Altman is one of America's most enduring directors

The film, which stars Neve Campbell as a young dancer poised for a principle role, is a typical ensemble piece by the director of M*A*S*H* and the Oscar-winning Gosford Park.

But Altman, who last week claimed he had smoked cannabis while talking to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, said he initially did not feel he was "qualified" to make the picture.

"It finally occurred to me that probably the things I should be doing are things that I don't know too much about," he told the BBC.

"So I dumped into the fog. It was very much like Nashville - when I first did Nashville I didn't know doodley-squat about country music."

Six stories

A review of the film by renowned critic Roger Ebert compared the ballet director in the film - the central character, played by British actor Malcolm McDowell - to Altman himself, saying that the film is really about the creative process.

"I think that's true," Altman said.

Selected Robert Altman films M*A*S*H* (1970) McCabe and Mrs Miller (1971) Nashville (1975) Popeye (1980) The Player (1992) Pret-a-Porter (1994) The Gingerbread Man (1998) Gosford Park (2001) The Company (2004)

"They called Malcolm Mr A, they call me Mr A. So Malcolm said, 'I'm just playing you'."

Altman added that this didn't make the character particularly likeable however, saying he was prone to hustling, favouritism and even bullying - "all kinds of human traits."

"He's got a big job. He's got to keep it all together. He's the one who turns the switch on in the morning and turns it off at night - and he's a politician, and so am I."

The Company, like many of Altman's films, does not have an ending as such - it simply stops.

Altman said this was deliberate, as he felt there were few stories that could be told well on film.

"There's no surprises," he argued.

"Everybody knows what the stories are, everybody knows how long the picture's going to be.

"I look at films more like I do paintings, rather than literature or theatre. There's only about six stories."

Great City

The director confessed for having a "gloomy" view of most big-budget American film - despite having himself once directed a typical slice of Hollywood fare, 1998's The Gingerbread Man.

But he said that he felt last year's City Of God, about life for children in Brazil's slums, was "maybe the best film I've ever seen."

Altman believes City Of God may be the best film he has ever seen

The film was made using real street children as actors.

"I don't even know how they did that film, I can't believe they did that," Altman said.

"That's not a documentary either - they didn't go out in the streets and catch the kids off-guard and shoot them... this had to be fabricated, and yet somehow they presented it in a truthful way."

Altman was however scathing about mainstream Hollywood films, which he said he never watched.

"I don't see anything that interests me particularly," he said.