Film Director Robert Altman Dead

I had a film director phase that lasted from 1997 till 2002, when I visited LA and realized it was every bit the disgusting Philip Marlowe novel it looked like in Altman's The Long Goodbye. The reason I wanted to be a filmmaker was Altman. Every home video I shot was full of his trademark zooms.

Robert Altman? Here's his wikipedia entry. But here's what that entry won't tell you.

Altman was perhaps Pauline Kael's favorite American director.

MASH was better than Dr. Strangelove as an anti-war satire.

Brewster McCloud is in The Hipster Handbook

Nashville is big in the alt-country community.

Watching his films will change your life. Right now you live your life like a regular movie in which you are the central protagonist and only conflicts pertaining to you matter. In Altman's films there's always an ensemble and the camera picks up overheard, improvised dialogue. Look at life as a series of conversational snippets. Indeed, this is the only way we can make sense of all that information on the web.

Here's a trailer for Altman's Nashville.

Robert Altman (February 20, 1925-November 20, 2006)