Robert Altman interview on "The Player" and more (1993)

but first it's been more than 20 years since director Robert Altman's film mash reinvented black comedy for Americans hungry to laugh at convention since then he's brought us the cult films McCabe and mrs. Miller Nashville and now the player the picture that reveals both the inner lives of Hollywood and possibly its director as well Robert Altman's movies are rye and telling and always unpredictable and we're pleased to welcome him to our broadcast tonight welcome pleasure to have you here are you surprised about the attention that the player continues to generate yes I'm very surprised I mean I thought the movie stopped you know when we put up the entitled but it still keeps going on when they when you first got saw the script and you wanted to make it and they'd already gone through ten directors that turned it down a few a few which is a little sort of changing notion in your life and mash had gone through a bunch of people before they got to you to send Elam it I guess is one or maybe want to wanted to I don't know who all Sidney was involved in the play around and I think they had budget problems but when you saw it did you say this is a movie made for Robert all know but it's quoted that I said I said I know this arena and I can this is a film I can make and I'd like to make it why'd you want to make it oh I don't know I just I like the I saw the way that I could structure it which which actually it has the same ending as mash yeah which I don't know if you remember but the mash at the end why they came on the loudspeaker and they said tonight's movie will be mash and so it and it kind of turns the film turns into itself and the player who to me looked like I had a chance that I could make sort of an essay about the business that I'm in it became it turned it's a film about itself were you though saying that some of the same things about Hollywood that mash said about war well I may be the I was I think that the people say this is a satire and it's an attack on Hollywood it isn't it's I'm using Hollywood and the film business as a metaphor for the our culture in the country saying what it metaphor what about greed and the the way the who we admire we admire we teach their children to admire people who make money and it doesn't make any difference how they make it and the the the quality in other words we changed our standards over the last thirty years I guess to set to a point where you know unless they get put in jail these guys that make these billions of dollars and slick deals we they're our heroes and the film business is the business of the film binges run the same way because it's a big crapshoot there are those who think this is Altman's revenge too well I don't care what they think yep I don't know what I think they're getting there though well the very fact that they that they've now embraced this this movie which appears to be an attack on our own industry it isn't it's just using things that we all know and trying to show the the a morality and but you're also saying I'm a part of this system right you're saying this is me as well absolutely there's not one you can't I can't do a satire about anything unless I'm at the core of it because otherwise I would I'm it's propaganda I mean I have to know I know what Sully doubt is you've done that have you I'm invited quite often when was the last time you will coming here to do this show and they say well you know this little discipline all of these post post year awards that kind of thing and so here I am sold out I thought you came here because it was a great respect and love you head for television and for this program well I said I was I've got a show coming on PBS black and blue that I'm very proud of I did for last year the Broadway revue and so we'll say I'm promoting that all right we'll talk about that it also says something about what happens to originality doesn't it this notion of that the player does in terms of what happens how the system sort of chokes off well this is the rate that we talk about the system many that controls the most of the money that's involved in filmmaking is is marketing how do we sell this stuff they're trying to sell something they don't much care what it is they sell as long as they can sell it I saw an article today where Tom Cruise kind of jumped on somebody because they had some critic it said that far in a way was a was a failure and he says it made a hundred and thirty six million dollars and you can't call that a failure so he judged by how much money it made rather than the bottom absolutely and this is the problem that we have in in the houses we build and the art we do suits that we I read somewhere you said I'm there I like all the films I've made that's true yeah you know the first place to film making the films of collaborative I have a bunch of collaborators I am one of the collaborators so we start out with an idea and the idea is is we're gonna make this film and it's a it's a really a lot of work it's a lot of work takes a lot of time and a lot of energy and concentration and every film that I've made at the end I said this is the film that we set out to make everyone of everyone I had I've had well I have one film I have misgivings about and that's a film I did a section of for several directors did a little sections it was given to someone else and then they put it together and I was very unhappy about that then and you judge them to be good or not good even if you don't set out to make a bad film so therefore if you make a film that you like you think it's a good film I set out to make the film yes that film this film this is what we set out to make it in every case each one of these films it's like a child I mean it's there when it's finished it's cut loose the cord is cut and it has its own life and I can look at these films and I love all of them and I'll sit down tonight if somebody walked in and said she I didn't ever I never saw Brewster McCloud I said haven't she's my sister I just happened to overhear if somebody says look at ah sit down look at it with them there with pride well I'm seeing a new film through their eyes I see so how they react to it says something else to you and and it's the only I could I wouldn't you could put me on the island with with all these films and I never look at one of them is alone if you had the pick of all the films you've made and somebody said you got one last film to show Altman which one you gonna go pay I don't know I'm talking to you depend on what you think what well if if I if you were posing this question to me and I sensed that you didn't that probably you thought quintet was my