Announcing the first ever I Hate Robert Altman Film Festival

I don’t like Robert Altman.

I need to rephrase that.

I’m pretty sure that if I’d ever met Altman we wouldn’t have gotten along.

I wouldn’t have liked him.

He wouldn’t have liked me.

Altman had a lot of good qualities.  People who worked for him on his movies, particularly actors, thought highly of him.  But he had more than his fair share of flaws and vices and weaknesses.  He could be selfish, self-indulgent, petty, vindictive, more often and on a grander scale than the average venial sinner and since he had fame and power what are small vices in others did real harm to anyone who got on his bad side or just on his nerves.  He liked to throw his weight around off the set where he had no business throwing it and no excuse.  He just liked being a bully sometimes.  And his moods weren’t improved by the drugs and the drinking and his company was most enjoyable when you were lit to the same degree and with the same chemicals and liquids as he was.  Having had a bad habit of remaining stone cold sober  I never learned to find drunks and the otherwise intoxicated amusing, loveable, or charming.  I’m a prig and a prude and Altman wasn’t and I just don’t believe he’d have excused my vices any more than I’d have excused his.

So what?

I don’t think I’d have liked Charles Dickens either and I know I’d have disliked Edward Hopper.  But my “relationships” with the two of them and with Altman are purely imaginary and based on nothing but what I’ve been told about them.  The real men that they were are really complete strangers to me and I might as well pick up a phone book from some city I’ve never visited, open it to any random page, close my eyes and stab my finger at a name, and declare that I don’t like you, So and so.

All I really know about them  is the art they produced and my only connection to them is through their books and paintings and films.  Altman was a great director and some of his movies are as important to me as some of Dickens’ novels and I can watch certain scenes from M*A*S*H and Nashville as often as I can look at Summer Evening and Chop Suey.

This mix of imaginary dislike and very real admiration is probably why I’m getting such a kick out of reading Robert Altman: The Oral Biography by Mitchell Zuckoff.

And naturally reading about him---reading what his friends and family and enemies and colleagues thought about him and remember about living and working and fighting with him---has made me want to go back and watch his movies.

So that’s what I’m going to do.

Then I’m going to write about them.

What I’d like is if you’d do it too.

I’m reviving Mannion Night at the Movies, which you may remember from last summer as Wednesday Night at the Movies at the late lamented arts blog newcritics.

Here’s the plan, Stan.

I’m going to host a series of online discussions of five or six of Altman’s movies starting Thursday, January 7, 2010.

I haven’t decided what the program’s going to be, except that I know I’ll be leading off with California Split and following that up with Thieves Like Us, only because the first may be his best---or at any rate his most Altmanesque movie after Nashville---and the second one of the only one of his films I’ve never seen.

I also know that I won’t be including M*A*S*H because it means too much to me and I’ve seen it a thousand times, and McCabe and Mrs Miller and The Long Goodbye are out because I’m saving them for other things---a series on Westerns and a series on detective movies or just on movies based on Raymond Chandler novels.

So I’m looking for suggestions for the other three or four films.  Let me know either in the comments or by email what you’d like to include.

Then ask Santa to bring you the movies and Zuckoff’s book, which, along with all of Altman’s films that are out on DVD, are available through my aStore.

______________________

So what? I’ll show you so what!  Former TIME magazine film critic Richard Schickel doesn’t like Altman the man either.  Unlike me, he might have met the guy a few times, so his feelings may have some basis in reality. Unlike me, though, he doesn’t separate his opinions about the artist from his opinions about the art and sees Altman’s personal vices showing up in his movies as weaknesses in his films.  At least that’s how it comes across in Schickel’s review of Robert Altman: The Oral Biography for the LA Times.

Bob Westal lays out the reasons Schickel is all wet and links to defenses of Altman as human being and as filmmaker in How many Schickels is an Altman worth?

Comments

[Janelle]

Gosford Park and A Prairie Home Companion

[Bill Altreuter]

Brewster McCloud? Popeye? I like The Player a great deal. I've never seen HealtH, and that might be interesting....

[Ellen Smith]

Loved M.A.S.H., liked Gosford Park, did not care for A Prairie Home Companion. Nashville, however, affected me deeply. I could not stop thinking about that movie for days. That was when I first saw it. A couple of years ago, I recommended it to my son and daughter-in-law. They hated it and didn't even watch the whole movie.

[dzman]

Brewster McCloud
Kansas City
The Player

[Lance]

Bill, I'd have Health right at the top of the list except that it's still not available on DVD.

