode "Liquid Death" introduced the supporting cast members, Chet Allen (born 1928) as Slats, Roland "Bob" Harris (born 1930) as Jim, Bob Fortier as Scotty, and stunt actor Carey Loftin (1914–1997) as Skinner. Forrest Compton (born 1925) also appeared in two episodes as Davis. Read more... - O.C. and Stiggs is a 1985 American teen comedy film directed by Robert Altman, based on two characters that were originally featured in a series of stories published in National Lampoon magazine. The film stars Daniel H. Jenkins and Neill Barry as the title characters. Other members of the cast include Paul Dooley, Jane Curtin, Martin Mull, Dennis Hopper, Ray Walston, Louis Nye, Melvin Van Peebles, Tina Louise, Cynthia Nixon, Jon Cryer and Bob Uecker.
The film, a raunchy teen comedy described by the British Film Institute as "probably Altman's least successful film", was shot in 1983, but not released until long after post-production was completed (copy-written in 1985). MGM shelved it for a couple of years, finally giving it a limited theatrical release in 1987 and 1988. Read more... - Tanner on Tanner is a 2004 comedy film. It is the sequel to the 1988 Robert Altman-directed and Garry Trudeau-written miniseries about a failed presidential candidate, Tanner '88. The sequel focuses mostly on Alex Tanner (Cynthia Nixon), a struggling filmmaker and the daughter of onetime presidential candidate Jack Tanner (Michael Murphy). Read more...
- Countdown is a 1968 science fiction film directed by Robert Altman, based on the novel The Pilgrim Project by Hank Searls. It stars James Caan and Robert Duvall as astronauts vying to be the first American to walk on the Moon as part of a crash program to beat the Soviet Union. Read more...
- Tanner '88 is a political mockumentary miniseries written by Garry Trudeau and directed by Robert Altman. First broadcast by HBO during the months leading up to the 1988 U.S. presidential election, it purports to tell the behind-the-scenes story of the campaign of former Michigan U.S. representative Jack Tanner during his bid to secure the Democratic Party's nomination for President of the United States.
The story is told from a number of different points of view, including Tanner, his campaign staff, the small army of news reporters that constantly follow the candidate, and volunteers. Many political figures of the time appear (some in cameos, some extended), including Bruce Babbitt, Bob Dole, Kitty Dukakis, Gary Hart, Jesse Jackson, and Pat Robertson. Trudeau and Altman revisited the story 16 years later in Tanner on Tanner. Read more... - Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean is a 1982 comedy drama film adaptation of Ed Graczyk's 1976 play of the same name. The Broadway and screen versions were directed by Robert Altman, and starred Sandy Dennis, Cher, Mark Patton, Karen Black, Sudie Bond and Kathy Bates.
As with the original play, the film version takes place inside a small Woolworth's five-and-dime store in a small Texas town, where an all-female fan club for actor James Dean reunites in 1975. Through a series of flashbacks, the six members also reveal secrets dating back to 1955. Read more... - The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is a two-act play, of the courtroom drama type, that was dramatized for the stage by Herman Wouk, which he adapted from his own novel, The Caine Mutiny.
Wouk's novel covered a long stretch of time aboard the USS Caine, a Navy destroyer minesweeper in the Pacific. It begins with Willis Keith's assignment to the Caine, chronicles the mismanagement of the ship under Philip Francis Queeg, explains how Steve Maryk relieved Queeg of command, gives an account of Maryk's court-martial, and describes the aftermath of the mutiny for all involved. Read more... - Aria is a 1987 British anthology film produced by Don Boyd that consists of ten short films by ten different directors, each showing the director's choice of visual accompaniment to one or more operatic arias. There is little or no dialogue from the actors, with most words coming from the libretto of the operas in Italian, French, or German.
The film was entered into the 1987 Cannes Film Festival. Read more... - The Gingerbread Man is a 1998 American legal thriller film directed by Robert Altman and based on a discarded John Grisham manuscript. The film stars Kenneth Branagh, Embeth Davidtz, Robert Downey Jr., Tom Berenger, Daryl Hannah, Famke Janssen, and Robert Duvall. Read more...
- The Delinquents is a 1957 American drama film written, produced, and directed by Robert Altman in his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri during the summer of 1956 on a $63,000 budget. It's not only the first film Altman directed, but also the first to star Tom Laughlin. Read more...
