Altman offers comic relief
2006-02-13 12:50
Berlin - Audiences at the Berlin Film Festival on Sunday cheered the world premiere of a "subversive" musical comedy by veteran United States director Robert Altman which he said held up a side of America missing from the grim nightly news.
A Prairie Home Companion offers a behind-the-scenes look at the wildly popular US radio show by Garrison Keillor, who also wrote the screenplay and co-stars in the film.
Meryl Streep leads Altman's ensemble cast as a country singer who regularly appears on the programme with her sister (Lily Tomlin) and has long carried a torch for Keillor, in a sweet plot line the two play to hilarious effect.
She said she had long been a fan of the show, which has relied on the same winning formula of gentle humour and musical interludes from the American Midwest for three decades.
Commenting on American culture
Calling the film "subversive", Streep said she had waited a lifetime to work with Altman, who said he was also drawn to a broadly popular aspect of American culture at a time when the image of the United States was suffering around the world.
"I think the main reason for its popularity, its uniqueness, is the fact that Garrison and company have done this show for the radio audience and they haven't aspired to do anything else but deliver this to this radio audience. They haven't tried to become other than they are.
"We tried in the film to capture the soul of Garrison's humour, his way of communication and the show generally."
Several reporters said after a press screening that the film was a welcome relief after a rough start to the festival driven by hard-hitting political themes and bleak takes on human nature.
But Altman said his film was clearly political by holding up cherished American values, even if it did not address issues such as the US-led Iraq war by name.
"We don't have to go to the battlefield everytime to make a comment on the attitudes of this war," he said.
Yearning for an Oscar
The picture is buoyed along by Keillor's charming corny humour and the rich entertainment in the old-time musical numbers performed by the actors.
"I didn't know that she did anything else but sing. When I hired her I didn't know she had acted before," Altman joked about Streep.
But Altman, who is to turn 81 this month, also taps deeper themes of love, death, loss and the inevitable end to even the most extraordinary careers.
Altman said he would be delighted to receive a lifetime achievement Oscar on March 5 after being repeatedly passed over for the Academy Award.
"I can't think of a better award - to me it's better for all of my work than for just a couple of things," he said.
A Prairie Home Companion is one of 19 pictures in the running for the Golden Bear top prize at the Berlin Film Festival, running through February 19.
Also screening Sunday were Grbavica, a Bosnian film about the plight of women raped during the Balkan wars, and martial arts epic The Promise by Chinese filmmaker Chen Kaige.