The Cinema Of Robert Altman

Author : Robert Niemi
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 457 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2016-03-01
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9780231850865

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The Cinema of Robert Altman by Robert Niemi Pdf

In a controversial and tumultuous filmmaking career that spanned nearly fifty years, Robert Altman mocked, subverted, or otherwise refashioned Hollywood narrative and genre conventions. Altman's idiosyncratic vision and propensity for formal experimentation resulted in an uneven body of work: some rank failures and intriguing near-misses, as well as a number of great films that are among the most influential works of New American Cinema. While Altman always professed to have nothing authoritative to say about the state of contemporary society, this volume surveys all of his major films in their sociohistorical context to reposition the director as a trenchant satirist and social critic of postmodern America, depicted as a lonely wasteland of fraudulent spectacle, exploitative social relations, and unfulfilled solitaries in search of elusive community.

Author : Frank Caso
Publisher : Reaktion Books
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2015-10-15
Category : Art
ISBN : 9781780235523

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Robert Altman by Frank Caso Pdf

Known as an iconoclast and maverick, film director Robert Altman has consistently pushed against the boundaries of genre. From refashioning film noir in The Long Goodbye, the western in McCabe & Mrs. Miller, the psychological drama in Images, science fiction in Quintet, and the romantic comedy in A Perfect Couple, he has always tested the limits of what film can and should do. In this book, Frank Caso examines the development of Altman’s artistic method from his earliest days in industrial film to his work in television and feature films. Altman is one of those directors whose films audiences can easily recognize, but what exactly are the distinctive elements that have become his signature? Caso identifies more than twenty such elements in Altman’s style, tracing some—such as his use of free-hand cameras and engagement with Christian imagery—to the beginning of his career. Caso also examines Altman’s unsettling mix of offbeat comedic tone with a predominance of violence, murder, and death, showing how their counterpointing effects rendered his films at once naturalistic and otherworldly. Exploring these and other aspects of the Altmanesque style, Caso maps the innovations that have made Altman a master filmmaker. Enriched with illustration throughout, Robert Altman will appeal to fans of this distinctive American auteur or anyone interested in ground-breaking cinema.

Author : David Thompson
Publisher : Faber & Faber
Page : 307 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2011-04-07
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9780571261642

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Altman on Altman by David Thompson Pdf

In Altman on Altman, one of American cinema's most incorrigible mavericks reflects on a brilliant career. Robert Altman served a long apprenticeship in movie-making before his great breakthrough, the Korean War comedy M*A*S*H (1969). It became a huge hit and won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, but also established Altman's inimitable use of sound and image, and his gift for handling a repertory company of actors. The 1970s then became Altman's decade, with a string of masterpieces: McCabe and Mrs Miller, The Long Goodbye, Thieves Like Us, Nashville . . . In the 1980s Altman struggled to fund his work, but he was restored to prominence in 1992 with The Player, an acerbic take on Hollywood. Short Cuts, an inspired adaptation of Raymond Carver, and the Oscar-winning Gosford Park, underscored his comeback. Now he recalls the highs and lows of his career trajectory to David Thompson in this definitive interview book, part of Faber's widely acclaimed Directors on Directors series. 'Hearing in his own words in Altman on Altman just how much of his films occur spontaneously, as a result of last-minute decisions on set, is fascinating . . . For film lovers, this is just about indispensable.' Ben Sloan, Metro London

Author : Mitchell Zuckoff
Publisher : Vintage
Page : 578 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2010-12-07
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9780307387912

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Robert Altman by Mitchell Zuckoff Pdf

Robert Altman—visionary director, hard-partying hedonist, eccentric family man, Hollywood legend—comes roaring to life in this rollicking oral biography. After an all-American boyhood in Kansas City, a stint flying bombers in World War II, and jobs ranging from dog tattoo entrepreneur to television director, Robert Altman burst onto the scene in 1970 with M*A*S*H. He reinvented American filmmaking, and went on to produce such masterpieces as McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Nashville, The Player, Short Cuts, and Gosford Park. In Robert Altman, Mitchell Zuckoff has woven together Altman’s final interviews; an incredible cast of voices including Meryl Streep, Warren Beatty, Paul Newman, among scores of others; and contemporary reviews and news accounts into a riveting tale of an extraordinary life.

