Robert Altman

Director Worksheet

Name: Robert Altman

Year Born: 1925

Country of Origin: USA

Background (education/upbringing): Robert Altman was born on February 20^th 1925. He attended Rockhurst High School where he started exploring sound using cheap tape recorders. He was sent to Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Missouri. In 1945 he enlisted in the Air Force. After that, Altman became fascinated with movies. He & his first wife, LaVonne Elmer, moved to Hollywood where Robert tried acting, songwriting, & screen-writing, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t get his foot in the door. Altman finally gave up & returned to his hometown of Kansas City where he decided to try to do some work in serious filmmaking. A friend of his recommended him to a film production company called the Calvin Co. After a few months of work at writing scripts & editing films, Altman began directing. In 1956 he left the Calvin Co. & went to Hollywood to direct Alfred Hitchcock’s TV show. His first big-screen directorial debut was The Delinquents in 1957 (which he had started while still at the Calvin Co.).

First Feature: The Delinquents

Most notable Films: M*A*S*H

Genre’s Explored: He’s tried about everything at least once.

Stylistic Tendencies: He has a tendency to use overlapping dialogue, characters who speak from outside a window or from a distance, & frequently directs large ensemble pieces.

Typical Content: He usually does social commentary themes such as M*A*S*H being set during the Korean War at the front lines, something that was still real big at the time.

Awards & accolades: Too many to name them all but he has won the Lifetime Achievement Award, nominated for Best Director for M*A*S*H, & AFI Film Award for Director of the Year for Gosford Park to name a few. Full list here http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000265/awards

Long-term collaborators: Not finding any long-term despite being close friends with Sally Kellerman & Julie Christi. He did a couple using Shelley Duvall but nothing long-term.

Interesting facts/ etc: His son, Mike Altman, wrote the lyrics for “Suicide is Painless,” the theme song for “M*A*S*H”, when he was only 14 years old.

IMDb. IMDb.com. Web. <http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000265/bio>.

I will be presenting Robert Altman. Robert Altman was born in 1925 in the USA. He passed away in 2006. He is considered one of the greatest directors of all time. After viewing a few of his movies I can understand why. He had a rather unique style of directing that not too many other directors could match. As you will see in this clip, Altman knew how to get the best performance out of his actors. In M*A*S*H the first take where Hot Lips is revealed in the shower didn’t work because Sally Kellerman anticipated the reveal & was already on the floor when the tent flap went up. To distract her, Robert Altman & Gary Burghoff entered the tent & dropped their trousers while the shot was rolling outside. While Kellerman was staring at them, the tent flap was raised, resulting in her genuine surprise & shock when she realized what had happened. In The Long Goodbye Altman doesn’t use any static shots. This really adds to the feeling that it is very fast passed & that Elliot Gould’s character is always on the move. In Thieves Like Us, Altman uses a CU & slow motion on Shelley Duvall that really emphasized how upset she was watching her love get gunned down & how a matter of seconds must have felt like an eternity to her. The elements that Robert Altman uses in his films serve to emphasize our own emotions & bring more reality to what the actors’ characters are experiencing in the film. Altman will not change his style for anyone. (Some Fox execs questioned Altman why his soldiers in M*A*S*H were so dirty compared to the other 2 movies Fox was filming at the time & being a vet of WWII himself Altman replied that soldiers are dirty. The following day Fox instructed the producers of the other films to make their soldiers dirtier.) The main similarities that I noticed in all 3 of Altman’s films are that he kept everything realistic. Whether it was a comedy or drama, his actors were always reacting in a believable way to believable situations. He always seems to get the best performance out his actors in such a way that you can usually tell right away the kind of character the actor will be playing. The biggest differences