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ALTMAN AT EMERGING PICTURES
Ira Deutchman emailed to tell me about the new blog for his company Emerging Pictures and a post he has up remembering Robert Altman. It’s great and long, a collection of Ira’s memories having worked with Altman on the distribution of a number of his films. When reading I had a hard time picking a section to excerpt. I was strongly tempted to lift the paragraph about Altman and Deutchman smoking a joint that had been found mashed in Altman’s shoe outside the Beekman on the opening day of The Player, but I’ll let you click to that and quote this section from Deutchman’s conclusion:
Bob could be infuriating, but unlike any number of directors I’ve worked with, I felt like he had earned it. In recent years, he most definitely mellowed, but he never lost his urge for mischief. There was this disarmingly sly smile that came after he said something naughty or came up with an idea for something that was clearly outrageous. He relished being an outsider.
His body of work speaks for itself. But as great as Bob’s directing was, his truly great gift was producing. In all those years, when his films would be greeted with anything from accolades to distain, and even in the years in which he had no box office success, he never stopped working. There was no one more resourceful in getting his vision on the screen. And he extended that gift to help his loyal friends to get their films made as well…the most notable being Alan Rudolph, who he continually supported.
