One of my favorite directors passed away last night, Robert Altman. He was 81. I was at work when I saw the headline scroll up on Gmail’s headline marquee. I let out an audible mournful gasp. Evidentally, Altman’s been suffering from cancer the past year and a half but continuing to work throughout, which is evidence of his character and love, devotion of the art of filmmaking. He loved his actors. That’s what I have read for years. He loved to see them work the magic – creating and living other people's lives and making the transition seamless and real. Though he had been nominated five times for Best Director, he never came away with a win. He was, however, honored by the Academy this year for a lifetime achievement in film.
And what an achievement! Consider his acclaimed and/or award-winning films: M*A*S*H, The Player, Nashville, Gosford Park, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Short Cuts, Kansas City; and the entertaining Popeye; and the less popular but still artistic and beloved Cookies Fortune, Dr T and the Women, The Company, and A Prairie Home Companion.
I appreciated Stephanie Zacharek’s comments in her tribute on Salon.com:
Altman didn't hit the mark every time, but then, his movies were never about hitting marks: At their best and greatest, they were semi-improvisatorial flights of free-flowing precision -- in other words, they were moving contradictions, and you had to be flexible enough to move with them, to grab onto their weird poetry, which seemed to be forever ambling just out of our grasp.
Altman’s death makes his last film A Prairie Home Companion that much more endearing. Whether Altman sensed his time left with us was short, he gave us a gentle, warm-hearted film about the last show of a long-running radio program, hosted by Garrison Keiller. During the show, Death’s Angel, played by Virginia Madsen, haunts the set and characters. She’s there to guide someone to heaven. Two years later, when the cast gets back together to discuss the good times and discuss a possible tour of small county fairs, Death’s Angel walks in. With her kind eyes and tempered smile, she looks upon the cast. And they return her gaze. Because they know of her divine duty, this is a somber moment as they glance at one another. It’s an ending told without any words, only the look in their eyes that express so many emotions, but mainly "Is she coming for you, dear friend?" and "goodbye."
God speed, Mr. Altman.
There are some very good tributes you can read:
Salon.com ; CNN ; TIME ; Chicago Tribune: "The Essential Altman" The Altman films you have to see. Premiere Magazine ; Los Angeles Times ; The Guardian (UK) ; The New York Times, A.O. Scott .
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