- Brewster McCloud is a 1970 American comedy film & experimental film directed by Robert Altman. It concerns a young recluse (Bud Cort, as the title character) who lives in a fallout shelter of the Houston Astrodome, where he is building a pair of wings so he can fly. He is helped by his comely and enigmatic "fairy godmother", played by Sally Kellerman, as he becomes a suspect in a series of murders. The film was shot on location in Houston, Texas. During the opening credits, shots of the downtown Houston skyline (with One Shell Plaza under construction) zoom toward the Houston Astrodome and Astrohall, with the emerging Texas Medical Center in the background. It was the first film shot inside the Astrodome. Read more...
- The Company is a 2003 drama film directed by Robert Altman and starring Neve Campbell, who co-wrote and co-produced the film. The film also stars Malcolm McDowell and James Franco and is set in the company of the Joffrey Ballet. Read more...
- Popeye is a 1980 American musical comedy film directed by Robert Altman and based on E. C. Segar's character of the same name from the Thimble Theatre comic strip. Produced by Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Productions, film stars Robin Williams as Popeye the Sailor Man and Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl. Paramount handled North American distribution, while Buena Vista International handled international distribution.
The film premiered on December 6, 1980 in Los Angeles, California, to mixed reviews and disappointing box office results. Harry Nilsson's soundtrack received mostly positive reviews. Read more... - Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson is a 1976 DeLuxe Color revisionist Western directed by Robert Altman and based on the play Indians by Arthur Kopit. It stars Paul Newman as William F. Cody, alias Buffalo Bill, along with Geraldine Chaplin, Will Sampson, Joel Grey, Harvey Keitel and Burt Lancaster as Bill's biographer, Ned Buntline filmed in Panavision.
As in his earlier film MASH, Altman skewers an American historical myth of heroism, in this case the notion that noble white men fighting bloodthirsty savages won the West. However, the film was poorly received at the time of its release, as the country was celebrating its bicentennial. Read more... - HealtH (also known as Health and H.E.A.L.T.H.) is a 1980 American ensemble comedy film, the fifteenth feature project from director Robert Altman. It stars Carol Burnett, Glenda Jackson, James Garner, Lauren Bacall, and Paul Dooley, and was written by Altman, Dooley and Frank Barhydt. The film's title is an acronym for "Happiness, Energy, and Longevity through Health".
A parody and satire of the U.S. political scene of the time, HealtH is set at a health food convention at a Florida luxury hotel, where a powerful political organization is deciding on a new president. The election is rife with backroom deals and scandal; a businessman, Colonel Cody, is out to rig the votes and the outcome. Dick Cavett and Dinah Shore, two television talk show personalities of the time, are mentioned prominently in the film. Read more... - McCabe & Mrs. Miller is a 1971 American revisionist western film starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, and directed by Robert Altman. The screenplay is based on the 1959 novel McCabe by Edmund Naughton. Altman referred to it as an "anti-western film" because the film ignores or subverts a number of Western conventions. In 2010, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". Read more...
- California Split is a 1974 film directed by Robert Altman and starring Elliott Gould and George Segal as a pair of gamblers and was the first non-Cinerama film to use eight-track stereo sound. Read more...
- The Long Goodbye is a 1973 thriller film directed by Robert Altman and based on Raymond Chandler's 1953 novel of the same title. The screenplay was written by Leigh Brackett, who cowrote the screenplay for The Big Sleep in 1946. The film stars Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe and features Sterling Hayden, Nina Van Pallandt, Jim Bouton, and Mark Rydell.
The story's period was moved from 1949–50 to 1970s Hollywood. The Long Goodbye has been described as "a study of a moral and decent man cast adrift in a selfish, self-obsessed society where lives can be thrown away without a backward glance ... and any notions of friendship and loyalty are meaningless."[page needed] Read more...
Alan Steven Rudolph (born December 18, 1943) is an American film director and screenwriter. Read more...- Thieves Like Us is a 1974 film directed by Robert Altman and starring Keith Carradine and Shelley Duvall. The film was based on the novel Thieves Like Us by Edward Anderson, which was also the source material for the 1948 film They Live by Night, directed by Nicholas Ray. The supporting cast includes Louise Fletcher and Tom Skerritt.
