Altman Page #3

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Ready?

I'm ready.

Nurse, you got a clamp, please?

Yes, yes sir.

Scratch my nose.

Just on... there.

There, a little harder please.

Scorch, I need some more sponge clamps,

if you have them.

Darryl Zanuck, who was the head of Fox,

was in Europe while this was being made.

He came back and we had a screening for him

and within this screening he

had come back from Europe

and he had two young European

girls that were friends of his.

And he... They came to the screening

and at the end of the screening

he said all that blood has to come out.

And I thought, oh, Christ, we're sunk.

And those girls said, oh Darryl,

that's the best part of it.

And they just supported that in such a way

that we were allowed to leave

them in for a preview.

And that audience went nuts.

And Zanuck said we're not

going to mess with this.

The picture was such a

hit it was phenomenal.

I mean, you know, with the war going on,

the timing worked.

Um, life, liberty, and

the pursuit of truth.

Now, we welcome the fifteenth

man asked to direct MASH,

Mr. Robert Altman.

My son wrote that song.

Your son wrote that song?

When he was fourteen, Suicide is Painless.

Now he's got too much money.

He's sixteen, living with a 20

year old girl in Venice and...

Shocking.

Do you get any kick now out of the fact

that you're a hot director

and there's all those years

that people wouldn't...

wouldn't expectorate on you?

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

How does it come out?

It's fun.

Yeah.

It's nice.

Bob became the hottest

director in Hollywood

and we built what I called our

movie star house in Malibu.

It was a new life for our family.

Everyone wanted Bob to do "MASH 2",

but Bob refused to repeat himself.

Instead he surprised everyone

by making a far out little film

called "Brewster McCloud".

It was an important time in the 70's

because this studio turned

filmmaking back to the artist

so I go to do a lot of stuff

that was certainly not the formula

that had existed before.

The McCabe script was given to

me right after I made "MASH".

The reason I like it was it was

the standard western genre.

We just twisted it a little bit.

McCabe and Mrs. Miller

is a beautiful pipe dream of a movie.

A eeting, almost diaphanous vision

of what frontier life might of been like.

It's not much like other westerns.

It's not really much like other movies.

The fact is that Altman is

dumping square conventions

that don't work anymore.

All those threadbare remnants

of the well-made play,

which American movies have clung to.

What this movie reveals is that

there's poetry in Robert Altman,

and he's able to put it on the screen.

The question is always asked...

why aren't there American

Bergmans and Fellinis?

Here is an American artist who

has made a beautiful film.

We were in Canada.

We went to Ireland.

Bob liked to shoot as far away

from the studios as possible

so he wouldn't have executives

looking over his shoulder.

Yeah?

I just stopped here because it's

a good wide place in the road

and I figured we can rendezvous here.

Also it looks like there's

bad weather over there.

I think we gotta go some place.

Well either direction here,

I thought while they're mounting the car

I'll drive up this way, drive up that way,

see where the weather is worse.

I got out of that damn car so

they could get it up the hill

and I said I would walk.

And they took it, so I ran

up that f***ing hill.

You remember last night?

Now the kiss again.

That's when... just as long as

you do and lean right into it,

and that's when you respond,

'cause now you're going to trick him.

Yeah, that's it.

Stand by.

Slate.

Hello, is your name Mrs. Altman?

Yes it is.

Oh, well I'd like to ask you a

few questions about filming.

Um, how did you meet your husband?

I met him in Hollywood

on a television series

called Whirlybirds.

Oh.

He was directing it at the time.

And, uh, oh...

How do you like being

married to a film director?

Oh, find it very, very interesting.

Very unusual life and very

full of surprises day-by-day.

Yeah, and also I hear that

your children are making...

they're starting to like filming.

Yeah, they're getting very involved.

I may end up with four

little boy directors.

Action.

Bob was constantly innovating,

and in the 1970's

he developed a casual style

that was radically different

from Hollywood filmmaking at the time.

Mr. Marlowe the lights on your car are on.

Oh yeah, thanks a lot.

Excuse me I don't see any

Coury Brant cat food.

Some what?

Coury Brant cat food, it

happens to be the only...

Can you spell it for me please?

Yeah, Coury Brant, c-0-u-r...

Oh, we're all out.

Why don't you get this, Mr. All

this sh*t is the same anyway.

You don't happen to have a

cat by any chance, do you?

What do I need a cat for? I got a girl.

Well...

haha.

On 'The Long Goodbye' the

camera never stopped moving.

Dollying, zooming.

He wanted the action to be

caught as if by accident.

He hated things being mastered, two-shot,

hit your mark, say your line.

He wanted the feeling to be

natural and more relaxed,

observational.

Okay, Eileen,

what was Marty Augustine

doing here the other night?

How did you know?

I followed him here from my place.

He dropped by to have a word or two with me

and I was just curious to see

who else he wanted to talk to.

Oh, Roger owed him some money.

Maybe $10,000 or something.

He owes Marty?

You know what he told me Marty owed him.

We all heard what Dr. Verringer said.

He hates to part with money.

Yeah, what Dr. Verringer said.

I heard a lot of people

said that Terry Lennox

was working for Marty Augustine.

I don't believe it.

Yeah, well, that's what I heard.

Your husband ever talk about the Lennox's?

No.

He ever talk about Sylvia Lennox.

No.

Is your husband having an

affair with Sylvia Lennox?

Mr. Marlowe,

I don't wish to continue this

conversation about my husband.

Was your husband having an affair

with somebody you don't know

who just might of been Sylvia Lennox?

Definitely not.

Where was your husband the night

Sylvia Lennox was killed?

Bob's other big innovation was in sound.

The traditional way of recording sound

was to have a single boom mic

over the main actors heads.

But that didn't work very well

when you had a big ensemble cast.

God dammit, Denis!

That card went off the

table with the joker.

That's why you wouldn't give it up!

You are ridiculous.

You said it wasn't even close.

That's yesterday's news.

You are working together.

You're partners.

You two mother-f***ing creeps...

Stop with all the language.

Anymore fighting you guys go out

of here for good, all right?

They've been consistent

winners and I'm a big loser.

You know I know how to play poker.

Oh sour grapes, honey, sour grapes.

All right, all right. Let's

get it back to normal.

Lousy punk.

You're not that good.

Oh up yours.

In "California Split" he

invented a way to use radio mics

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