Rethinking Altman as Anticlassical: The Modulation of Narrative Norms in The Gingerbread Man (1998) and Gosford Park (2001)

The standard story advanced by critics and scholars positions Robert Altman’s work as distinctly anticlassical, undermining or abandoning formal conventions designed to promote clarity, coherence, efficiency, and unity. Production papers held in the Robert Altman Archive at the University of Michigan provide extensive evidence of the director’s script development and production process and complicate the standard story. Two case studies from the director’s late era that tackle seemingly un-Altman-like generic material —The Gingerbread Man (1998) and Gosford Park (2001)—illustrate the director’s varied relation to classicism and the range of ways his many collaborators influenced his work.