Ellen, your son and daughter in law are banned from this blog FOREVER!

[Mike Schilling]

James Thurber was from all account a consciously malevolent asshole, never happier, as one wag said, then when he could cause two old friends to have a falling-out. "Walter Mitty" is nevertheless a great story.

[Arundel]

"Three Women" is deeply odd and haunting, 70's indie with Sissy Spacek and Shelly Duvall and a Lynchian strangeness.

"Come Back To The 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean" is hugely underrated I think. Sandy Dennis, Cher, Karen Black and Kathy Bates, it's a - again, haunting- adaptation of a stage play, I found it moving when I was young. Alas, I see it's not available on Netflix yet.

Gosford Park and Prairie Home Companion would probably round out my favorite Altman movies.
Especially the latter.

[Michael Bartley]

Buffalo Bill and the Indians or Sitting Bull's History Lesson.

[greginak]

the player is a must.

short cuts might be good because a lot of people seem to feel its a classic example of his style. Analyzing how well he adapted Carver's stories, which didn't seem well suited to a movie adaption could be interesting. hell you might even get me to think he did a good job and that the movie wasn't overly long and boring.

[Chris Quinones]

I'd go for Nashville or The Player...I loathed Gosford Park, though - I found it interminable.

One I'd love to see but never have is Secret Honor, because of my fascination with Richard Nixon.

Of course, the canonical example of impossible-to-live-with artistic genius was Richard Wagner. I suspect the people who hero-worshipped him had to approach him as a god because gods are free to behave like that, and it's not like he'd lay off if you asked him nicely.

[julia]

Gosford Park and The Player.

[Rob]

You think you don't like Altman? Go with O.C. and Stiggs. If you liked the original National Lampoon story it's based on, you'll want to STAB Altman.

[Theodore Kaczynski]

Didn't Altman do Short Cuts?

When Julianne Moore did her bottomless ironing scene, I finally understood what goes through a cat's mind when he sees a laser pointer dot.

ZOOMFOCUSZOOM! Sorry? What just happened in that scene? I was concentrating on the bouncing splash of red.

I can't remember any reason to recommend Short Cuts beyond Julianna's short red cuts.

Then again I'm one of six people on the planet who liked Popeye, so there's no accounting for taste.

[MBunge]

If you think you got it bad, Ted, I think M.A.S.H. is a thoroughly unfunny bit of work. It has a few broad, almost slapstick laughs, but I can't get past the smug, arrogant, self-righteous attitude that pulses throught the whole thing.

And if you're going to do Altman, you've got to do DR. T AND THE WOMEN.

Mike

[Angelos]

The Player, Short Cuts, Gosford Park, Dr T, Three Women...

[weboy]

Gosford Park
Dr. T And The Women
A Wedding

I am one of those people who has a visceral refusal to watch Short Cuts because people act as if it's The Bible (at least The Bible of Altman), but the description of the film (amazing short stories by Raymond Carver!) always makes me flinch. So that should probably be in there - otherwise, I'll never watch it.

We should also put in a good word for Cookie's Fortune, which sneaks up on you and is full of smart performances. And if you hate Altman, the best example of him at his worst is probably Pret a Porter.

Gosford Park seems essential; but I recommend A Wedding because next to Gosford it shows how he can get it really right... or get it kind of wrong. A Wedding is a fascinating failure. Dr. T is a mess, but it's one of Gere's better performances - like a number of underappreciated film stars, he seems to lift his game with Altman.

PS Mannion, I still dream of reviving newcritics. Don't give up on me - or it - yet. :)

- weboy

[Buffalo Savage]

Hey, Popeye is a hoot. The song "Everything is Food" is on YouTube in all its daffy glory. Think of the fun (i.e., disgraceful substance and alcohol abuse) Altman and then party animal Robin Williams must've had on that set....

Check out The Wedding (1978). Carol Burnett skillfully plays Tulip, a long suffering wife. Geraldine Chaplin is a silly wedding planner. Italian guest Vittorio Gassman marvels at how evil, irresponsible, and dysfunctional an American family can be. Pam Dawber (Mindy of "Mork and ...") has a small but memorable part. Though the higher part of my brain doubts it, I have burned into my retina Mia Farrow topless in that movie - but that can't be right, can it?

Doze whacki Seventies.

[Dave G.]

I think Popeye is a must as a weirdo change-of-pace from all of the acclaimed films of his. And Dr. T and the Women is notable if only for the loopy supporting performance by Shelley Long...

[sfmike]

Jeesh, is that Soul of Middlebrow Richard Schickel still alive? He's been dumb and uninteresting in print since at least the 1970s.