Author : Mark Minett
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 448 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2020-12-22
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9780197523841

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Robert Altman and the Elaboration of Hollywood Storytelling by Mark Minett Pdf

Robert Altman and the Elaboration of Hollywood Storytelling reveals an Altman barely glimpsed in previous critical accounts of the filmmaker. This re-examination of his seminal work during the "Hollywood Renaissance" or "New Hollywood" period of the early 1970s (including M*A*S*H, Brewster McCloud, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Images, The Long Goodbye, Thieves Like Us, California Split, and Nashville) sheds new light on both the films and the filmmaker, reframing Altman as a complex, pragmatic innovator whose work exceeds, but is also grounded in, the norms of classical Hollywood storytelling rather than someone who rejected those norms in favor of modernist art cinema. Its findings and approach hold important implications for the study of cinematic authorship. Largely avoiding thematic exegesis, it employs an historical poetics approach, robust functionalist frameworks, archival research, and formal and statistical analysis to demystify the essential features of the standard account of Altman's filmmaking history and profile-lax narrative form, heavy reliance on the zoom, sound design replete with overlapping dialogue, improvisational infidelity to the screenplay, and a desire to subvert based in his time in the training grounds of industrial filmmaking and filmed television. The book provides a clear example of how a filmmaker might work collaboratively and pragmatically within and across media institutions to elaborate upon their sanctioned practices and aims. We misunderstand Altman's work, and the creative work of Hollywood filmmakers in general, when we insist on describing innovation as opposition to institutional norms and on describing those norms as simply assimilating innovation.

Author : Alan Karp
Publisher : Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow Press
Page : 192 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 1981
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : UOM:39015003748871

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The Films of Robert Altman by Alan Karp Pdf

Author : Robert Kolker
Publisher : OUP USA
Page : 569 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2011-07-07
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9780199738885

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A Cinema of Loneliness by Robert Kolker Pdf

In this updated and expanded version of this classic study of contemporary American film, Kolker reassesses the landscape of American cinema over the past decade, as he examines works like Munich, A Prairie Home Companion, The Departed, and Funny People, in addition to classics by Arthur Penn, Stanley Kubrick, and Robert Altman.

Author : Neil Feineman
Publisher : New York : Arno Press
Page : 222 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 1978-01-01
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 0405107528

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Persistence of Vision by Neil Feineman Pdf

Author : Peter F. Parshall
Publisher : Scarecrow Press
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2012-06-21
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9780810885073

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Altman and After by Peter F. Parshall Pdf

In American cinema, films with multiple plots can be traced back to Grand Hotel in 1932, but the form was used only sporadically in subsequent decades. However, filmmakers of the 1970s and 80s, notably Robert Altman and Woody Allen, repeatedly employed complex narratives to weave sprawling stories in their films. Later filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wong Kar-Wai, Steven Soderbergh, and Paul Haggis embraced multiple plotlines, a device that eventually achieved mainstream respectability in such Oscar winners as Traffic and Crash. In the past two decades, more than 200 films utilizing some variation of this format have appeared worldwide. In Altman and After: Multiple Narratives in Film, Peter Parshall carefully examines films that feature various plotlines. Parshall asserts that although this form may lose some of the close psychological identification and forward drive of linear narratives, such films gain a corresponding strength by developing thematic relationships in the various story lines. In each of these chapters, Parshall examines a different example of the multi-plot form, such as network narrative and the multiple-draft narrative, demonstrating that the structure of each is central to their artistry. He also argues that these devices open up a variety of creative vistas, a strength that appeals to directors and audiences alike. Films studied in this book include Nashville, Pulp Fiction, Amores Perros, Code Unknown, The Edge of Heaven, Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, The Double Life of Veronique, and Run Lola Run. A long overdue examination of this unique cinematic form, Altman and After will appeal to scholars, students, and fans eager to learn more about complex-narrative films.

