Robert Altman

The Oral Biography

By: Mitchell Zuckoff

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Paperback | 7 December 2010 | Edition Number 2222

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578 Pages

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20.2 x 13.2 x 3.5

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Robert Altman--visionary director, hard-partying hedonist, eccentric family man, Hollywood legend--comes roaring to life in this rollicking cinematic biography, told in a chorus of voices that can only be called Altmanesque.
His outsized life and unique career are revealed as never before: here are the words of his family and friends, and a few enemies, as well as the agents, writers, crew members, producers, and stars who worked with him, including Meryl Streep, Warren Beatty, Tim Robbins, Julianne Moore, Paul Newman, Julie Christie, Elliott Gould, Martin Scorsese, Robin Williams, Cher, and many others. There is even Altman himself, in the form of his exclusive last interviews.
After an all-American boyhood in Kansas City, a stint flying bombers through enemy fire in World War II, and jobs ranging from dog-tattoo entrepreneur to television director, Robert Altman burst onto the scene in 1970 with the movie "M*A*S*H." He revolutionized American filmmaking, and, in a decade, produced masterpieces at an astonishing pace: "McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Thieves Like Us, The Long Goodbye, " "3 Women, "and, of course, "Nashville." Then, after a period of disillusionment with Hollywood--as well as Hollywood's disillusionment with him--he reinvented himself with a bold new set of masterworks: "The Player, Short Cuts, " and "Gosford Park." Finally, just before the release of the last of his nearly forty movies, "A Prairie Home Companion, " he received an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement from the Academy, which had snubbed him for so many years.
Mitchell Zuckoff--who was working with Altman on his memoirs before he died--weaves Altman's final interviews, an incredible cast of voices, and contemporary reviews and news accounts, into a riveting tale of an extraordinary life. Here are page after page of revelations that force us to reevaluate Altman as a man and an artist, and to view his sprawling narratives with large casts, multiple story lines, and overlapping dialogue as unquestionably the work of a modern genius.

"From the Hardcover edition."

Industry Reviews

"Scrupulously intelligent and entertaining. . . . Noisy, funny, slightly ill considered, a bit chaotic, and wholly believeable. In short, Altmanesque." --The New York Times Book Review

"[Zuckoff] uses a light editorial hand, allowing a wide range of contributors to have their say. . . . A comprehensive, 360-degree look at a complicated subject." --Wall Street Journal

"[There are] many surprising and revealing comments that Zuckoff has assembled in his fittingly rambling book. . . . Life is complicated, often messy--as Altman showed us--and his life, as seen in Zuckoff's book, was no exception." --San Francisco Chronicle

"A brilliantly researched, near-cinematic evocation. . . . Altman never gave up creating his cinematic portraits of people on the margins--con artists, prostitutes, gamblers, theives, clowns, movie executives--if only to shed light on the falsity behind his country's seemingly indefatigable, desperate pursuit of success." --The New Yorker

"[Zuckoff] doesn't try to resolve the many contradictions surrounding Altman's life and work, but lets them stand awkwardly beside one another for the reader to sort out. . . . As a form, the oral biography is well suited to a director who loved the sound of noisy conversation." --The New York Review of Books

"Splendidly well-assembled. . . . Altman made amazing films, which Zuckoff's far-reaching interviews illuminate, and by all the included accounts, he led an amazing life." --The Morning News

"Like Altman's signature soundtracks, this babel of transcripts offers a panoramic portrait." --Chicago Sun-Times

"[A] marvelous, epic, tapestry-like life-scape of Robert Altman. . . . Witness by witness, Zuckoff constructs an exemplary and cautionary American life, and with the funny, tragic, and compelling tales they tell, he has made something like a print version of the Last Great Robert Altman movie." --Directors Guild Quarterly

"A positively 'Altmanesque' treatment. . . . [Altman] made a great Western, a great anti-war movie, a great period piece, a great detective picture, a great ballet movie and the how-Hollywood-works movie. And Zuckoff . . . is an apt choice to corner an old fast-talker like Altman. Put this oral biography on your book list." --Orlando Sentinel

"A fun read, more like a cocktail-party remembrance than a scholarly study. . . . Recollections of movies that strike a chord are so entertaining you'll think about adding them to your Netflix queue to see them again." --Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"Zuckoff's biography is like his subject's movies, filled with a multiplicity of voices and averse to defining 'meaning.' Yet in the end, readers understand Altman's stubborn vision, his refusal to compromise with commerce, and his hard-earned, eccentric genius." --The Boston Globe

"I just now put [Robert Altman] down feeling heartbroken but happily and deeply inspired. . . . Wonderful." --Wes Anderson

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