ReFocus: The Later Films and Legacy of Robert Altman
Edited by Lisa Dombrowski, Justin Wyatt
- Provides new critical perspectives on the Altman oeuvre
- Features original interviews with key Altman collaborators
- Offers case studies of Popeye, Tanner ‘88, Come Back to the Five & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, Cookie’s Fortune and A Prairie Home Companion, among others
Illuminating the industrial, cultural and aesthetic significance of the later years of one of American cinema’s most influential auteurs, this anthology combines scholarly essays, original interviews with Robert Altman’s collaborators and previously unseen photographs from the Robert Altman Papers held at the Special Collections Research Center, University of Michigan Library. The book considers post-1970s Altman as a way to rethink and reconceive his authorship, expanding our understanding of the development of Altman’s personal aesthetic and production practices; his adaptation of existing source material; the representation of sex, gender and identity in his films; his relation to the changing landscape of American independent cinema; and his unfinished projects. Interviews with key Altman collaborators like Alan Rudolph, Ira Deutchman and Anne Rapp highlight their contributions to Altman’s career. Rather than place aside the extensive work on Robert Altman to date, this comprehensive book offers texture and depth to previous ways of thinking about Altman’s creativity and contribution to American cinema.
List of Figures Notes on Contributors Acknowledgements
Autumnal Altman: Rethinking His Last Quarter Century - Lisa Dombrowski and Justin Wyatt
Part 1: The Creative Process
1. I Yam What I Yam What I Yam: Altman and The Transpositional Poetics of Popeye - Mark Minett
2. For Real: Tanner ’88, Tanner on Tanner, and Political Spectacle in the Post-Network Era - Chuck Tryon
3. Home-Makers: Examining the Altmans’ Place-based Production Practices in Cookie’s Fortune - Nathan Koob
4. A Perfect Couple: The Altman-Rudolph Connection - Richard R. Ness
5. Unmade Altman: What the Archive Tells Us - Philip Hallman
Part 2: Industrial Frameworks
6. Offbeat and Out of Sync: Popeye and the Failure of an Auteur-Driven Franchise - Tim J. Anderson
7. "Here Comes the Hot-Stepper": The Hollywood Renaissance, Indie Film, and Robert Altman’s Comeback in the 1990s - Yannis Tzioumakis
8. "I Fiddle on the Corner Where They Throw the Coins": Altman’s Brand in Europe - Lisa Dombrowski
Part 3: New Perspectives on Altman
9. Fantasies and Fangirls: Gender and Sexuality in Robert Altman's Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean - Sarah E. S. Sinwell
10. Countering Robert Altman’s Sexual Outlaws: Visibility, Representation and Questionable Social Progress - Justin Wyatt
11. The Affection of Death - Robert P. Kolker
Part 4: Collaborator Interviews
12. Allan F. Nicholls
13. Alan Rudolph
14. Ira Deutchman
15. Matthew Seig
16. Wren Arthur
17. Joshua Astrachan
18. Anne Rapp
19. Andrew Dunn
20. Mitchell Zuckoff
Moving beyond Robert Altman’s early film career, ReFocus turns to the active, though critically overlooked, last 25 years of it. Each chapter teems with new takes and perspectives. A must for anyone interested in independent cinema, and for those who find Altman’s work as innovative and observant as the director himself was.
This book is admirably conceived and carried out [...] an exemplary collection of academic essays. Highly recommended.
A revelatory return, ReFocus places scholarly studies of Altman’s late career into dialogue with new interviews of Altman collaborators. Exploring Altman as the director, producer, and businessman who so expertly juggled "cash, cast, calendar," Dombrowski and Wyatt’s collection is a must-read for anyone interested in late style and independent film.
