812 The Player

[flyonthewall2983]

Found it very interesting Christopher Nolan gave this its props in his closet video, for as much as his position as president of the DGA as in consideration of his own work. I can see Altman being an artistic influence on him too but regarding that more I found his praise of Lost Highway more profound not even sure as I was that he admired Lynch at all, but I can definitely sense the influence it has on his work more.

[hearthesilence]

I wish I posted this earlier (close to a decade ago) because I'm not sure I remember the details anymore, but I saw Michael Tolkin talk about this briefly and he had some bizarre anecdote where Altman was apparently miserable and ailing - nothing life threatening, but he had some kind of boil at the time that I'm guessing was pretty painful. He brought it up because IIRC (and I'm not sure I do) someone told him that whenever Altman was miserable making a film, he came up with a hit or a masterpiece. I'm not sure how true that is and I don't think this was one of Altman's better films, but it definitely gave his film career a welcome commercial jump start, and it does have some good performances from Tim Robbins and Whoopi Goldberg among others. It also allowed him to do Short Cuts which, though flawed, is a much better film IMHO. Altman also looked pretty happy in the excellent behind-the-scenes documentary included with Criterion's reissue.