FAREWELL ROBERT ALTMAN

From the Houston Chronicle:

Director Robert Altman dies of cancer at 81

Robert Altman, an iconoclastic, fiercely independent filmmaker, whose films included M*A*S*H, The Player, Gosford Park and most recently A Prairie Home Companion, died of cancer Monday night. He was 81.

More successful artistically than commercially, Altman made films with ensemble casts and interwoven storylines. The mood and style of his work made it immediately identifiable.

Although Altman was nominated five times for Academy Awards, he never won. He was presented with an honorary award for lifetime achievement at the 2006 Oscar ceremony.

He became a Hollywood outsider because Hollywood wouldn't let him in.

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I've only seen three Altman films, M*A*S*H, Popeye, and The Player. The middle one, of course, bit the big wang, but the other two are among the best films I've ever seen. And because both of them are scathing indictments of one of the worst aspects of American culture, the military, industrial, and entertainment complex, Altman was one of the best and most successful real artists this nation has ever produced. It's no wonder that he often worked outside of the Hollywood establishment: Hollywood is extraordinarily pro-establishment, in the general sense of the word, and attacking the powers-that-be, as he usually did, is typically a one-way ticket to cinematic obscurity. That his career was so fruitful is amazing in and of itself.

Farewell, Robert Altman.

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