Altman

Ron Mann's 2014 documentary tells Robert Altman's life and career chronologically. The move from television to cinema, the success of MASH, the productive stretch of the seventies, his exclusion in the eighties and his return with The Player are all followed. The archive and recollections of his wife Kathryn Reed Altman form the spine. The film's formal idea is to ask the actors who worked with him what the word Altmanesque means; each gives a different definition, and those definitions divide the sections. Its limit is that it was made with the family's participation and does not go into Altman's difficult sides beyond his conflicts with studios. It remains a concrete record of the founding of American independent cinema. Who it's for: viewers interested in American film history and Altman's filmography. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a critical portrait, or unfamiliar with his films and likely to miss the references.