Robert Altman should be talked about more

When you think of the greatest directors of the 70s, you have a lot of choices. You have Scorsese, Spielberg, Coppola, De Palma, Lucas, even Lumet, Forman, Friedkin, Polanski, Tarkovsky, Bergman, Cassavetes and others. But one name you might hear occasionally but usually not is Robert Altman. But I absolutely think he’s up there with the greatest of all time. Throughout the 70s alone, he was insanely productive, releasing 13 films in that decade. His 8-film run from 1970‘s MASH to 1975‘s Nashville is arguably one of the greatest run of any filmmaker ever.

Throughout the 80s, he branched out. He started making weirder films like Secret Honour, which is 90min of Richard Nixon, played by Philip Baker Hall, talking to himself about Watergate. Throughout the decade, he would also direct several plays aswell as a whole TV show, Tanner ‘88. But in the 90s, he made a comeback, with The Player in 92 and Short Cuts in 93 giving him his first Best Director oscar nominations since 1975‘s Nashville, though he never ended up winning. He „only“ made 7 films, which is impressive considering he was in his 70s by this point, and this success would continue into the 2000s, in which he put out 4 films, including Gosford Park, his fifth and final Best Director nomination, before dying at age 81 in November of 2006.

Now, I think he isn’t talked about as much because a) His films are pretty weird a lot of the time and b) He wasn‘t one of the „movie brats“, he was 20 years older than them. And while critics still praise his work, he’s just not as well remembered nowadays.

If you haven’t seen an Altman film, please do. The Long Goodbye, The Player, Nashville, Short Cuts, McCabe & Mrs Miller, 3 Women, any of them would work. My personal favourite (and my all-time favourite film in general) is definitely Nashville though.

Submitted April 25, 2021 at 04:10PM by oofersIII https://ift.tt/3tVk4GA