Altman back with film about real-life radio show

Mon Feb 13, 2006 1:42 AM ET
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 leads an all-star ensemble cast in "A Prairie Home Companion" which also features Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones, Lindsay Lohan and Kevin Kline.

It was written by Garrison Keillor, real-life host of the titular 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 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.

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

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While the film clearly is 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, who has been nominated seven times for an Oscar -- for films including "MASH," "Nashville" and "Gosford Park" -- and never won, will receive an honorary Academy Award at this year's ceremony.

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 in to 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 filmmakers 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."