The film was entered into the 1974 Cannes Film Festival. Read more... - Prêt-à-Porter, released in the US as Ready to Wear (Prêt-à-Porter), is a 1994 American satirical comedy-drama film co-written, directed, and produced by Robert Altman and shot on location during the Paris Fashion Week with a host of international stars, models, and designers.[citation needed]
The film features an extensive ensemble cast, including Anouk Aimée, Marcello Mastroianni, Sophia Loren, Kim Basinger, Stephen Rea, Lauren Bacall, Julia Roberts, Tim Robbins, Lili Taylor, and Sally Kellerman.[citation needed] Read more... - Dr. T & The Women is a 2000 American romantic comedy film directed by Robert Altman. It features an ensemble cast that includes Richard Gere as wealthy gynecologist Dr. Sullivan Travis ("Dr. T") and Helen Hunt, Farrah Fawcett, Laura Dern, Shelley Long, Tara Reid, Kate Hudson and Liv Tyler as the various women that encompass his everyday life. The movie was primarily filmed in Dallas, Texas, and was released in US theaters on October 13, 2000. The film's music was composed by alternative country singer Lyle Lovett, who released an album of his score in September 2000. Read more...
- Images is a 1972 British-American psychological horror film written and directed by Robert Altman and starring Susannah York and René Auberjonois. The picture follows an unstable children's author who finds herself engulfed in apparitions and hallucinations while staying at her remote vacation home.
Conceived by Altman in the mid-1960s, Images was secured financing in 1971 by Hemdale Film Group Ltd., and shot on location in County Wicklow, Ireland in the fall of that year. The script, which had been sparsely composed by Altman, was collaborateively altered throughout the shoot with input from the actors. Images premiered at the 25th Cannes Film Festival, where York won the award for Best Actress, after which it was released theatrically in the United States by Columbia Pictures on December 18, 1972. Its theatrical run in the United States was short-lived, and the film received little promotion from Hemdale in the United Kingdom. Read more... - Quintet is a 1979 post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by Robert Altman. It stars Paul Newman, Brigitte Fossey, Bibi Andersson, Fernando Rey, Vittorio Gassman and Nina Van Pallandt. Read more...
- MASH (styled M*A*S*H on the poster art) is a 1970 American black comedy war film directed by Robert Altman and written by Ring Lardner Jr., based on Richard Hooker's novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors. The picture is the only theatrically released feature film in the M*A*S*H franchise, and it became one of the biggest films of the early 1970s for 20th Century Fox.
The film depicts a unit of medical personnel stationed at a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) during the Korean War; the subtext is about the Vietnam War. It stars Donald Sutherland, Tom Skerritt, and Elliott Gould, with Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall, René Auberjonois, Gary Burghoff, Roger Bowen, Michael Murphy, and in his film debut, professional football player Fred Williamson. Read more...
McTeague is a novel by Frank Norris, first published in 1899. It tells the story of a couple's courtship and marriage, and their subsequent descent into poverty, violence and finally murder as the result of jealousy and greed. The book was the basis for the films McTeague (1916), and Erich von Stroheim's Greed (1924). It was also adapted as an opera by William Bolcom in 1992. Read more...- 3 Women is a 1977 American avant-garde drama film written and directed by Robert Altman and starring Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek and Janice Rule. It depicts the increasingly bizarre, mysterious relationship between a woman (Duvall) and her roommate and co-worker (Spacek) in a dusty, underpopulated Californian desert town.
The story came directly from a dream Altman had, which he adapted into a treatment, intending to film without a screenplay. 20th Century Fox financed the project on the basis of Altman's past work, and a screenplay was completed before filming. Read more... - Vincent & Theo is a 1990 biographical drama film about the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) and his brother Theo (1857–1891), who was an art dealer. While Vincent Van Gogh's artworks are now famous, he was essentially unrecognised in his lifetime, and survived on his brother's charity. The film was directed by Robert Altman, and starred Tim Roth and Paul Rhys in the title roles.
The film was made as a four-hour mini-series (200-minute length) for television, and a 138-minute version was released to theatres. Read more... - Beyond Therapy is a 1987 American comedy film written and directed by Robert Altman, based on the play of the same name by Christopher Durang. It stars Julie Hagerty, Jeff Goldblum, Glenda Jackson, Tom Conti, and Christopher Guest. Read more...
- Cookie's Fortune is a 1999 criminal comedy film directed by Robert Altman and starring an ensemble cast, including Glenn Close, Julianne Moore, Liv Tyler, Patricia Neal, Charles S. Dutton and Chris O'Donnell.
