When Robert Altman left this world in 2006 he left behind a body of film and television work that was ambitious, trend setting, brilliant, and awful all at the same time. You can't take risks the way Altman did and not have the occasional failure – it just goes with the territory when you make movies without a safety net.
For an Altman movie to succeed it needs to walk the fine line between being loose and seemingly chaotic without ever truly descending into chaos. To negotiate that tightrope requires a cast willing to work as an ensemble, a stellar script, and just the right touch from the director. If any of those three aren't present, or are weakened, then the movie spirals out of control.
Perhaps it's no coincidence that his finest movie in the twilight of his career was Gosford Park, where he worked primarily with an English cast who came primarily from a stage background. A good deal of his movies are shot "live", where a whole scene is shot straight through as if it were being performed on stage. Later he might go back and do some "pick-up" shots for any required close-ups or reverse angles on a conversation, but the initial take for a scene would be a performance requiring the actors to be on stage for however long they were shooting.
That's far different from the usual method of shooting two lines at a time and then stringing them together in the editing room. In an Altman film actors genuinely have to give performances because they probably won't be saved in the editing booth.
Unfortunately the last film that Robert Altman made, A Prairie Home Companion, falls short on nearly all those fronts. Instead of his usual satiric or insightful self, this script bordered on the mawkish and sentimental with nothing of substance for the audience to hold on to.
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Article comments
1 - Rodney Welch
I loved it. I rank it among the best of his later years. It's very entertaining, with a very inspired cast, and a great script. Tomlin and Streep were perfect together and even Lindsay Lohan did well -- as did Woody Harrelson and John Reilly. The only real weak links to the story were Kevin Kline's Guy Noir character and Virginia Madsen as Death; that was a bit of a stretch. But I loved the looseness and casual brilliance of the whole enterprise. It's not an Altman masterpiece, but it's a film by a master.
2 - El Bicho
I hope that people will do Altman the kindness not to judge this film based on your poor review of it.
I saw no reason to think that there was an intention of a satirical look at the people involved, especially considering Keillor is one of those people.
The cast put on a good show, filled with wonderful music and sketches, so I wanted to see it continue, but nothing can go on forever. I didn't think the Dangerous Woman character worked, but considering how close Altman was to his end, I can see why the idea weighed in his thoughts.
My review of the film when it was released is floating around somewhere.
3 - Rodney Welch
El Bicho -- Altman in interviews dismissed the Dangerous Woman as more Keillor's idea than his own, that it was something he just kind of went along with.