Altman (2014)

Documentary on the life and work of the famed writer/director Robert Altman (1925-2006). I liked it, I learned a good bit about him, including amusing stories of how he got into the film industry, went against orders to make a much respected episode of the TV series Combat!, and how Jack Warner fired him from a film project because he had characters talk over each other in an argument scene, the kind of thing that would later become an Altman trademark (the characters talking over each other, not the firing). The doc follows things in largely chronological order, we get segments on his more notable films and passing references to many of the others. Altman was a major player in starting the careers of some of our better character actors, a surprising number of them still working in the industry today. Altman certainly had an ability to gain the loyalty of the 'stock company' he created around himself, many of them working with him for decades. I can't say this about a lot of filmmakers, but I'd have liked to have known Robert Altman, he seems a very talented, idiocentric and human individual. ***