worst I would say that's what I would you are what they'd say they're all they're all separate things they really are like your children they're they're I've got six children and an X number and grandchildren the grammar go right graduate three great-grandchildren and they're all different and I love every one of them for their own particular reasons and also that you can't change them they're there they're in existence and if that's the one does it school better at school than others or one as well liked by his colleagues more than the others the one is more popular makes nothing no makes no difference to you let me just go back to the player for a second you opened this film with an eight-minute no cut sequence and his camera rolls around you shot how many 10 15 takes 15 yeah and but oh but most time we're good takes you just happen to select the one yeah five printed takes five of them were acceptable why'd you do that why just one long well in the first place I have to open the picture some way right so and what I want to do when I open the film is show is introduce everybody to who the participants are what the films about what the arena is so I show this as a movie studio and I show many people in and out and I show people making pitches to Griffin mill the Tim Robbins character and at the same time I've got guys going through this scene say talking about long takes talking about Orson Welles various so I'm as I'm showing you this film which is my introduction at the same time I'm making fun of myself or a filmmaking at the same time so I'm accomplishing about three or four different things different characters making fun of yourself and tell it telling you what the rules are of this film this film is gonna be that way we've got a clip that doesn't show all of the eight minutes but a little bit of a sense of what this film was about the player will be nominated for lots of awards it's already won some awards that are the LA Film Critics really New York we were a runner-up in LA all right roll tape here it is the player what's interesting about this thing we were watching is buck Henry you have you talked about collaboration you have these actors that were known these celebrities that appeared Burt Rose and the rest of them create their own dialogue sure I had to I when I call if I called you up and I say you want to come and be in my I want you to be in my film Charlie and you come to me and you say well now what do I say I said you're you're representing yourself I play in yourself I can't tell you what to do I can't tell Burt Reynolds I said you've got to be responsible for yourself so everything that was all Burt's idea yeah what Burt says that's all or something does yes that's what I would I said you're in a restaurant this guy's gonna come up he's going to introduce himself to use one of those to you exactly if you can choose to know him or not know him he says are they're all and I said well you want to say that he says yeah I'm gonna Clement ask when I said fine and what it would who was with him invert I forgot it was a Charles Champlin a Chandler was with him yeah in that scene and he was interviewing why did all these people come to do this you didn't pay you paid him with scale and they donated the money to charity mostly I went to the motion picture home I think the reason that they did it I think the reason they did it is that they wanted to raise her hand and be counted I think it was almost a political statement they knew what kind of film it was they knew what the what we were trying to say about greed and and I think they just were they said yeah I want to be in on it do you think they maybe were saying openers when the snubbers knows that the system and this is a chance for us to play in the game I think they wanted I think they wanted to be counted did you get some came to you after the fact that how come I wasn't asked to be any many like who lady well Warren Warren is the case I don't want to discuss why you know why you would come afterwards but he also we had conversations when he claims he never heard from I know what don't you want to discuss it well because I know I know I'm not gonna get into a oh why not battle with more Meryl Streep says what did she call me why didn't you phone me well we called I called most of many of these people I didn't know I had previous experience with I called him as it occurred to me they added what to the film they added the first reason they were there is that they added a they qualified the film with legitimacy you walk into a restaurant and there's Martin Mulder sitting there Brad Davis was in there or a party jak niqqa let me know clémence is at a piano they're there and you say oh that's that's what it would be like at one of those parties these these are the real people it's the idea came from the 10 or 88 series I did when we ran the candidate for president would you mix reality because tanner in that fit and that HBO series would interplay with with real living in politicians and we would just walk into the arena and turn the camera on and you said you couldn't make the player without having made tanner no I never would have occurred to me to do this I mean after doing tanner I realized that we can do this crossing reality with fiction and we kind of learned how to do it and I said well this will work with this Hollywood picture as well has it turned things around for you oh yes and no it's it's it's been successful so that's helped a great deal it suddenly made me acceptable in Hollywood establishment but then I don't work for them anyway so that doesn't really mean it you don't work for them because they don't offer you jobs because you don't fit in there I don't think most of the I don't the pictures that they want would want me to do I don't know how to make and the pictures that I want to make they don't know how to market you went having better growing up in Kansas City right World War two yeah came out of World War two went to Hollywood then didn't quite work after whatever you wanted to do didn't happen then started making industrial films yeah and from and from that went to make television episodic plastic tail static films Alfred Hitchcock Bonanza and the rest of them then mash comes along what did that do man it just opened all oh man oh yeah mash to open the floodgate I mean I was the fair-haired boy that people were embarrassed because they hadn't heard of knocking around and it mash gave me a big big ticket for many years I gave in mrs. Miller Brewster McCloud Nashville images and I went on and did many many pictures and then Nashville again then they I did about five films at Fox that sort of failed but they were good film