Robert Altman, famous director

LOS ANGELES – ‘MASH’ director Robert Altman, who revolutionised Hollywood filmmaking with a chaotic, irreverent style that critics hailed as ‘American Art Cinema’, has died at age 81, his production company said on Tuesday.

The director of dozens of films and TV dramas, Altman changed the vocabulary of American filmmaking starting with ‘MASH’, a black comedy about a madcap medical unit in the Korean war that came out in 1970 and became a lightning rod for anger many Americans felt toward officials over the Vietnam war. Many of Altman’s other films were hailed by critics, including 1975’s ‘Nashville’, which along with ‘MASH’ and the 1971 western ‘McCabe and Mrs Miller’ are considered among the best films of the 1970s.Other notable films included ‘The Player’ (1992) and ‘Gosford Park’ (2001).He also made his share of flops, including the financial disaster ‘Popeye’ (1980) and ‘Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson’ (1976).”What I am looking for is occurrence, truthful human behaviour.We’ve got a kind of road map and we are making it up as we travel along,” Altman once said.His filmmaking style deliberately looked incoherent – actors would talk over each other and cameras would zoom in and out.Often what someone was saying did not correspond to what a viewer was seeing and always his characters were anything but black and white.Film historian David Thomson said, “Altman’s place in American cinema is very high.He is the only real American independent director who sustained a career for the best part of 40 years.He always made films his way and scorned the money sources he used to make films.He made them feel lucky that he was taking their money to make his film.”‘INTERESTED IN CHAOS’ Thomson said Altman “was interested in chaos.He didn’t always like his characters.He was suspicious of them.It was like in real life, people were not to be trusted.His filmmaking techniques were designed to show life out of control.”Many of his films engaged directly in social comment and, Altman, born in Kansas City, Missouri, was always considered a maverick in Hollywood where profits takes precedence over politics.He was nominated as best director five times: for ‘MASH’, ‘Nashville’, ‘The Player’, ‘Short Cuts’ (1993) and ‘Gosford Park’, but never won.He also shared Oscar nominations for best picture for ‘Nashville’ and ‘Gosford Park’.Perhaps to make up for the neglect, Altman in March this year received a lifetime achievement award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.He revealed at the ceremony that he had a heart transplant a decade earlier but had kept it secret in order to keep working.Altman was 30 when he made his first feature film.On the strength of that he moved to Hollywood where his big break came with ‘MASH’, which centred on the antics of a group of doctors and nurses of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital – MASH for short – as they struggled to keep their sanity and save lives.When not tending to waves of wounded GIs, surgeons ‘Hawkeye’ Pierce and ‘Trapper John’ McIntyre passed their time playing practical jokes, canoodling with nurses and drinking to excess.The film spawned the long-running hit TV series ‘M*A*S*H’.Many of the actors who worked for Altman loved him, but Warren Beatty who starred in ‘McCabe and Mrs Miller’, once said he that thought of killing him.According to film journalist Craig Modderno, co-author of ‘I’ll Be in my Trailer: The Creative Wars Between Actors and Directors’, Altman and Beatty feuded over whether Beatty was trying to steal a scene from newcomer William Devane.Altman told Modderno, “Warren has never said a kind word about ‘McCabe and Mrs Miller’ even though he got the best reviews of his career from it.When I die if that egotistical bastard says anything nice about me, then you know he’s lying, but I’ll haunt him to his grave for the unprofessional way that he treated me and our cast and crew.”Other than him I’ve loved every actor I’ve ever worked with.When it comes to dealing with film executives…..well that’s a book in itself!”Nampa-ReutersMany of Altman’s other films were hailed by critics, including 1975’s ‘Nashville’, which along with ‘MASH’ and the 1971 western ‘McCabe and Mrs Miller’ are considered among the best films of the 1970s.Other notable films included ‘The Player’ (1992) and ‘Gosford Park’ (2001).He also made his share of flops, including the financial disaster ‘Popeye’ (1980) and ‘Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson’ (1976).”What I am looking for is occurrence, truthful human behaviour.We’ve got a kind of road map and we are making it up as we travel along,” Altman once said.His filmmaking style deliberately looked incoherent – actors would talk over each other and cameras would zoom in and out.Often what someone was saying did not correspond to what a viewer was seeing and always his characters were anything but black and white.Film historian David Thomson said, “Altman’s place in American cinema is very high.He is the only real American independent director who sustained a career for the best part of 40 years.He always made films his way and scorned the money sources he used to make films.He made them feel lucky that he was taking their money to make his film.”‘INTERESTED IN CHAOS’ Thomson said Altman “was interested in chaos.He didn’t always like his characters.He was suspicious of them.It was like in real life, people were not to be trusted.His filmmaking techniques were designed to show life out of control.”Many of his films engaged directly in social comment and, Altman, born in Kansas City, Missouri, was always considered a maverick in Hollywood where profits takes precedence over politics.He was nominated as best director five times: for ‘MASH’, ‘Nashville’, ‘The Player’, ‘Short Cuts’ (1993) and ‘Gosford Park’, but never won.He also shared Oscar nominations for best picture for ‘Nashville’ and ‘Gosford Park’.Perhaps to make up for the neglect, Altman in March this year received a lifetime achievement award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.He revealed at the ceremony that he had a heart transplant a decade earlier but had kept it secret in order to keep working.Altman was 30 when he made his first feature film.On the strength of that he moved to Hollywood where his big break came with ‘MASH’, which centred on the antics of a group of doctors and nurses of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital – MASH for short – as they struggled to keep their sanity and save lives.When not tending to waves of wounded GIs, surgeons ‘Hawkeye’ Pierce and ‘Trapper John’ McIntyre passed their time playing practical jokes, canoodling with nurses and drinking to excess.The film spawned the long-running hit TV series ‘M*A*S*H’.Many of the actors who worked for Altman loved him, but Warren Beatty who starred in ‘McCabe and Mrs Miller’, once said he that thought of killing him.According to film journalist Craig Modderno, co-author of ‘I’ll Be in my Trailer: The Creative Wars Between Actors and Directors’, Altman and Beatty feuded over whether Beatty was trying to steal a scene from newcomer William Devane.Altman told Modderno, “Warren has never said a kind word about ‘McCabe and Mrs Miller’ even though he got the best reviews of his career from it.When I die if that egotistical bastard says anything nice about me, then you know he’s lying, but I’ll haunt him to his grave for the unprofessional way that he treated me and our cast and crew.”Other than him I’ve loved every actor I’ve ever worked with.When it comes to dealing with film executives…..well that’s a book in itself!” Nampa-Reuters