My second favorite filmmaker of all time, right behind Kubrick.

Has a film ever penetrated and skewered this nation more than NASHVILLE?

Give COOKIE'S FORTUNE and DR.T AND THE WOMEN another look as well. Sadly, those get lost in the shuffle when Altman comes up in conversation... both are wonderful slices of life.

I tried to ape his style in a script I wrote called HEAVEN FORBID, a comedy about a rich family falling apart during a Bar Mitzvah weekend... wrote lots of overlapping dialogue, criss-crossing storylines, and even broke the 4th wall a few times... very liberating and fun to write...

...unfortunately, I don't think it made for a very good read. AND it clocked in at 170 pages.

Oops.

Best leave Altman to Altman, I figure. (or at least, now , PT Anderson, since the maestro's demise....)

170 pages, Jeff! I'm afraid I've oops myself right now. Got one I'm editing at 169 pages, and another at 281. The one at 169 I've got arround to 158 pages, so some progress IS being made.

"Kill your darlings" indeed!

But back to you, Jeff, "Heaven Forbid" sounds like fun, kinda an "Annie Hall" thing. Glad to hear you had fun writing it.

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

Well EC, let's just say I don't the think the world is exactly crying out for a nearly 3 hour bar mitzvah comedy and leave it at that... ;)