Author : Robert Altman
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 270 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2000
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 1578061865

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Robert Altman by Robert Altman Pdf

Collected interviews with the unpredictable and controversial filmmaker of M.A.S.H., Nashville, and Short Cuts

Author : Adrian Danks
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 534 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2015-06-22
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9781118288900

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A Companion to Robert Altman by Adrian Danks Pdf

A Companion to Robert Altman presents myriad aspects of Altman’s life, career, influence and historical context. This book features 23 essays from a range of experts in the field, providing extensive coverage of these aspects and dimensions of Altman’s work. The most expansive and wide-ranging book yet published on Altman, providing a comprehensive account of Altman’s complete career Provides discussion and analysis of generally neglected aspects of Altman’s career, including the significance of his work in television and industrial film, the importance of collaboration, and the full range and import of his aesthetic innovations Includes essays by key scholars in “Altman studies”, bringing together experts in the field, emerging scholars and writers from a broad range of fields Multi-disciplinary in design and draws on a range of approaches to Altman’s work, being the first substantial publication to make use of the recently launched Robert Altman Archive at the University of Michigan Offers specific insights into particular aspects of film style and their application, industrial and aesthetic film and TV history, and particular areas such as the theorisation of space, place, authorship and gender

Author : Rick Armstrong
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 207 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2014-01-10
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9780786486045

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Robert Altman by Rick Armstrong Pdf

The life and work of motion picture director Robert Altman (1925-2006) are interpreted from a variety of perspectives in this collection of essays. Actors, historians, film scholars, and cultural theorists reflect on Altman and his five-decade career and discuss the significance of music, history and genre in his films. Two actors who have appeared in some of the filmmaker's most important works are prominently represented, with a statement from Elliot Gould (MASH, The Long Goodbye, California Split) and an essay by Michael Murphy (McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Nashville, Tanner '88). The collection ends with an essay on the importance of death in the director's final productions The Company (2003) and Prairie Home Companion (2006) by noted Altman scholar Robert T. Self.

Author : Robert T. Self
Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2002
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 0816637903

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Robert Altman's Subliminal Reality by Robert T. Self Pdf

With his complex and unconventional films, Robert Altman often draws an impassioned response from critics but bafflement and indifference from the general public. Some audiences have dismissed his movies as insignificant, unsatisfying, and unreadable. Ironically, Altman might agree: he makes films in order to challenge filmgoers' expectations of straightforward narratives and easily understood endings. In Robert Altman's Subliminal Reality, Robert T. Self sheds light on Altman's work and provides the most comprehensive analysis of his films to date. With close readings of classics like MASH, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, and Nashville, as well as the more recent films The Player, Short Cuts, and Cookie's Fortune, Self asserts the value of Altman's work not only to film theory and the entertainment industry but to American culture. Book jacket.

Author : Kathryn Reed Altman
Publisher : Abrams
Page : 297 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2017-10-31
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781683351917

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Altman (Text-Only Edition) by Kathryn Reed Altman Pdf

This intimate and critical biography of the pioneering director explores his life, work, and creative process—with contributions by fellow filmmakers. For decades, Robert Altman fascinated audiences with films such as McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Nashville, Gosford Park, and many others. He won critical acclaim by combining technical innovation with subversive, satirical humor and impassioned political engagement. His ability to explore so many different worlds with a single vision changed the landscape of cinema forever. This signature "Altmanesque" style is, in the words of Martin Scorsese: "as recognizable and familiar as Renoir's brushstrokes or Debussy's orchestrations." Now, the Altman estate opens its archive to celebrate his extraordinary life and career in this authorized biography. Written by Altman’s widow Kathryn Reed Altman and film critic Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan, this volume brims with personal recollections of the director. Alongside the intimate story of his life is a complete historical and critical narrative of Altman’s films and his process. To honor the Altman trademark of using a wide cast of characters, Altman also features contributions from his collaborators and contemporaries including Frank Barhydt, E. L. Doctorow, Roger Ebert, Jules Feiffer, Julian Fellowes, James Franco, Tess Gallagher, Pauline Kael, Garrison Keillor, Michael Murphy, Martin Scorsese, Lily Tomlin, Alan Rudolph, Michael Tolkin, and Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Author : Helene Keyssar
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 408 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 1991
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : UOM:39015024761788

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Robert Altman's America by Helene Keyssar Pdf

Robert Altman is the most quintessentially American of contemporary directors. His films cut across virtually all genres, and though few have met with huge commercial success (apart from the blockbuster M*A*S*H), Altman's unique vision of our society, his distinctive directorial signature, and his defiance of conventional film "language" have all helped reinvent the way we look at America. Keyssar shows why it is time for us to consider this unusual auteur among the pantheon of great directors. She identifies the peculiarities of the Altman style, discusses his films from both a feminist and political perspective, and offers a chapter-length discussion of one of his most important films, Nashville (1975), a "gleeful vision of an American landscape perpetually exploding upon itself."--From publisher description