Robert Altman was one of the most interesting directors I've ever encountered. The way he presented a story and the way he describes his story are all very original to just him. He never likes to use conventional techniques in his movies, loving new camera movements, interesting plots, and he is the only director I know of that has extras talking over the main characters in dialog. The only thing that I really didn't like about Altman was the plots in his movies. Sometimes it felt like he didn't have any plot at all, like in Nashville, which I thought was one of the worst movies I've ever seen. I think he goes for too much satire during his films and that is what makes them so disconnected at times.
The part of Altman's film making that I really did like though was the way he incorporated the overlapping of conversations. I thought that brought a sense of reality to the movies that I had never seen before. He made his movies such that it never was necessary to know exactly what was being said, but the way it was being said. Altman uses his techniques so that the audience has to watch the scene as a whole, as one free flowing entity so that you can understand what Altman is trying to say.
