Altman back with film about real-life radio show

By Mike Collett-White

BERLIN (Reuters) – Veteran director Robert Altman has
chosen an old-fashioned radio show threatened with closure for
his latest film, a riotous yet touching story which actress
Meryl Streep said recalled a more innocent time for Americans.

Streep led an all-star ensemble cast in “A Prairie Home
Companion” which also featured Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee
Jones, Lindsay Lohan and Kevin Kline.

It was written by Garrison Keillor, real-life host of the
eponymous program that is heard every week by millions of
listeners around the world.

“There’s something about the world that Garrison Keillor
creates that locates a place in our childhood, in Americans’
childhood,” Streep told reporters after the picture premiered
at the Berlin Film Festival on Sunday.

“We grew up listening to the radio in a more innocent
time.”

Keillor appears playing himself in the picture, which was
shot in the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota, that is
home to the radio show.

The film was warmly received by the famously picky Berlin
press corps, and is one of the early frontrunners to win the
coveted Golden Bear at the end of the annual film festival.

The action cuts from backstage, where characters reminisce
about the good old days, play vinyl records, apply their makeup
and even drop dead, to the stage itself where music dominates,
from country and folk to commercial jingles.

Streep and on-screen sister Lily Tomlin wear their hearts
on their sleeves when they perform, while Harrelson and his
singing sidekick John C. Reilly, kick up a storm with their
bawdy cowboy comedy act.

Meanwhile, Kline imagines himself to be a private eye from
the Raymond Chandler mold, while Virginia Madsen plays a
mysterious angel whose exact intent is unclear.

RELEVANT TO TODAY

While the film is clearly not a direct commentary on
politics today, Altman said it was in some way connected with
current events.

“We don’t have to go to the battlefield every time to make
a comment on the attitudes of this war (in Iraq),” the
80-year-old said. “Although I don’t think it’s a war, I don’t
know what it is … a bombing campaign,” he added.

Keillor sets the narrative as the players await the arrival
of “The Axeman,” played by Jones, whose job it is to close the
theater at the end of the show and knock it down.

“This creation is not really like his show,” said Streep.
“It is an imagined last show and so it’s in the context of
being taken over by a radio conglomerate, which is happening to
a lot of radio shows at home.”

Altman will finally be rewarded with an Oscar at this
year’s ceremony, having been nominated but never chosen a total
of seven times, including for war field hospital drama “MASH,”
“Nashville” and “Gosford Park.”

When asked whether he had felt snubbed in the past, he
joked: “Let’s get on their case. What’s the reason for it? I’ve
always handed my name into the contest.”

But he added: “I’m very happy with the fact that I’m being
recognized this year. I’m very proud of that. I can’t think of
a better award. To me it’s better for all of my work than just
for a couple of things.”

Altman is one of two renowned veteran film makers launching
their latest pictures in Berlin this year.

Sidney Lumet, 81, directs “Find Me Guilty,” in which he
returns to the theme of justice he so famously explored nearly
50 years ago in “12 Angry Men.”