Robert Altman: What About Bob?

Perennial Hollywood outsider Robert Altman crosses the pond to England and returns with an Oscar-worthy whodunit, the star-studded, genre-bending Gosford Park.

_______________________________________________

He has made many cinematic trips to Los Angeles (The Long Goodbye, The Player, Short Cuts) and the American South (Nashville, The Gingerbread Man, Cookie's Fortune, Dr. T and the Women), and even journeyed to Paris for the fashion-biz sendup Ready to Wear, but until his latest, the '30s-set ensemble Gosford Park, Robert Altman had never shot a film in England.

Now, he wishes he could make every movie there. "It was the best experience I ever had in my life," he says, taking a break from post-production in London. "I'd sign a long contract to work here."

Based on an idea by Altman and actor Bob Balaban--who also plays one of the sprawling cast's 30 principal characters--_Gosford Park_, which is generating early Oscar buzz, is a densely plotted comedy of manners-cum-murder mystery set in a lavish country estate during a weekend pheasant hunt. The upstairs-downstairs narrative shifts back and forth between the well-to-do hosts and houseguest (played by, among others, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jeremy Northam, Maggie Smith and Michael Gambon) and their servants (including Emily Watson, Alan Bates, Helen Mirren and Ryan Phillippe) to tell an engrossing, surprisingly moving story rich with class conflict, intrigue, humor and sex.

Although the 76-year-old Altman, who achieved his first major success in 1970 with the irreverent antiwar comedy M*A*S*H, is typically characterized as a Hollywood outsider, he has nevertheless managed to churn out nearly a film a year for the past three decades. "I've had a better shake in my career than any director who's ever lived," he says, I cheerfully deflecting the suggestion that he holds any grudges against the show-business establishment. "I mean, I've never been without a project. Nobody can say that. So I have no complaints whatsoever."

Even so, he's much happier working for independent companies like Fine Line, Artisan and Gosford Park distributor USA Films than for the major studios--with whom he hasn't collaborated in over 15 years. "I seriously couldn't tell you the name of one person who runs any Hollywood studio," he chuckles. "I don't know them because I have no contact with them. It's like they sell shoes and I sell gloves. We're just not in the same business."

_________________________________________________________

Juan Morales