Robert Altman
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altmanwas an American film director, screenwriter, and film producer. A five-time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director and an enduring figure from the New Hollywood era, Altman was considered a "maverick" in making films with a highly stylized perspective unlike most Hollywood films. He is consistently ranked as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in history...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth20 February 1925
CityKansas City, MO
CountryUnited States of America
It's a variety show. We wrote it as we went along. As we were casting people, he was rewriting constantly. This guy's a genius. We deferred to each other. He's been in charge of himself and his show for 30 years and so have I. So we suddenly had a monster with two heads.
The movies set the pattern, and these people have copied the movies,
And I said, 'No. You either give this film back to me, or you don't.' I said, 'I've gone through that, I've gone through all this collaboration process.' And they gave it back to me, and I finished the film and delivered it to them.
I think these awards are wonderful. Cinema should get more international. The fine boundary lines don't really exist any more.
I always thought this kind of award meant that it was over. I'm here, I think, under false pretences. I think I have to become straight with you. Ten years ago, 11 years ago I had a heart transplant, a total heart transplant.
As a longtime Keillor fan, I'm thrilled to be doing this project with him,
It's all just one film to me. Just different chapters.
The Oscar for the films, it'd be nice. But I don't make those kind of films, and I don't think that will ever happen.
If something works for you, you continue to do it. I did a bunch of pictures for 20th Century Fox when Alan Ladd was over there, but I set the budgets so low that they'd approve and I'd deliver the film. They would have no say in it, which is the kind of arrangement I liked.
They'll never give me an Oscar. And I sincerely, honestly don't care. I always turn up when I'm nominated and it would be nice to get one, but to win one would be bad luck. It comes with too much expectation. It would be the end.
Making a movie is like chipping away at a stone. You take a piece off here, you take a piece off there and when you're finished, you have a sculpture. You know that there's something in there, but you're not sure exactly what it is until you find it.
Jazz has endured because it doesn't have a beginning or an ending. It's a moment.
Retirement? You're talking about death, right?
Chance is another name that we give to our mistakes. And all of the best things in my films are mistakes.