Altman

As a whole, I was a pretty big fan of Robert Altman's movies. I'd have to say that my favorite part was probably how he made his movies seem so realistic (for the most part). Especially in Nashville, he used overlapping dialogue and a large cast. The overlapping dialogue really makes the movie seem real, especially when combined with the improvisation that took place much of the time by the actors. The authenticity with which they said their lines, or came up with their lines, really made the movie seem almost like a documentary. I mentioned the large cast also. The large cast in my opinion really added to the realism of the film. It contradicts the notion that many films project, that the story being portrayed is the only thing going on. With the large cast, there are so many different stories to follow; in fact, there are maybe too many in my opinion. Plus with the addition of the presidential candidate patrolling the streets in his van, the movie truly does seem to be a documentary of blue grass singers in Nashville. Everything that happens is entirely plausible in that movie.
Moving on to The Player, it becomes slightly less realistic, but the overlapping dialogue is still present. I suppose, seeing as I don't really know much at all about Hollywood, that the story could be true, but at this point, I choose to believe that it is not at all true, that something like this would/could never happen. I'm probably being short sighted and close minded, but that's just what I'm going off of for now until I find out otherwise.
Lastly, The Long Goodbye. This was probably my favorite movie of the three we watched in class. My reasoning for deeming it the best is that I enjoy film noir, and this movie is fairly similar to film noir. I loved how the movie was filmed though. The constantly shifting camera was fantastic. It really made me feel like I was actually watching what was going on. The story itself was slightly too farfetched for me, but the way the viewer saw the movie made it seem like they were standing in the movie. Once again, Altman used some of his trademark overlapping dialogue to make it seem slightly more realistic, but the story itself was definitely concocted. I suppose another reason why I might have liked it so much was that the story was unreal... Hmm... That's just how I like my movies I guess.
Well anyway, I definitely enjoyed Altman's movies (except partially Nashville because of the country singing aspect) and am looking into checking out a couple of his other movies like potentially M.A.S.H. simply because I've heard a fair amount about it.