January 7, 2004

Big Daddy.

Robert Altman "If you question anything, you're a bad guy. And I just won't accept that. So fuck 'em all." That's Robert Altman talking to Salon's Amy Reiter on or around the day Peter Biskind's Dirty Pictures finally appeared. The resonance is bracing. Both Easy Riders and Pictures are, in a way, tales of innocence lost, or at least independence. Decade after decade. But through it all, there's always Robert Altman.

Burrow through the links Salon sticks at the end of the interview for some fine reading: Stephen Lemons assesses the "brilliant career" on the occasion of the 25th anniversary party for Nashville back in 2000:

His stature is such that at this point, we might as well declare him a national treasure and get it over with. Young filmmakers, notably Magnolia and Boogie Nights director Paul Thomas Anderson, worship him.... Whether or not his next film is a critical or commercial success, the ultimate outsider is at long last the Big Daddy of American cinema. Is there any other active director, since the death of John Huston, who could lay claim to that title?

A few clicks further in and you'll find Ray Sawhill placing Nashville, "an X-ray of the era's uneasy political soul," in its historical context and rounds out the resonance once again:

We have been freed - perhaps against our will - of our attachment to the idea of art as a rebel activity, a gesture toward freedom made for the sake of the unconscious and revolution. Now it has become simply an activity some people pursue, and perhaps get something out of - as legitimate as (but no more vanguard than) business, cleaning, sports, science and child-rearing. Nashville, seen at this distance, looks like a snapshot of the moment when substance began to vaporize into information.



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Posted by dwhudson at January 7, 2004 9:30 AM

Comments

Unfortunately, this Big Daddy, this national treasure, still can't get funding. He wanted to make what sounded like a fascinating movie but gave it up for lack of financing -- and this was immediately following Gosford Park, his biggest success in years! The movie industry... ah well, you know the tune. Second verse, same as the first.

Posted by: language hat at January 7, 2004 12:01 PM

I'm intrigued... this project you're referring to rings a bell but I can't place it. Do you happen to remember anything more about it?

As for Altman and funding, yes, it is frustrating, but he seems to have come to terms with the system, or rather, working outside of it. You can hear that, I think, in what he says about The Company's prospects in the Salon interview: Yes, we've done great work, we're going to impress a lot of people with this thing, but no one's going to be making any money. And on to the next project.

So I agree, yes. We all wish for a better world, but I'm also glad Altman goes right on working in this one.

Posted by: David Hudson at January 7, 2004 2:24 PM