Robert Altman

[Lino]

Thank you for the transcript! It was worthy alone for two titles in there: Inserts and Without you I'm nothing. Been looking for those for ages.

[Jeff]

More on Vincent and Theo from DavisDVD:

The eternal struggle between madness and genius takes its toll on the brothers Van Gogh in director Robert Altman's Vincent & Theo, starring Tim Roth and Paul Rhys. The DVD from MGM Home Entertainment arrives on August 23rd and features an anamorphic transfer, a "Film as Fine Art" featurette With Robert & Stephen Altman and the original trailer. Retail is $14.95.

[Elephant]

Does anyone know the proper aspect ratios for Altman's Streamers and That Cold Day in the Park? IMDB doesn't have it listed. I have import DVDs of both of these but they're full-frame and I'm wondering how much--if any--they were cropped--seems the credit sequences for both were lopped a bit.

[whipsilk]

Does anyone know the proper aspect ratios for Altman's Streamers and That Cold Day in the Park?

I can't speak for Streamers -- it was filmed at Dallas' well-equipped Las Colinas studios, so the widescreen equipment was probably easily available, but Altman was also shooting on the cheap during that period, so it may have been full frame, but I doubt it. I'm virtually certain That Cold Day in the Park was shot widescreen (although my only copy is the VCR from the late 80's, which is 4x3, as you'd expect). Altman has always preferred the widescreen image -- that's one of the reasons he moved from television directing to feature film. I suspect he would have passed on the project had he been forced to use anything less than his beloved panavision cameras.

[swimminghorses]

so where is "Welcome back to the five and dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean"??

[justeleblanc]

O.C. and Stiggs is coming from Sony on November 15.

Doesn't Sony also now have Brewster and Thieves Like Us?... What's the hold-up?

[jorencain]

Damn, too many Altman threads on here to choose from...anyway, I just watched "Nashville" again, and what a great movie that is. Altman is so good at capturing little moments of true-life happiness, pain, loneliness, etc. and there are a bunch of those in "Nashville." When Sueleen Gay makes the decision to strip, when Lily Tomlin's character is leaving Keith Carradine's room and he makes the phone call to another woman; these are just a couple of those moments.

He's such a master at handling these actors - with so many of them, and so many storylines going on, he's still able to make each one show us a real view of these characters as actual human beings. They instantly reveal their motivations in just one line of dialogue, in one expression, or in something that the camera picks out and focuses on. Of course, the women in the bar during "I'm Easy" is a great example. I'm not sure if this is Altman's best, but it's certainly a fantastic movie. It's making me itch for "The Last Broadcast" to hit theaters.

[Michael]

Nice post, jorencain.

I couldn't respect and applaud Altman enough for using the real deaf kids to play Lily's deaf children in Nashville. He could easily use non-deaf kids to play those roles (which was a very common practice back then)... but he didn't thankfully. In the film, Lily teaches her deaf children to sign a song...and I think it's awesome since everything in the film is involved around music with Nashville being the country music capital of the world. I have to say that Lily is a truly progressive mom for using the language of her children (that's utterly admirable!) But now thinking about that song signing scene, do the deaf children really benefit anything from doing that at all? This is exactly what I love about Altman. His characters are so simple and complex at the same time.

[Polybius]

Sam Fuller used real handicapped kids in The Naked Kiss, didn't he?

[otis]

Can anyone confirm this, which I found among customer reviews of the California Split DVD on Amazon?

Beware -- this is NOT the movie "as it was meant to be seen." Although finally available -- and in widescreen -- the disc presents a severely compromised version of Robert Altman's great film. As detailed by Brad Stevens in VIDEO WATCHDOG magazine, No. 116, it has been shorn of three minutes -- cuts that render some scenes incomprehensible -- due to music rights issues (real or imagined by skittish studio lawyers). More damage has been done throughout by altering the soundtrack -- carelessly and stupidly -- wherever certain songs were originally heard in the film. What a shame. Don't erase those old tapes!

