For decades, Robert Altman fascinated audiences with pioneering films—among them M*A*S*H, Nashville, The Player, and Gosford Park—that combined technical innovation with subversive, satirical humor and impassioned political engagement. His ability to explore and engage so many different worlds with a single, coherent vision changed the landscape of cinema forever. This signature "Altmanesque" style is, in the words of Martin Scorsese: "as recognizable and familiar as Renoir's brushstrokes or Debussy's orchestrations."
In 2014, the Altman estate opened its archive to celebrate his extraordinary life and career in the first authorized visual biography on the iconoclastic director. Altman (Text-Only Edition), by Altman’s widow Kathryn Reed Altman and film critic Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan, includes a complete historical and critical narrative of Altman’s films and his process.
To honor the Altman trademark of using a wide cast of characters, Altman also features contributions from his collaborators and contemporaries including Frank Barhydt, E. L. Doctorow, Roger Ebert, Jules Feiffer, Julian Fellowes, James Franco, Tess Gallagher, Pauline Kael, Garrison Keillor, Michael Murphy, Martin Scorsese, Lily Tomlin, Alan Rudolph, Michael Tolkin, and Kurt Vonnegut Jr.