ROBERT ALTMAN

© 1996 Mike Metheny


JAM interviews the acclaimed director about his latest, a film that has the jazz world talking about "Kansas City."

Robert Altman

JAM: Only someone with a genuine affinity for jazz would want to make a movie like "Kansas City." What is it about this music that resonates with you?

RA: Well, I guess it has to do with the basic "chips" that were laid down... Jazz is the first music I ever heard when I was young. I've been a fan of it ever since. I like jazz, and I always have.

JAM: Talk a little about making a movie with such a strong jazz component.

RA: The whole idea of making a film about it... (pause) Jazz is a rather hard type of music to use in films because, if it's good, it's saying its own thing. With its own voice. I've been horsing around with (the idea) over the years of trying to work jazz into the scores, but it never really worked properly. To get it to really go, the film itself has to be about jazz, or jazz players... You know, all of these films about musicians. But they, in turn, become melodramatic. Or overly dramatic...

JAM: You're talking about movies like "'Bird"...

RA: I'm talking about -- yes -- any of them. All of them. But I'm not saying this to criticize any of those films. It's just that it's very hard to make a movie about jazz without making jazz the story. And that's always been the problem (for me). I never wanted to make "The Billie Holiday Story" or blah, blah, blah. So it occurred to me that I had to make the movie more like jazz itself, rather than "jazz to fit a plot."

JAM: Like more of an improvisational approach?

RA: Well, yes. Maybe. But not improvisational in terms of the way the movie is constructed. (The story in) "Kansas City" is like a "song" that's about three minutes long. ...Blondie's husband screws up, she comes up with a plan, she kidnaps the woman, she ends up losing her husband, she gets killed in the process. And that's the song. But I wanted to play the whole movie the way jazz is played. So to me, the two girls are like tenor saxophones in all their discussions together, which go off of the main song. Off of the subject. And (Harry) Belafonte would be the brass, with his "riffs" and all that... So that's what I was going for. I was trying to make it "spherical" in a funny kind of way.

JAM: Obviously jazz fans will check out "Kansas City." But how do you think it will play with the everyday mainstream movie goer?"

RA: Oh, I don't have any idea! But I wish well for it. It isn't going to be "Forrest Gump," that's for sure.

JAM: And the critics?

RA: I imagine some of the criticism we will probably get will be things like "Oh, we thought it was going to be something wild, out of control and complicated like "'Nashville' or 'Short Cuts'" and those kinds of films. "Kansas City" is not that. It is one simple little story, a simple little "song" that, instead of being three minutes long, is 15 minutes long. I have gotten some reports back from the critics... things like "Oh well, it was a little slow in that one spot," and "it kind of meandered" and "we were looking for more Altman in this..." Well, Altman isn't giving them "more." This is a jazz film.

JAM: There's a lot of live jazz in this movie, including a rather lengthy cutting contest sequence between Joshua Redman as Lester Young and Craig Handy as Coleman Hawkins. Were you advised by the marketing "powers that be" against this much music?

RA: I didn't even talk to them about it.

JAM: OK. Another "movie biz" question. There are stories to the effect that it was somewhat difficult finding distribution for this film. With your credentials, longevity and proven track record, how is that possible?

RA: It's highly possible. This film was made entirely by a French company, and when they go to sell these (films)... (pause) The major companies make their own films and want them to be these commercial films that are capable of hitting that hundred million dollar mark. They're not really that interested in small films, and they can also shut them out. We're with a company called New Line. And they've been terrific.

JAM: We don't want to date you, but do you have any first-hand recollections of 18th & Vine in its heyday?

RA: Sure. But they're vague. When this film was set -- in 1934 -- I was only nine years old. But from when I was 14 -- from 1939 on -- I used to go to all those places in the film.

JAM: Who do you remember hearing?

RA: Well, I didn't know their names then. I might have heard anybody play, and they might not have been famous (then). The first names I remember were Baby Lovett and Julia Lee.

JAM: There's a chance you were hearing some of the greats in those days without even knowing it...

RA: Absolutely. Probably at a high school dance! I remember hearing all those bands. But I just didn't know the names.

JAM: Film buffs will know that this isn't the first movie you've made in Kansas City. There was also "The Delinquents" in the mid-1950s. Two questions: how has Kansas City changed since then, and how has the movie business changed?

RA: The movie business has changed a lot, and Kansas City hasn't very much at all. At least physically. The look of the city does seem empty (though). I guess that's because everybody keeps moving south and west.

JAM: How about the movie business?

RA: Well, it's changed in a very bad way because there are only two companies left: the Warner group and the Disney group. That's really about it. The independents are becoming less independent all the time; in fact they aren't even independent anymore. So... (pause) Expect more "Forrest Gump." Or worse, expect more "Mission: Impossible."

JAM: One more thing. Marilyn Maye is also interviewed in this issue, and she sends her very best.

RA: Ah, Marilyn! Good God...

JAM: She tells us you were frequently in the audience at the old Jewel Box Lounge on Troost.

RA: Absolutely! I certainly was! That was when I was back in Kansas City for three or four years working for the Calvin Company, an industrial film company. It was there that I really got my technical background for films. I lived at Lake Lotawana... But Marilyn Maye... please tell her hello.

JAM: We will. And we wish you all the best with "Kansas City." It opens nationally on August 16, right?

RA: That's correct.

JAM: Thanks for talking with us, Mr. Altman. Good luck to you.

RA: It's been a pleasure. Thank you very much.


RETURN TO AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 1996 MAIN INDEX

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