Still Remembering Robert Altman

Stop Smiling Magazine continues to be unaccountably generous to me, this time by inviting me to contribute a short piece in memoriam of Robert Altman. The invitation was perfectly suited to the man we mourn: rather than review a whole movie or anatomize a major set-piece, the editors asked me to reflect on a stray moment or detail in one of Altman's movies that made a lasting impression on me. I couldn't help but talk about Shelley Duvall's skirts in 3 Women, which keep snagging in her car door when she drives. Another respondent writes about 3 Women's peculiar genesis in a dream of Altman's, and two other writers celebrate McCabe & Mrs. Miller (as well one might!) and A Wedding (which I've never seen). If this isn't enough Altman for you, and it shouldn't be, click back to the full-length interview with Altman that Stop Smiling published five issues back. And then go watch one of his movies. And then watch another one. And then go talk over someone while they're still finishing their sentence. (And then remind yourself that the glorious praises of Ronee Blakley and Lily Tomlin will doubtless be sung by all of the mockingbirds gathered together at next month's Supporting Actress Sunday roundtable for 1975. It's never the wrong time to venture back into Nashville.)

(Image © 1977 Lions Gate Films/20th Century Fox Film Corp., and reproduced from DVDBeaver's review of the sensational DVD)