Robert Altman
November 22nd, 2006 by Andre Soares
Director Robert Altman, 81, has died. Altman, who had undergone heart transplant surgery in the mid-1990s, died of cancer complications Monday evening at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Altman’s career spanned more than five decades, reaching its apex in the early 1970s following the release of the mega hit MASH (1970), a Vietnam War spoof set during the Korean War. Among his other generally respected films of the period are the demythologizing Western McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie; the demythologizing film noir The Long Goodbye, with Elliott Gould; and, perhaps his most acclaimed work, Nashville (1975), a demythologizing political comedy-drama that intersects several stories during a presidential primary in the country music capital of the United States.
Altman’s fortunes fell in the late 1970s, and took a nose dive in 1980, with the release of the expensive critical and box-office disaster Popeye, starring Robin Williams in what turned out to be a tedious "anti-musical" musical.
Two well-received films helped lift his career in the early 1990s: the Hollywood satire The Player (1992), starring Tim Robbins as a ruthless film executive, and Short Cuts (1993), an episodic drama about numerous Los Angeles denizens and their issues.
After another lull, Altman came up with the British-made Gosford Park (2001), a character and social study disguised as a murder mystery.
His last film, A Prairie Home Companion (2006), about a folksy radio station that is about to be sold to a conglomerate, garnered decidedly mixed reviews.
Earlier this year, Altman received an Honorary Academy Award for his career achievements. In all, the director was nominated for five Oscars (MASH, Nashville, The Player, Short Cuts, and Gosford Park – for which he also received a nod for co-producing the Best Picture nominee) but never won.
MON COLONEL / MY COLONEL at the 2006 Thessaloniki Film Festival
Australian Film Institute’s 2006 AFI Awards
Thessaloniki International Film Festival 2006
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