A Long Goodbye

Farewell to Robert Altman, who has just died, aged 81. Altman had not made much of note for the last ten years of his life, only Cookie's Fortune and Gosford Park came near the highs of his early stuff from the 70s to the early 90s but one can live forever on the good films: M*A*S*H, Short Cuts, The Player, McCabe & Mrs. Miller and my own favourite, his Raymond Chandler adaptation The Long Goodbye, starring Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe, and a thrilling updating up of the famous gumshoe, that was detested by most Chandler fans, who obviously had not read the books that closely. If you don't see his acknowledged masterpiece Nashville there, that is because I have still not seen it, as it has been unavailable on video or DVD in Europe for years, and perhaps may never have been released. There are Region 1 copies out there and perhaps now is the time to give it a go.