THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 9, 1996 TAG: 9609070030
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: 83 lines
THOMAS WOLFE might have noisily proclaimed that you can't go home again, but Robert Altman is playing a different tune.
Altman, to be more accurate, is doing a jazz riff.
The famed maverick director, who has upset the movie world from ``M*A*S*H'' to ``Nashville'' to ``Ready to Wear,'' returned to his native city to make ``Kansas City,'' a film that is set on election day 1934, amid the Depression-Prohibition era. The finished film reflects not only Altman's return home but also his love of jazz.
``Kansas City was the crossroads of America in that era,'' the gray-bearded Altman said as he sat in a New York hotel suite. ``The best musicians came up from the south and got paid big money to play at the thriving brothels and bars. I spent the first 18 years of my life there, and by 15, I was hanging out in those jazz clubs.''
Back in the 1980s, he wrote a TV script about two women traveling through the city one night. Now, it has been expanded into a film about a vulnerable Harlow-imitator (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who kidnaps an upper-crust society type (Miranda Richardson) in an effort to save her lowlife boyfriend.
``Harry Belafonte was in on the project from the first,'' the director said. ``He and I, at one time, were working on a project based on the hit radio show `Amos and Andy.' Here, he plays a gangster called Seldom Seen. I first had Kim Basinger in mind for the role of the society woman, but pregnancy caused her to bow out. I didn't know Miranda Richardson. I wasn't sure she could do it, because she's British. When I met her, she said, `You might worry about my acting, but you won't have to worry about my accent.' ''
Altman is famous for allowing actors to develop their own characters. Among those who were elevated to stardom as a result of debuts in Altman films are Shelley Duvall, Jeff Goldblum, Keith Carradine, Lily Tomlin, Sally Kellerman, Michael Murphy and Cher.
Richardson, who was also in New York to unveil ``Kansas City,'' said: ``Bob knows exactly what he wants, but he allows the actors to find it for themselves. He's a maverick. I love that. I can relate to that. I think he likes a fight.''
Altman said: ``I don't understand actors at all. I don't understand what they do, but I'm on the set to insist that they do it. When I finish casting a film, 90 percent of my creative work is done. After that, I have to show up every morning, oversee the camera set-ups and be the father-confessor to them. I don't believe that it's a director's job to become an acting coach. They're hired to be actors, so my job is to cast them correctly, then let them act.''
Altman, now 71, says that ``Kansas City'' is not an autobiography.
``I was too young, a bit, to have participated in this side of the city so directly,'' he said, ``but most of the characters in the film are based on real people. Seldom Seen was a real gangster who carried his money in a cigar box, and died at the healthy age of 98.
``Charlie Parker (the jazz legend) is seen as a young boy in the movie. He actually was in Kansas City then and did go to the bars and listen to the music. Addie Parker, his mother, is depicted in the movie. She worked at Western Union and owned her own house.''
The Miranda Richardson character is patterned after the mother of a kid Altman grew up with.
``I was over at his house a lot,'' the director said. ``He was rich and his mother was peculiar. She always lounged around upstairs in a dressing gown or pajamas. I was about 10 at the time. I always knew she was on something, but I didn't know what it was. At that time, you could pick up opium at the drugstore. There was no law.''
Altman's aim in ``Kansas City'' is to film two parallel stories and make them play like a jazz jam session. ``Through the editing, I tried to simulate a jazz piece - the main theme introduced, and then riffing, fooling around with subplots and such,'' he explained.
He hired top jazz musicians and assigned them the names of classic veterans, yet he allowed them, just as with the actors, to develop their own styles. ``I wanted Duke Ellington's `Solitude' to be in the film because that is an old favorite of mine,'' he said. ``Otherwise, the musicians did pretty much as they pleased, and I tried to adjust it to the mood of the story through editing. They stand up and do solos when they want. It was all filmed live - no dubbing.''
Rumors persist that Altman will next tackle the film version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play ``Angels in America,'' but he says no deal has been made. The play, in two parts, ran over seven hours when it was on Broadway. (Part I will be produced at Old Dominion University this season).
Whatever the project, it is a sure bet that if Altman directs it, it won't be ordinary. ILLUSTRATION: FINELINE FEATURES
Director Robert Altman on the set of ``Kansas City.'' by CNB