As the run time for the DVD is 105 minutes and IMDB lists the movie at 108 minutes, it sounds like he's right. Anyone got the Video Watchdog review?

[peerpee]

California Split
1974, Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment,
DD/16:9/LB/CC/+
$24.96, 105m 24s, DVD-1

By Brad Stevens.

This virtually plotless Panavision film about two gamblers, Charlie (Elliott Gould) and Bill (George Segal), is one of several Robert Altman classics never released to video (though it frequently turns up panned-and-scanned on television). Columbia's eagerly awaited DVD contains a nice 2.35:1 widescreen transfer, accompanied by an interesting commentary track that reunites Altman with Gould, Segal, and writer Joseph Walsh (who describes the quite different ending found in his screenplay). English and Japanese subtitles are provided, along with trailers for Easy Rider, The Company and Big Night.

Unfortunately, music rights problems have obliged Columbia to remove almost three minutes of footage and make several soundtrack alterations. Their end product is perhaps the most extreme home viewing travesty since those notorious early video transfers of The President's Analyst. The cut/rescored scenes are as follows:

1- 11m 42s. A 32-second shot has been cut during Bill and Charlie's initial conversation. This showed Bill scat singing while Charlie informed him that "I love to play poker with those redneck fish. Y'now, who think they're Nick the Greek. Love to get 'em steamed. Easy to beat. Suckers".

2- 31m 50s. A scene showing Bill and Charlie at the racetrack ends as Charlie says "Let's go see a man about a horse". This scene originally continued for an additional 8 seconds as the men walked off singing together.

3- 35m 30s. After Barbara (Ann Prentis) opens the door of her house, Bill and Charlie enter. Charlie then turns to a man standing in the doorway, gives him a coin, and says "Here you are, Mr Tenor". This will make no sense to anyone who has not seen the original version, which contained an additional 24 seconds of footage showing Barbara opening the door and finding 'Mr Tenor' singing 'Happy Birthday To You'. Bill and Charlie then appeared and joined him in the song (while Barbara insisted "It's not my birthday").

4- 52m 32s. As Bill enters the strip club where a poker game is taking place, we see a basketball-themed cartoon playing on a television. In the original version, we also heard the song ('Basketball Joe') that accompanied this cartoon. (Incidentally, this animated clip can also be seen - and heard - in Hal Ashby's Being There.)

5- 77m 20s to 79m 16s. The two Phyllis Shotwell songs - 'Goin' to Kansas City' and 'Me and My Shadow' - heard during Bill and Charlie's journey to Reno have been replaced with an instrumental piece. 'Me and My Shadow' provided one of the film's most striking moments. As Shotwell arrived at the line "We never knock, 'cause there's nobody there", Charlie gestured at a passing car and shouted "there ain't nobody there". Although this scene is visually unchanged on the DVD, Charlie's line has been removed from the soundtrack (at 79m 2s). Incredibly, Joseph Walsh can be heard describing this moment (which he refers to as "a miracle") on the commentary track!

6- 86m 46s to 88m 4s. As Charlie walks away from the poker table, the sound of Phyllis Shotwell singing 'You're Nobody 'til Somebody Loves You' has been replaced with Shotwell's rendition of 'The Lonesome Road' - a reprise of the song we'd already heard her singing a mere 85 seconds ago!

7- 90m 12s to 90m 53s. A shot of Bill playing poker no longer includes that Shotwell song heard dimly in the original.

8- 92m 9s. After Charlie leaves Bill at the blackjack table, a 1m 40s scene has been cut. This showed Phyllis Shotwell behind a piano singing 'Georgia On My Mind'. While Charlie struck up a conversation with a fellow gambler sitting near Shotwell's piano, Bill continued playing blackjack, and we saw that the woman dealing him cards was wearing a badge revealing her name to be Barbara (making her the last of this film's many Barbaras). Columbia's editing has Charlie return to the blackjack table only a few seconds after he left.

[otis]

This will make no sense to anyone who has not seen the original version, which contained an additional 24 seconds of footage showing Barbara opening the door and finding 'Mr Tenor' singing 'Happy Birthday To You'.

