Robert Altman on the set of "A Prairie Home Companion." Photo by Virginia Madsen.
At RogerEbert.com, Virginia Madsen has written a lovely remembrance of playing the "angel of death" in "A Prairie Home Companion," the final film directed by Robert Altman, who died two years ago this month. An excerpt:
He never knew where or when the "angel" should appear to haunt or float. Sometimes he would just look at me for a long time. I always held his gaze and often wondered what he was thinking. these were always quiet moments, in the midst of all the fun and chaos of a working set. He would sometimes hold my hand and then let it go as he went on to direct. [...]
... [He] always wanted me to move in such a deliberate way.There would be take after take sometimes, with Bob saying, "Do it again but this time even slower" Not an easy task for me because my physicality and that of all the other performers was so animated! He even briefly entertained the idea of having me pulled along on wheels so I would really appear to float. He also designed my big hair and white trench. Guess that was angelic to a man like him! Or film-noir angelic anyway. He gave me a copy of "The Long Goodbye."
Along with a few anecdotes, she offers her thoughts (and remembers Altman's) on the gorgeous photo above. Read the whole thing here.
A few of my own Altman memories, and an appreciation of Madsen's final moments in the film here . I think I know what I'm going to be revisiting tonight....
As an aspiring filmmaker/cinematographer, Robert Altman meant so much to me. I could give a lot of reasons, about his signature style, or his wit in overturning genre convention. They're all true, but the big reason I loved his work so much was because he was from Kansas, like me. Growing up in the suburbs of Kansas City, going through public school, I was raised completely outside of art. Sure, I had art class, and I studied literature, and watched a few movies in history classes, but I never believed I could do that. No one said I could. According to my career test, I was best suited as a systems analyst or a business machines technician. We were all groomed for lives in offices, working 9 to 5. Most of us never had a chance.
So finding Robert Altman was for me a revelation. He grew up not far from where I did. He started as a working stiff doing industrial films. And yet, he became an ARTIST. He showed me that I didn't have to be from a hip scene, one of the big metropolitans. I didn't have to be raised as an artist to be one. I too could express myself. I could say something too. I could contribute. I'm now in film school, due to graduate in a semester, and I'm finishing my first feature length documentary. I don't know where I would be without his films, without Nashville, MASH, Short Cuts, and my favorite, McCabe & Mrs. Miller. He really saved me.
Thank you Robert Altman. You are missed!
Good to be reminded of him before Veteran's Day (and the birthday of another departed, WWII vet-midwesterner, Kurt Vonnegut).
I remember after walking out of PRAIRIE, I said to my wife that it felt like the last movie that Altman would make, and that it was probably one of his best as well. Indeed, upon repeated viewings, I admire it more and more. I like to imagine that it takes place in the same universe as NASHVILLE...
And not only is Ms. Madsen an excellent, intelligent actress and a stunningly beautiful woman, she's a wonderful writer as well. Here's hoping that she's writing something right now and that she comes to Powell's Books in Portland to do a reading from it.