Eight years ago today we lost one of our greatest filmmakers. Robert Altman, the American Maverick whose influence is still being felt today (as evidenced in next month’s Inherent Vice), left us with nearly 40 films, ranging from his break-out MASH to classics such as McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Nashville, and The Long Goodbye to final films, including Gosford Park and A Prairie Home Companion.
To celebrate his career, we have Paul Joyce’s 50-minute documentary from 1996 titled Made in the USA, which aired on Channel Four’s Cinefile series. Featuring interviews with the director himself, as well as collaborators such as Elliott Gould, Shelley Duvall, assistant director Alan Rudolph and writer Joan Tewkesbury, they discuss the cast’s negative experience on the set of MASH, how the director strips away the plot from his films, and much more.
Check out the doc below (thanks to Cinephilia and Beyond) and for more on Altman, pick up his Criterion films for 50% off this month. A documentary on his career from this year is also now streaming on Netflix and you can watch him discuss is work in a 45-minute conversation here.
What’s your favorite Altman film?