Thanks, peerpee. Who knew Happy Birthday To You was copyrighted???

I've been wanting to see this movie for 20 years. Seems like I'm going to have to wait a while longer.

[ben d banana]

It's "Basketball Jones", by Cheech & Chong, damnit.

Good ol' chintzy Sony. Of course there's a limited customer base for this item and the songs would've cost them more than they dreamed of recouping, but to charge full ticket price as well is so typical.

[Hrossa]

I'm surprised and sad. California Split is one of my favorite movies ever. I had no idea that it had been cut. The film which I feel has some of the most sad, beautiful moments in an Altman film, if not in any film, is actually potentially even more sad and beautiful.

Has anyone asked Brad Stevens where he saw the cut that he's comparing the DVD to? That might be worth knowing.

[Lino]

O.C. and Stiggs is coming from Sony on November 15.

Official page on MGM site:

http://www.mgm.com/title_title.do?title_star=OCSTIGGS

Oh, and JustLeblanc: Brewster McCloud is owned by Warners and according to the latest chat, they have no plans to release it anytime soon. I think they think it has no market for it...or something along those lines. Oh well, I guess I'm not getting rid of my tape soon.

[lord_clyde]

For any Comcast customers 'Quintet' is available as a free "on demand" movie right now. I'm planning on watching it later this afternoon but all I hear is that it's godawful.
Any fans out there want to give me some hope? i have a hard time believing that Robert Altman+Paul Newman+Post Apocalyptic Future=Shit.

[otis]

http://www.filmbrain.com/filmbrain/2005 ... y_see.html

[lord_clyde]

I watched Quintet yesterday and all I will say is that Altman's bleak portrayal of the future is one of the most depressing nightmare visions I've ever experienced.

[lord_clyde]

Yeah, all I hear is good things about A Wedding. Quintet isn't a very good movie but it's a very interesting failure and I admire Altman for having the balls to try it.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Of the dozen Altman films I've seen I would easily rate Dr. T the absolute worst. Cookie's Fortune, as precious and condenscending as it is, is miles ahead of Dr. T. IMO. But then, I think Gosford Park is one of his best, definitely not a popular opinion.

Then you probably haven't seen Beyond Therapy, which must be one of the worst films I've seen, not just the worst by Altman. I'd rank it down there with Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and Huston's Escape to Victory as the worst mainstream films of the past 25 years, at least of those that I've seen.

Altman seems to share some traits with Huston, mainly in that he seems to alternate between excellent work and utter tripe.

[Fletch F. Fletch]

Robert Altman to get Honorary Oscar

It's about time, although it would have been better if it was for Best Director. Let's hope he speaks his mind during his acceptance speech...

Movie mogul Robert Altman is to be honored at the Oscars in March with an Honorary Award. The Gosford Park director will be celebrated for "a career that has repeatedly reinvented the art form and inspired filmmakers and audiences alike." Altman has received five Academy Award nominations as a director and producer but has never taken home the Oscar. Academy President Sid Ganis says, "He is a master filmmaker and well deserves this honor. The board was taken with Altman's innovation, his redefinition of genres, his invention of new ways of using the film medium and his reinvigoration of old ones." The Academy Awards will take place in Hollywood on March 5.

[otis]

Someone posted this 2 days ago on the IMDB message board for Quintet:

20th Century Fox are preparing a DVD with Co-Xentertainment producing the DVD supplemental material. I don't know what might be in there but suspect there should be, at least, an interview with Robert Altman.

Does the honorary Oscar mean we'll get a VIP Limited Edition with a Brigitte Fossey commentary track, a documentary on the 1967 Montreal Expo and a Quintet board game?

[tryavna]

Movie mogul Robert Altman

Altman is a "mogul" now?

[Barmy]

I'm sure he'll smoke a few joints before going on and then spout some leftwing bullshit that the audience will lap up whilst pretending they have seen one of his films.

[toiletduck!]

C'mon, who hasn't seen Popeye?

-Toilet Dcuk