It portrays small-town Southern life in Holly Springs, Mississippi, where the film was mostly shot. It was entered into the 49th Berlin International Film Festival, held in February 1999. Read more... - A Prairie Home Companion is a 2006 American ensemble comedy film directed by Robert Altman and is his final film. The film is a fictional representation of behind-the-scenes activities at the long-running public radio show of the same name. The film received mostly positive reviews and was a moderate box office success on its small budget.
The film features an ensemble cast including Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Tommy Lee Jones, Woody Harrelson, Lily Tomlin, Garrison Keillor, Virginia Madsen, John C. Reilly, and Lindsay Lohan. Read more... - Nashville is a 1975 American satirical musical comedy-drama film directed by Robert Altman. The film takes a snapshot of people involved in the country music and gospel music businesses in Nashville, Tennessee. The characters' efforts to succeed or hold on to their success are interwoven with the efforts of a political operative and a local businessman to stage a concert rally before the state's presidential primary for a populist outsider running for President of the United States on the Replacement Party ticket.
Nashville is often noted for its scope, with several critics viewing it as a sort of mosaic. The work contains 24 main characters, an hour of musical numbers, and multiple storylines. Its large ensemble cast includes David Arkin, Barbara Baxley, Ned Beatty, Karen Black, Ronee Blakley, Timothy Brown, Keith Carradine, Geraldine Chaplin, Robert DoQui, Shelley Duvall, Allen Garfield, Henry Gibson, Scott Glenn, Jeff Goldblum, Barbara Harris, David Hayward, Michael Murphy, Allan F. Nicholls, Dave Peel, Cristina Raines, Bert Remsen, Lily Tomlin, Gwen Welles, and Keenan Wynn. Read more... - Short Cuts is a 1993 American comedy-drama film, directed by Robert Altman. Filmed from a screenplay by Altman and Frank Barhydt, it is inspired by nine short stories and a poem by Raymond Carver. The film has a Los Angeles setting, which substitues the Pacific Northwest backdrop of Carver's stories. Short Cuts traces the actions of 22 principal characters, both in parallel and at occasional loose points of connection. The role of chance and luck is central to the film, and many of the stories concern death and infidelity.
The film features an ensemble cast including Matthew Modine, Julianne Moore, Fred Ward, Anne Archer, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Robert Downey Jr., Madeleine Stowe, Chris Penn, Jack Lemmon, Frances McDormand, Lori Singer, Andie MacDowell, Buck Henry, Lily Tomlin, actress and singer Annie Ross, and musicians Huey Lewis, Lyle Lovett and Tom Waits. Read more... - Gosford Park is a 2001 British mystery film directed by Robert Altman and written by Julian Fellowes. The film stars an ensemble cast, which includes Eileen Atkins, Bob Balaban, Alan Bates, Charles Dance, Stephen Fry, Michael Gambon, Richard E. Grant, Derek Jacobi, Kelly Macdonald, Helen Mirren, Jeremy Northam, Clive Owen, Ryan Phillippe, Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Emily Watson. The story follows a party of wealthy Britons plus an American producer, and their servants, who gather for a shooting weekend at Gosford Park, an English country house. A murder occurs after a dinner party, and the film goes on to present the subsequent investigation from the servants' and guests' perspectives.
Development on Gosford Park began in 1999, when Bob Balaban asked Altman if they could develop a film together. Balaban suggested an Agatha Christie-style whodunit and introduced Altman to Julian Fellowes, with whom Balaban had been working on a different project. The film went into production in March 2001, and began filming at Shepperton Studios with a production budget of $19.8 million. Gosford Park premiered on 7 November 2001 at the London Film Festival. It received a limited release across cinemas in the United States in December 2001, before being widely released in January 2002 by USA Films. It was released in February 2002 in the United Kingdom. Read more... - Vincent & Theo is a 1990 biographical drama film about the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) and his brother Theo (1857–1891), who was an art dealer. While Vincent Van Gogh's artworks are now famous, he was essentially unrecognised in his lifetime, and survived on his brother's charity. The film was directed by Robert Altman, and starred Tim Roth and Paul Rhys in the title roles.
The film was made as a four-hour mini-series (200-minute length) for television, and a 138-minute version was released to theatres. Read more...
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Selected images
Altman with Lillian Gish and Lily Tomlin at Nashville awards ceremony in 1976
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