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It wasn’t that long ago that film school introduced me to a 16mm print of Nashville – the chaotic, blissful, satire on politics was the brilliant masterpiece that for many remains Robert Altman’s greatest gift to film. However, the stubborn un-Hollywood director has left us with a library of films that we can consider great – commencing with M*A*S*H and ending with Gosford Park.
Thank god that the Academy Honorary Award for lifetime achievement was a 2006 thing and not one year later. Just in case he would kick the bucket during filming, the 81-year-old director was paired with Paul Thomas Anderson for his last film A Prairie Home Companion.
He will be remembered for his love of an working with a large ensemble cast and for using a more “organic” filmmaking style – often his films were labeled as avant-garde – his non traditional style of filmmaking style saw overlapping dialogue and interesting use of the zoom.
The man was ambitious, and despite his ailing health he was still working on projects – most recently Picturehouse was on board with him for a project that was inspired by the events depicted in S.R. Bindler’s 1997 documentary “Hands on a Hard Body: The Documentary,” which recounted a Texas endurance contest that offered a new Nissan Hardbody truck as the prize. The last person left standing with a hand on the truck got to take it home.
Curiously as many had suggested, A Prairie Home Companion has a particular symbolic narrative that explores the notion of death but ultimately states that the show must go!. What a way to go.
For a fairly complete sense of what Altman gave to cinema – the folks at Senses of Cinema have complete portraits on almost every important director – check out RA’s right here.