didn't make any money as it didn't there definitely mrs. Miller was one of the lowest grossing films ever ever put out Pauline Kael did all that she could to make it work well but now it's considered like they talked about it like it's some monster picture and I think it's a good thing now there you saw one of the things that you began to hear people would come out of that film I couldn't quite hear it what were they saying and there was the overlapping dialogue in that film which became a kind of I get a lot of credit for that but you still go look at some Howard Hawks balance and you'll see the same thing I mean it's nothing there who's taught you the most about directing the just just doing it just getting into the Here I am here's the who's in the room does that make it different than Scorsese and all those guys who went to film school and and no no rest of them who had a lot of training well I think Scorsese's background and mine are probably pretty comparable he was an editor he's done different things whether you go to her for example well Spielberg's a little different he works but it's basically all the same my my film school or they weren't film schools when I was in that era but was was working in this industrial films I mean I had to edit the film sell it shoot I had no I don't know everything so I learned all the tools there's a body of work you have is it you know what's an Altman film well I don't know but I think most artists all their work is their work and and I feel that all of my all the work is is one body of work and it's starting to merge together for me now in my own when I look at I've got a new film I'm editing right now short cut yeah and I look at it and I'm very pleased with it and it's I think what did I see so much familiar stuff well of course it's familiar to me because it's all it's everything that I've done and and so the experience has taught you what works for you yeah my son I have a son I've several I'm Steve my who's the production designer is an art director on the player and many other of my films and he can talk we can sit out to family dinner table and we can carry on a conversation just using dialogue from my films because these kids remember all and so do you well I went when they're called recalled in 19th to making Nashville doll those them you had the few that didn't make a lot of money for Fox and then you made Popeye yeah which in their judgement was a disaster well that was in the public judgment at the time Popeye was a very make some money oh sure and it's a very successful film it's probably one of the most successful video right now and it will be because it's a great babysitter and because Robin Williams is a big star well that had not a lot to do with it Robin the the Robin was great in the film and he certainly helps it now but it's it's there's a new generation of kids every six years there's these new kids and they all and pop I was like Superman he lives forever yeah and Superman was the problem that was the hair on the butter when Popeye was finished it wasn't a hard action picture like Superman and it didn't do the Superman Gross's and they were Disney and paramount were very distant that was the standard that they measured it by yeah yeah and they started the Barry Diller who was then the head of paramount paramount was bad-mouthing the film to critics even than people before it came out he said oh this is no good even though was his film mm-hmm how do you know that from talking to his people have you ever confronted him about it yeah and what does he say he said well I don't think I said that I mean whatever it doesn't make it use I mean I'm not singling Barry Diller out but these guys this business they look at these these products that they come up and they bet on them and this comes up and they said this is going to dwindle out so they're through with it yeah and and they did it wasn't supported but Popeyes not up the press thinks that more as a failure than than people who have seen him but after you made it you left town you sold Lion Gate Lionsgate also I sold that company I had but I sold the company because it was taking too much of my time and energy and I was I mean you either run a business or you are you make movies and as Francis Ford Coppola and others have found out yeah it's very tough and so I said I'm going to get out of this and I came back to New York and started doing a little this is 80 yeah around 80 but then you went to live in Paris then I went to Paris and I made a couple of things you stayed away most of the 80s did yeah I was in Paris they Theo and Vincent Aoi be on therapy in 88 Tanner I came back court-martial the court-martial was television that was for CBS and but then you wanted to get back in well you always always wanted to get I mean I always wanted to make films I never was out has never took these roads on on purpose but you weren't beating on the door during that time there's almost a sense that you while you were during the 80s when you were doing all this other stuff you weren't being offered anything but I've never offered there's an interesting idea you have about your work which is that you you're always scrambling I mean there's never been a time you're 60 what 67 yeah you're always scrambling you're always behind the 8-ball in your own mind yes I'm I'm I hear those wolves snapping at my as I cross across those the ice floe but no I just I like to work and I mean I it's the only time I'm really happy and that's when I have fun and so so I have to keep setting projects up and they and they really to make them work well they have to be my own project I know how much of casting is the directors work well it's a great deal of mine I think that by the time I finished casting a project about 90% of my creative works finished because what you let them go then well no good ones they'll know what to do well they have the ball I mean they they have to interpret this stuff they're the ones that get up and do it these are the people you see they're the ones that give deliver the message and what are you looking for in those that you choose I'm looking for actors who I have a sense can fill this part and bring something into it that is that it never occurred to me I think that if every film I thought of if if what was in my mind if that all came out on the screen it would probably be a terribly boring film but the minute these actors come in and take take those roles and then invest them with something that I've never seen before ideas thoughts and I see them come to life is real I am I have got to be in a state of surprise all the time if I'm surprised and thrilled by what I see then I have to assume that you're