The interview with Robert Altman took place on Wednesday 24 January 2001.As the highlight of our twomonth tribute to Robert Altman, we were very pleased to welcome this great filmmaker back to the NFT. Of the major American directors who first found an audience in the 60s and early 70s, he is undeniably one of the most idiosyncratic, influential and stubbornly independent. Aged 75 he shows no sign of selling out, let alone giving up making films: his work remains almost defiantly youthful. He was a late starter, but once he got going he certainly made up for lost time. The real breakthrough was 1970s MASH. Then followed a remarkable string of films which typified American cinema at its best. Altmans abiding preoccupation lies in analysing the murky social, economic, political and ethical realities barely concealed by the mythic American Dream, which he explores with great wit and intuition.

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