altman
...amazing “peripheral” characters. This peripheral characters are essential to the will of objectivity that Altman has in his films. Indeed some of them have a clear function of “bridges” between scenes and sequences (such as Opal or the Tricycle man in Nashville); their functions as element of the intern mechanism of the film dissolve any kind of character focuses. The fact that there is no real focus on any particular character, gives a certain sense of distance between the audience and the characters of the film that consequently provide the viewer a more objective layer of reading. Altman is known for being most of the time nonjudgmental toward his characters. Indeed, Altman avoids most of the time to show Manichean characters: there is no all good nor all bad characters. A character like Mc Cabe, in Mc Cabe and Misses Millers, is very ambiguous: is he the legendary shooter that people think he is? Is he a liar? Is he a coward? Is he a hero? In Short Cuts, Aubrey Bell, the baker who was doing obscene prank calls to the Finningan family who just lost their son, becomes very supportive when he realizes what happened to them. Characters are rarely “mono-dimensional in Altman films. Except for couple of them (Burns in M*A*S*H*, Camilla Dixon in Cookie’s Fortune), Altman seems to have a lot of tenderness of most of his characters . There is a “gap” in all Altman films, a gap within every scene, every sequences. By “gap” one means an room for multiple understanding and interpretations for the same scene or sequence. This gap is the true expression of Altman’s will to objectivity. Altman rarely open and close a scene or a sequence on the “principal” element of this scene or sequence. Most of the time his camera, mainly by the use of zoom lenses, focuses on a secondary character or detail. Altman seems to follow the old Samurai teaching: “to treat grave things lightly and small things seriously.” Since Altman’s doesn’t orient his focus , this gap that he creates within his films gives them a unique sense of objectivity. Altman is not a “realist” or a “naturalist” in the esthetic sense of the terms. However his films have a very particular sense of realness. As well as many “new wave” directors, Robert Altman is a very reflexive filmmaker. His work always contains references to cinema somehow. Indeed his early films are almost spoofs of classical film genres: M*A*S*H* for the war film, Brewster McCloud for the “super cop” film, Mc Cabe and Misses Millers for the western. His reflexivity have two senses. First of all, Altman criticizes the “classical” Hollywood style: he’s having fun in his films showing the ridiculous aspects of them. But more than that, reflexivity is a way not to “fool” the viewer: this is a film, this is not reality. However the only way to reach a certain kind of realness in film is to assume the nature of film. Reflexivity may be seen as a way to be honest. Altman doesn’t want to show reality, but a sense of realness, a sense of reality. And for that reflexivity is essential. In an interview, Altman discusses the role of reflexivity in Mc Cabe and Misses Miller: “When I look at a subject and see how it's done, I think, it doesn’t necessarily have to be done that way. Like McCabe. What a collection of stereotypes! There was the gambler down on his luck, the whore with the heart of gold, the three heavies (the giant, the half-breed and the kid). Everything there you've seen all your life in westerns. The audience can supply most of the story already! That left me free to work on the backgrounds and the atmosphere and the details.” Indeed reflexivity reinforce a sense of interactivity between the film and the audience that allows Altman to focus on secondary elements, secondary elements that will eventually provide the film this sense of truth, of realness. These secondary elements are first form elements. Indeed in their form, Altman films are very singular. The treatment of sound is one of the most noticeable Altman’s particularity. Altman uses, earlier than everybody else, a very important number of tracks in his soundtracks. His soundtracks are indeed pretty realistic: different dialogues within the same scene overlap each other to the point that sometime part of them are inaudible. Indeed Altman would put a microphone on each of his character so the scene would seem more natural. The omnipresence of music is also a huge part of Altman style. The choice of Leonard Cohen’s songs for Mc Cabe and Misses Millers reinforces the elegiac atmosphere described in the film. In Nashville and Kansas City are two films about communities in particular towns; the rhythm of life in both town relates on the music: country music for Nashville, jazz for Kansas City. The camera movement also reinforce this idea that reality is not necessarily character centered. We talked previously about the opening and closing of each sequences. Another thing that accentuate this feeling, added to the overlapping soundtracks and the omnipresence of music, is the camera positions, angle and movement, who most of the time loose the focus from one event to something going own background. In Nashville, during the country festival, the main singer is singing in the foreground, however, the camera focuses on people in the audience, or one policeman backstage, in the background, talking to a girl… etc… Situations are never centered on one point: this assumption by Altman provides his films a sense of realness. Altman’s sense of reality is also expressed by the sense of chaos, randomness in his films. There is no such thing as a closure in Altman’s film, the only closure possible being death. Things don’t necessarily happen for a reason. Altman seems to have assimilated the chaos theory: each one of his character is in the mean time victim and creator of situations. The action of one character in one scene would have enormous consequences in another character’s life even though these characters don’t know each other. In Short Cuts Doreen hits the little Casey with her car. She makes sure that the kid is alright and leaves. The kid comes home and collapses. Eventually he will die. His parents are devastated and the news of Casey’s death will lead his neighbor to kill herself. Doreen will never hear of any of these story, her life goes on, she is sure that she hasn’t harmed the kid. This sense of randomness, of hazard, of chaos is the main factor that gives to Altman’s films such a sense of reality. Altman is a...