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Off the Cuff Top 10 Playlist: Robert Altman

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Altman
Ron Mann's new documentary Altman screens at the Pacific Cinémathèque tonight at 6:30 p.m., Saturday, November 8 at 6:30 p.m., Sunday, November 9 at 2 p.m. and Monday, November 10 at 8:40 p.m.

10. This weekend Pacific Cinémathèque is screening Ron Mann’s new documentary, Altman, as part of a series of films looking at the life and career of filmmaker Robert Altman. Trailer for Altman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgfyGk5-sjQ. Other feature films showing in the series include McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), shot in West Vancouver and considered by many critics to be his masterwork, The Long Goodbye (1973), and Nashville (1975). Rarely-seen shorts Altman made in the ’60s will be shown before the feature films.

9. Altman learned his director’s chops working in television. Early on he made a documentary on James Dean in 1957. The James Dean Story featured narration by Martin Gabel written by Stewart Stern, who also scripted Dean‘s Rebel Without a Cause: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mONdXc1652o.

8. Altman made his first feature film The Delinquents in 1957 shooting on location in Kansas City: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEIpZuy36UI.

7. Bonanza: Season 2, Episode 13 (1960) — Silent Thunder, directed by Robert Altman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk0jLaCpW6c.

6. In 1961 Altman directed a controversial episode of the ABC series Bus Stop featuring teen idol Fabian as a psychotic killer. The ad sponsors, the Brown and Williams Tobacco Company, refused to sponsor the program claiming “the presence of Fabian would lure teenage audiences to what should be adult viewing” and many affiliates refused to air it. ABC kept it in their lineup but ran the program without commericals: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6x-wUKYORjE.

5. Trailer for Robert Altman’s 1970 film Brewster McCloud. starring Bud Cort, Sally Kellerman, Michael Murphy, Shelley Duvall and Rene Auberjonois: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJYREhV08JA. Leonard Cohen had seen Brewster McCloud earlier in the day when Altman contacted him to ask if he could use his music in McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Cohen gave him carte blanche.

4. The opening scene of McCabe & Mrs. Miller following John McCabe as he enters Presbyterian Church with Leonard Cohen’s “The Stranger Song” heard over the visuals. Shot in chronological order this was the very first footage shot on the first day of filming: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iYxrsd59-E. TimeOut London named McCabe & Mrs. Miller its top film in a survey of the 50 Greatest Westerns of all time: http://www.timeout.com/london/film/the-50-greatest-westerns-a-the-full-list.

3. The Long Goodbye trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQlenaHpIpg. Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe in Altman‘s brilliant update of film noir to ’70’s L.A. The screenplay was written by Leigh Brackett, who cowrote the screenplay for Howard Hawks’ The Big Sleep in 1946.

2. Robert Altman discusses the making of Nashville: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgy7ySwhcFM.

1. Robert Altman appeared on The Dick Cavett Show on Jan. 19, 1972 as part of a special theme program on film directors which also included Frank Capra, Peter Bogdanovich and Mel Brooks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZpcVU_Ugvg.