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Film Description
Robert Altman's last film is a warm tribute to one of America's most popular radio shows, The Prairie Home Companion, hosted by the incomparable Garrison Keillor. Shot largely on site at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota, the home of the actual A Prairie Home Companion radio show. As the fans file into the Theater to see the radio recording, they are unaware that the radio station has been sold to a Texas conglomerate and that the night's show will be the last.
For his crowd-pleasing final film, Robert Altman again conceived of
American life as a series of stories competing for attention, while
celebrating radio as on... more >
For his crowd-pleasing final film, Robert Altman again conceived of
American life as a series of stories competing for attention, while
celebrating radio as one of the few mediums left dedicated primarily to
public service. A Prairie Home Companion is the title of a
ratings-threatened broadcast combining anecdote and song, hosted by
Garrison Keillor; the star turns on this night include singing sisters
Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep; troubadours Woody Harrelson and John C.
Reilly; inept security chief Kevin Kline; and Virginia Madsen as an
angelic blonde who might yet save the show from the axe.
Every performance is a winner; every scene contains at least one
cherishable bit of business, from Keillor’s throwaway asides on biscuits
and penguins to Kline’s moving rendition of “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may”. To the last, the director’s methods remain entirely democratic,
attempting to pick up even barely-heard signals like Tomlin’s
off-microphone scowl to her band: “Mess up this one, and I’ll wring your
necks.” Perhaps only Altman could make a movie about radio and leave in
so much glorious interference.
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