ROBERT ALTMAN

I just learnt of the death last night of the great Robert Altman, the favourite film director of a great many of us - whose films were magnificent even when they were critical and commercial failures. (The set of his Popeye remains unforgettable, for a start, while Brewster McCloud , McCabe and Mrs. Miller and Pret a Porter were undeservedly dismissed.) Among the best of his work is his masterpiece Nashville, The Player, Gosford Park, Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean and the very underrated A Wedding. To which most people would add MASH.

He was terrific, among much else, at using singers. Cher was never anything remotely like as good in her life as in Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. Ronee Blakley shone so much brighter in Nashville than she could manage in Bob Dylan's Renaldo & Clara.

Bob Dylan should have done himself the favour of getting a part in a Robert Altman film. Any part. Any film.