The life and work of motion picture director Robert Altman (1925-2006) is interpreted from a variety of perspectives in this collection of essays. Included are insights on Altman and his five-decade career from actors, historians, film scholars, and cultural theorists from Brazil, Spain and the United States, reflecting on the significance of music, history and genre in his films. Two American actors who have appeared in some of the filmmaker's most important works are prominently represented, with a statement from Elliot Gould (MASH, The Long Goodbye, California Split) and an essay by Michael Murphy (McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Nashville, Tanner '88). The collection ends with an essay on the importance of death in the director's final productions The Company (2003) and Prairie Home Companion (2006) by noted Altman scholar Robert T. Self.