Story of movie A Prairie Home Companion Film :
A Prairie Home Companion is a 2006 American ensemble comedy film directed by Robert Altman and is his final film. The film is a fictional representation of behind-the-scenes activities at the long-running public radio show of the same name. The film received mostly positive reviews and was a moderate box office success on its small budget.
| A Prairie Home Companion | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Robert Altman |
| Produced by | Robert Altman Fisher Stevens |
| Written by | Garrison Keillor |
| Starring | Woody Harrelson Tommy Lee Jones Garrison Keillor Kevin Kline Lindsay Lohan Virginia Madsen John C. Reilly Maya Rudolph Meryl Streep Lily Tomlin |
| Music by | Garrison Keillor |
| Cinematography | Edward Lachman |
| Edited by | Jacob Craycroft |
| Distributed by | Picturehouse New Line Cinema |
Release date |
|
Running time | 106 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $10 million |
| Box office | $26 million |
The film features an ensemble cast including Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Tommy Lee Jones, Woody Harrelson, Lily Tomlin, Garrison Keillor, Virginia Madsen, John C. Reilly, and Lindsay Lohan.
Screenplay
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A long-running live radio show is in danger of being canceled by new owners of the company that holds both radio station "WLT" and the theater where the show is broadcast. The film takes place on the night of the show's last performance. The show has two visitors: an angel calling herself Asphodel (Virginia Madsen) comes to comfort the people who work on the show and to escort one of them to the afterlife, while "the Axeman" (Tommy Lee Jones), a representative of the new owners, arrives to judge whether the show should be canceled. He makes it clear that the show is not what he considers modern popular programming, and though he too is escorted by the angel, the show is shut down anyway. In an epilogue at the end of the film the former cast members are reunited at Mickey's Diner. Their conversation pauses as they are joined by Asphodel.
- Garrison Keillor as Himself
- Meryl Streep as Yolanda Johnson
- Lily Tomlin as Rhonda Johnson
- Lindsay Lohan as Lola Johnson
- Woody Harrelson as Dusty
- John C. Reilly as Lefty
- Tommy Lee Jones as the Axeman
- Kevin Kline as Keillor's radio character Guy Noir
- Virginia Madsen as the Dangerous Woman "Asphodel"
- L. Q. Jones as Chuck Akers
- Tim Russell as the Stage Manager
- Maya Rudolph as Molly
- Robin and Linda Williams as Themselves (singing duo)
- Tom Keith as the Sound-Effects Guy
- Sue Scott as the Make-Up Artist
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To receive insurance for the shoot, Robert Altman had to hire Paul Thomas Anderson as a "backup" director to observe filming at all times and be prepared to take over for Altman in case of his incapacity. Using the working title The Last Show, principal photography for the film began on June 29, 2005, at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota (the usual venue for the radio show). Filming ended on July 28, 2005. Because the Fitzgerald is a rather small building, other stage theaters in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region had been considered as stand-ins, but in the end, the necessary film equipment was crammed into the structure. The lack of space led to the basement also being used for some sets. Set design had to make the show more visually interesting, and fake dressing rooms were used in the film. The movie's production designer noted that Keillor's actual dressing room is "about the size of a very, very small bathroom."
Mickey's Diner, a downtown St. Paul landmark, is also featured in the film.
On November 1, 2005, the Star Tribune reported that an early screening in New York City for film distributors resulted in a heavy bidding war. Picturehouse bought the rights, and company president Bob Berney, "aiming to capitalize on the name recognition of the 31-year-old radio program, recommended that the title revert to A Prairie Home Companion. 'At the screening, Garrison said that to broaden the film's appeal, they were thinking about changing the name to Savage Love, so we may have an argument there,' Berney said."
Critics
A Prairie Home Companion opened the 2006 South by Southwest film festival on March 10, then premiered in St. Paul, on May 3, 2006, at the Fitzgerald Theater, which had projection and sound equipment brought in for that purpose. The film's stars arrived in ten horse-drawn carriages. Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News anchored his newscast from neighboring Minneapolis, Minnesota, that night so that he would be able to attend.
Critics' general reaction to the film was favorable, and it garnered an 82% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert awarded the film four out of four stars, saying, "What a lovely film this is, so gentle and whimsical, so simple and profound", and later added the film to his "Great Movies" list.
Michael Medved (himself a radio host) gave the film one and a half stars out of four, saying, "The entertainment value stands somewhere between thin and nonexistent" and " the worst movie ever made that pooled the talents of four (count ‘em – four!) Oscar winners".
Desson Thomson from The Washington Post fell in between, saying in a review headlined "Honey, You Could Ask for More" (a reference to the theme song of the radio show and film) that while the movie had its strengths, it was weaker than it should have been.
Awards
Meryl Streep won the Best Supporting Actress Award from the National Society of Film Critics for her role; Altman was also posthumously nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Director.
Box office
The film had a successful limited release in the United States and grossed $20,338,609 domestically and $25,978,442 worldwide.
New Line released a soundtrack album featuring a mixture of old time music classics and contemporary songs written by Keillor.
| A Prairie Home Companion | |
|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by Various artists | |
| Released | May 23, 2006 |
| Recorded | Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota |
| Genre | Country |
| Length | 64:24 |
| Label | New Line |
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
A Prairie Home Companion is the soundtrack the 2006 film A Prairie Home Companion. It was released on May 23, 2006 via New Line Records.
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