12.13.2006

Robert Altman

I've been putting this off for a while, but I just wanted to say a few things about the death of director Robert Altman. Of his films I've only seen Gosford Park, M.A.S.H. and Nashville. From what I've read, these are considered to be some of his best so I'd like to say I know his style, however it sounds like he had many. Nashville is my Dad's favorite movie, he reminds us all of this often as Altman is his favorite director. After watching it I can see why my Dad likes it but I don't think it has the same appeal to my generation. M.A.S.H., on the other hand, I enjoyed; having only seen the TV show before watching the source material I can say that I can appreciate both for similar and different reasons. Gosford Park didn't appeal to me at all for various reasons; I just didn't find the upstairs/downstairs thing that interesting really and the pacing was brutally slow.
I've always wanted to go through Altman's filmography and absorb as much as I could but I've never gotten around to it; now that he's left us I feel ashamed for putting off watching his films. I'm convinced that my favorite Altman film is one that I haven't even watched yet so I'm excited to see as many of his as possible. I'm going to start with A Prairie Home Companion, the last film he did before he died and one based on a radio show that seemed to be on in the background throughout my entire youth. If you're interested in seeing the highlights of Altman's film career, here's a NY Times article that chronicles them.

1 comment:

meryl321 said...

Yeah, I remember that show being on constantly as well... I guess it still is.