“Filmmaking is a chance to live many lifetimes"

Robert Altman, one of the greatest American directors of any era, died Monday at the age of 81. I missed A Prairie Home Companion when it was in theaters earlier this year. It wasn't a conscious decision, it was just one that I never got around to seeing. Watching it on DVD a few weeks ago, I was completely taken by surprise, for it felt like I was discovering a lost film of his from the 70s. Here was Altman returning to the quirky ensemble format of films like Nashville, A Wedding, and Health. Yet unlike the mess that was Prêt-à-Porter, this one worked. Magnificently. After watching the film, itself a meditation on death, I emailed a friend and commented that should this be his last film, it would be a fitting, perfect, and graceful exit. And indeed it was.

Comments

[mike]

I am thankful that he made M*A*S*H. That is an insurrectionist comedy that was funny 36 years ago and will still be funny 100 years from now.

[Robert]

He was probably the greatest American filmmaker of the last 40 years. I loved Prairie Home Companion, but I still thought he had 4 or 5 more films in him.

[Justin Slotman]

You're probably right, Robert, and it's weird thinking about a guy who lived to 81 as having gone too soon. (Kind of like Fukasaku.)

[Glenn Kenny]

I'm sure he did have at least five more films in him. But "Prairie Home Companion" does make an apt valediction. It's dizzying to try and look back on his career and try and come up with some sort of critically authoritative "verdict"—in that it makes the whole idea of coming up with verdicts for genuine artists seem kind of shamful. I feel awful for the loss, and at the same time grateful that he left so much form film lovers to appreciate and argue about. I know I'm gonna be on the phone with some of my best friends over this weekend hashing over our Altman-defined youths, fighting it out over several movies. The best tribute to Altman in the immediate wake of his passing will be in keeping the fights going, I guess.

[dubarry]

mccabe and mrs miller was life-defining for me. not to mention the soundtrack.

[Noel Vera]

Can't look at another filmed play without thinking "Come back to the five and dime, Bobby A, Bobby A!"

[andre]

Mr. Contrarian here found "A Prairie Home Companion" at best a mediocre attempt to recapture the feel of "Nashville." I felt the film -- including much of the acting -- looked and sounded pretty tired. (Considering how ill Altman was, that's not surprising.)

I've always found Altman a mixed bag. Some of his films were remarkable, others were remarkable in their amateurishness and/or pretentiousness. (Though I do like one of his most out-there efforts, "Three Women," which I find superior to most of his revered work.)

When it comes to humor and a semi-independent cinematic flair, I'll take the much-battered Woody Allen anytime.

Now, how many think "Popeye" is the greatest musical ever made?

[john]

It am what it am.

[Noel Vera]

Personally, I thought Nashville was overrated.

But Popeye is, if not the greatest musical, maybe the second greatest comic-book movie ever made.