Robert Altman

Before M*A*S*H


Robert Altman (1925-2006) was an American film director known for the anti-war comedy M*A*S*H. (among other films). He served as a bomber during WW2 (flying over 50 missions) and following the war's conclusion he worked in California as a publicist. In 1947, he sold a script (Bodyguard) to RKO and encouraged by this success he pursued a short lived career as a writer in New York. Finding little success, he returned to his home town of Kansas City and began helming industrial films and documentaries before moving onto television work in later years (working on well known shows like Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Bonanza).

Selected Filmography

1970 - M*A*S*H
1975 - Nashville
1978 - A Wedding
1992 - The Player
1993 - Short Cuts
2001 - Gosford Park
2006 - A Prairie Home Companion

Style

Altman's films feature naturalistic elements, with components such as dialogue (in M*A*S*H for instance, the various characters speak over each other as if in a real situation) elaborating the film's realism, and suspending the audience's disbelief further. Altman's films also feature large ensemble casts, all supporting the picture between them. Many of the cast of M*A*S*H were cast as unknowns by Altman (hence why much of the credits feature "introducing...". Altman encouraged improvisation in many of his films to further the naturalistic dialogue. Frequently, Altman included subtexts and anti-war sentiments within his early works and, in this time , he also learnt to work quickly on a low budget.

Quotes


"Filmmaking is a chance to live many lives"
"Its all just one film to me. Just all different chapters"
"When I see an American flag flying, its a joke"
Due to his preference of character motivation and improvisation based around a basic plot, Altman was often labelled an "actor's director".


M*A*S*H


In 1969, during his rise to success (and at the age of 44), Altman was offered the script for MASH (an adaptation of a satirical Korean War novel that many directors had previously declined). Atlman agreed to the project and made his own changes to the screenplay (he rearranged many of the major sequences, threw out the dialogue - which was largely replaced by adlibbing - and by using an unorthodox - episodic - narrative technique he had previously experimented with). Due to his new (and rather strange) style of filmmaking, stars Sutherland and Gould repeatedly tried to fire Altman from the picture (which later resulted in Atlman and Sutherland working again - whereas Gould wrote the director an apology at a future date).

MASH was distributed by 20th Century Fox and shot on a budget of $3.5 million dollars. The film later made $81,600,000 at the box office and spawned a hit tv series several years later. MASH was nominated for 5 Academy Awards (Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actress and Editing), while winning one for Adapted Screenplay.

Hollywood...A History

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/7271960/Hollywood-is-100-years-old-a-history-of-Tinseltown-in-pictures.html

British Board of Film Classification - Recent Decisions

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/

The Green Hornet [Pretend 3D]: 12A. The film contains moderate violences and languages, and references to sex unsuitable for children, but possibly suitable for those over 12.

Season of the Witch: 15. Contains grisly images and infrequent strong horror, which would not be suitable for young children, but would provide less of a threat to mid-teens and above.

Tron Legacy [Slightly better 3D]: PG. Contains moderate fantasy violence that provides little threat since its all inside a computer world with no blood/profanity etc.

Its Kind of a Funny Story: 12A. The film contains an instance of strong language, references to sex, drugs and suicide and is thus unsuitable for young children.

Wake Wood: 18. The film contains strong violence and gory images. Children are not even near the target audience for this Hammer Horror film.

Todorov's Narrative Theory

Todorov's narrative theory is thus:

1) Equilibrium
2) Disruption
3) Recognition of the disruption
4) Attempt to restore equilibrium
5) New equilibrium

An example of a film that follows this theory would be Guillermo Del Toro's 2006 film Pan's Labyrinth, i.e.;

1) Equilibrium - Ofelia moves with her pregnant mother to live with the father of the child, in post-civil war Spain.
2) Disruption - One night Ofelia meets Doug Jones (dressed cunningly as a Spanish faun) and he tells her that she is the reincarnation of the lost princess of some far off magical place.
3) Recognition of the disruption - He tells her to complete three tasks to prove she is the princess and rather surprisingly, she believes him.
4) Attempt to restore equilibrium - This is provided by the angry Spanish captain as he hunts down Spanish rebels, stabs and shoots a few people and even smashes a man in the nose with a pistol. Slightly differently to Todorov's theory, is that Ofelia is seeking a new life and thus a new equilibrium instead of the original equilibrium (which the audience have seen none of).
5) New Equilibrium - Ofelia dies. Becomes the princess. Lives in the magical world. Arguably however, this is the same equilibrium as the beginning of the film as Ofelia has been restored to her status of princess (although the countless dead bodies and burning buildings in the human world indicate a new equilibrium for those staying in the non-magical world).

A film that does not follow Todorov's narrative theory would be Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One, since the film ends without any real plot points being resolved (apart from there countless MacGuffins mentioned and the odd loss of an ear). Another film might be 2001: A Space Odyssey. The film follows the rise of humanity (first seen in an equilibrium state as men in chimp costumes apes) that is accelerated due to the appearance of a strange monolith on Earth (disruption). This equilibrium/disruption is then mirrored several thousand years later as astronauts find another monolith. They then travel to Jupiter and another disruption comes along in the form of a completely mental robot who tries to kill them. The film then goes rather psychedelic, with the lead character travelling across time and space and ending up in a room and nobody is really sure about the rest of it (but it is far from an equilibrium state, since its so open ended, un-resolved and overtly symbolic).