going to be and what can you do to produce that if anything to give them the encouragement and the freedom and force them to - to not be inhibited but to go ahead and do that and and I don't control them you've said that when you what you look for in actors is you need to see something going on yeah what does that mean I've got to see that that's a real person there that's not just somebody standing there saying lines I don't think the lines have any are particularly important I don't think it makes a lot of difference most of the the dialogue that we use in conversation or in our living this is it's covering things up it's hiding things it's it's doing everything but except we're self editing all the time Oh constantly and you look for actors who are not doing that and who are loosened from that sense where actors who know what the job is and what their art is so that they put themselves out there these are very very noble people they stand out there and take their clothes off if you will and stand there and say this is me and they're out there naked and it isn't easy I can't do it I couldn't do it you can't do it don't even understand how they John Huston could do it John Huston was a fair actor but but John Huston was not I mean John was a good friend I know John was a good actor but he was not better than most directors yeah but he's like working with actors a different kind of actor and I just I can't do it man what you don't have what I don't my mind goes blank I don't have any understanding of how the minute I think that the cameras looking at me or and I'm supposed to do something I'm so worried about am I gonna do it properly that I'm doing it my face is a little flushed from the inside anyway right now because of this discussion I just not good at and I don't understand how anybody else can do it so when I see Tim Robbins I see Peter Gallagher these actors that have been working with buck Henry come in and play these roles and I look at what they're doing I think my god where did where is this coming from how can they do this I mean I stand in all that but you've never wanted to do it because it was it you think they have learned oh I don't know it's I think it's some sort of it's like being a the throwing a baseball or catching the football I can't do these are those things okay but yet to learn trait back no I think it's a it's it's a I think it's a talent you do something you're born with like music I think it's something that you James LaVon is coming up clearly was born with musical talent yes yesterday and and I am clearly not but you were born with what talent then oh I think I have learned the ability to to see what other people can do and I can I can translate that somehow or I can get them to do it I can convince them that it's okay for them to be honest could you have made the work that you have accomplished could you have done all this you have done without having been at odds with the system without having been a maverick suppose they had come to you and said Altman here's the money you need go make the films you want to make we're not going to bother you everything will be great they've given you freedom I don't know you don't know I have no idea I think that had I had to always make successful films I would have failed by their definition or by your own if I had felt that I have to this has to work commercially this has to work for a certain group or I would fail I would fail my position and all this is I think I just have to keep doing what I do and the more of it I do the better I become at it because it's an experience and practice you don't though if I read you hate the studio system well I don't you just don't know I hate it no no I just don't think it's very smart system I think there's better ways of doing it is their model somewhere for a better way to do it well I feel that better than the other in knowing how to do it no I think they have that you there has to probably be this thing's first place most of most of what the major studios do is they copy things so if a film is the success they make a copy of it they quote it like crazy and they'll keep copying until the ink so you can't see it anymore and when they get to that spot then they're in trouble and they turn around they see women we ain't got anything to copy so they'll turn around and they'll find you'll find some kid who's barely got a film together like this Tarantino like one Easy Rider you know was made no see that's a success let's call our Steve thought over who made this XYZ that he absolutely and so as long as and there's always these artists they're out there they grow like weeds most of them get their heads chopped off but they keep popping up and if several of them are going to survive it suppose for some reason some miracle on Oscar night you are nominated as Best Director for the player and you go up there and you've got to say something to the Academy turn around and look for the cameraman look for Jean Lapine on the player and I say I thought we graph this picture a long time ago continues what is it that continues well I think silly isn't it I mean it's kind you make fun up and then they give you awards well yes but I mean it's not it's just the whole thing is a little bit surreal to me but is there tiny little bit of you that that just wouldn't it be sweet Oh either they would be wonderful I mean there's no way I can escape from you know I mean when people start saying nice things about you just suddenly like them don't you pleasure to have you here I should say that the player was re-released on December 25th because of all the attention because the story list yeah well well we were out you know four we went out early and in the summer and we've got a release and it's doing well okay and attracting attention as I said short cuts is being edited now yeah now are you getting a lot of scripts or people now I'm getting they're returning your phone calls and they're saying well I don't bother back there's a lot of that there is but the trouble is most of the scripts I get are from people who think now I'll be able to help them get their picture made and nobody's calling me up and giving me a cheque was good that's the same old fight pleasure to have you here my thanks for thank you Robert Altman we'll be right back James Levine is here you know him Robert Altman is an opera lover himself James Levine you know as the artistic director of the Metropolitan Opera we'll talk about music when we return stay with

Channel: Manufacturing Intellect

Views: 25,098

Rating: 4.9481864 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: IGZGilleCM8

Length: 29min 32sec (1772 seconds)

Published: Mon May 30 2016