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
The movies set the pattern, and these people have copied the movies,
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.
Every time we try to turn the lights up, they say, 'Turn 'em down!'
How dare we continue to show this kind of mass destruction in 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.
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.
I've never had a big hit movie. "MASH" was probably the biggest. I don't make those kind of films, and I never have. I wish each one of them would just do billions of dollars worth of ticket sales, but they never do and they never will.
I was scared that no one would hire me. At that time, there was still a stigma attached to it. A big stigma. Actually, I think I was healthier after the operation than some people who have bypass surgery because I was completely cured. But when you mentioned "heart transplant," you got a very negative reaction. It triggered people's imaginations, and not in a good way.
Most of my films I call arena films. I deal with a confined area -- an arena -- and I try to cover every aspect of it.
We make too much of the good and too much of the bad.
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.
All of my films deal with the same thing: striving, socially and culturally, to stay alive.