I actually met Altman a couple of times, once at a sneak preview of "A Wedding" and then at a San Francisco Film Festival event where he was doing a Q&A with the audience. He was smart, funny and agreeable both times. At the film festival, I asked him about working on the TV show "Combat," and he went into a beautiful reverie about being at a festival tribute to him in Austin where they were showing some episodes from the series. "I hadn't seen any of them since I worked on them, and what surprised me was that they were such good work. I haven't really learned anything substantial about the craft since then."

Glad you're starting with "California Split," which is also my favorite after "Nashville." You might also want to consider "Vincent and Theo" if you can find it in the unabridged made-for-European-television version. Love "A Wedding" and "Three Women" and "Come Back to the Five and Dime..." and a host of others. He made a lot of messy films but that's part of their greatness.

[Nebbish]

"Peckinpah is a prick but Altman is a cunt." From a cinematographer who knew them both.

[The Siren]

The Player
A Wedding
Short Cuts

[Chris The Cop]

Weboy - that is an absolutely perfect description of A Wedding: "A fascinating failure." But I did like Ready To Wear, though I admit it doesn't go anywhere; it just kinda goes.

I've often marveled at how many stone geniuses have turned out to be absolute shits as persons Picasso and Bing Crosby come to mind. I guess Altman falls into that category also because...that's the way it goes,

PS - For me, The Player is a must for inclusion because it pulled me so strongly in two directions at once (as did Oliver Stone's JFK albeit in different directions.)

[Brian Block]

I'd love to see Brewster McCloud included, because it's so near-unanimously considered a failure, yet it's my favorite Altman film. Which isn't to say I'm sure the consensus is wrong, but the contrast makes me want to know more.

[Victoria]

For your consideration:

Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
Health
Brewster McCloud
The Player (essential)
Short Cuts
Gosford Park

[actor212]

The HBO series, Tanner 88, was his, mostly.

The Long Goodbye, anyone? I like THieves Like Us, as well.

[Michael Bartley]

I'm still picking Buffalo Bill and the Indians or Sittting Bull's History Lesson because it fits so well with the era of American film so deeply infuenced by Vietnam and, in the case of American Indians the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Compare Old Lodge Skins from Little Big Man to Altman's Sitting Bull. Etc.

[Phil Nugent]

"Secret Honor" is my favorite of his filmed-plays phase. It's also the ultimate Nixon cartoon, it gave Philip Baker Hall a career, and it shows what Mr. Improvising Ensemble Cast could do with one actor housed in a single set demonstrating absolute adherence the the text. I think that "Vincent & Theo" is his most underappreciated film. And "Cookie's Fortune" is the only thing in the world that's ever made me come close to wondering if I was wrong to leave Mississippi.

There's a great description in that oral biography of the sixtyish Altmans sitting in the front row at the Oscars show the year that he was nominated for "The Player", getting giggly on pot brownies and mock-cheering as Clint Eastwood won everything that night for "Unforgiven". I myself find it hard to not like a man like that, though i'll bet that when Schickel read it, his face reddened and bubbled like flowing lava and the top of his head came to a point. (Schickel's greatest desire before he dies is to see Dirty Harry's face carved onto Mount Rushmore.)

[max demon]

Buffalo Bill & the Indians - chock full of goody bits
3 Women
Streamers - this is finally being released on dvd in January, and is one of his theatrical adaptations. It's fantastic, starring matthew modine and david alan grier, and takes on race and sexuality in the military.
Secret Honor

[max demon]

I saw 'HealtH' some years ago when it aired on Cinemax or something. It's quite marginal and fluffy, like 'Pret A Porter'. McCabe & Mrs.Miller, Mash, Nashville, California Split, The Player, Short Cuts are all great, but the below have been seen by fewer people and shouldn't be missed by fans.

Altman's lesser-seen powerful and resonant pieces, juicy for a blog discussion, are:

buffalo bill & the indians - just as definitive as 'nashville' a statement on show business and america. this is a must for any Altman discussion

3 Women - comprehensive and powerful art piece

Streamers - great play adaptation with Matthew Modine examining issues of masculinity, race and sexuality in the military

Secret Honor - awesome one-man show

Kansas City - musical, hilarious, and rich, it keeps on giving on subsequent viewings

'Dr. T' and 'Gingerbread Man' are also excellent and fun.

[Lance]

Max, that's great news about Streamers. Thanks for the heads up.

Buffalo Bill is on the schedule, which I'll be posting in the next few days.