Self explores the work of vanguard filmmaker in new book

by Tom Parisi

Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese might be box-office favorites, but when it comes to identifying the most significant American filmmakers of our time, Robert Self points to a director who sometimes struggles to finance his films and often ridicules the movie industry itself.

"One of the most important film directors, not only in recent decades but also in the history of Hollywood movies, is Robert Altman," Self said.

The veteran NIU English professor, who has taught numerous courses on the relationship between literature and film, has studied Altman for nearly as long as the 77-year-old director has been making motion pictures.

Self's new book, "Robert Altman's Subliminal Reality," was released this past spring by the University of Minnesota Press. The book provides the most comprehensive analysis of Altman films to date.

With close readings of classics such as "M*A*S*H*," "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" and "Nashville," as well as more recent films such as "The Player," "Short Cuts" and "Cookie's Fortune," Self asserts the value of Altman's work not only to film theory and the entertainment industry but to American culture itself.

"Robert Altman is a major figure in American movies," Self said, "but he's also a renegade. His films challenge Hollywood values, as well as our own cultural values. They also challenge filmgoers' expectations of straightforward narratives and easily understood endings."

Altman currently is shooting a low-budget film in Chicago and has had to scrape to find financing, Self says. This comes despite the fact that Altman's last film, "Gosford Park," earned Academy Award nominations for best picture and best director. "Gosford Park" provides a prime example of Altman bucking traditional moviemaking techniques.

"The film has 48 different characters and nearly as many storylines," Self said. "It's also difficult to follow because he has a tendency to give you bits and pieces of stories without the crucial information. He pulls out the obligatory scenes that might explain characters' behavior. His way of working is to be open and suggestive, instead of explicit. He wants you to struggle with the directions and motives of interpersonal relationships and participate in the construction of the story's meaning.

"That's why Altman's movies don't always sell with mainstream audiences, because they can be difficult to understand," Self adds. "It's like the relationship between poetry and popular fiction."

In "Robert Altman's Subliminal Reality," Self frames his study with a discussion of the director's efforts to create a "subliminal reality" in his narratives - to touch audiences on an unconscious level and to recognize the unspoken dimensions in human interactions. This striving for subliminal reality makes Altman's films exemplary of the potential of art cinema narration, Self said.

Self's new book also delves into the director's depiction of antiheroic characters.

"Altman diminishes the heroic figure," Self said. "In 'Gosford Park,' for example, the detective is a fool. In 'McCabe and Mrs. Miller,' the hero is an ineffectual braggart and a gambler. In 'The Player,' he is a movie producer who gets away with murder."

If not embraced by the masses, many of Altman's films have been roundly praised by scholars, critics and the movie industry. In addition to "Gosford Park," he has garnered Academy Award nominations for best director in four other films - "M*A*S*H*," "Nashville," "The Player" and "Short Cuts."

Self has been teaching at NIU since 1969. His new book can be purchased at bookstores or through the University of Minnesota Press at http://www.upress.umn.edu/.

10/21/02