A Prairie Home Companion was a “new to me” film when I sat down to watch it for this whole Virginia Madsen thing. I don’t really know why I’ve never watched it before, I missed it on release, bought it and just never got round to it.
A fun little factoid while I’m here – A Prairie Home Companion was the film just starting to get some buzz around it when I sacked off the original version of this website all those years ago. At the time of watching / writing it’s one of the last I’m doing to complete this whole puzzle. Actually getting around to watching it now was kind of full circle for me, I didn’t even plan for it to be one of the last, not on purpose, my subconscious might have had something to do with it though.
It’s the last film directed by Robert Altman, he was 80 while it was being made. The studio were so nervous about this they enlisted Paul Thomas Anderson as a backup in case things didn’t go according to plan.
The cast is amazing; Kevin Kline, Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones thrown in with Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin and of course our heroine, Virginia Madsen – I mean – it doesn’t really get a lot better than that on paper.
But, just because something looks good on paper doesn’t make it good on screen as I’ve found out time and time again when doing this whole thing.
It’s actually a quirky little (but big) film. We follow the story about the end of an era, the final broadcast of a long running Radio Show called, A Prairie Home Companion. It’s all done in a behind the scenes kind of format. You get the very real feeling you’re watching it play out live, or one of those Netflix documentaries where they film everything. It’s quite voyeuristic in places and a delight to watch actors of this calibur do this kind of thing.
And, it’s voyeuristic with good reason. It’s kind of, sort of, based on a real radio show, called “The Prairie Home Companion”, funnily enough. The host of the radio show, Garrison Keillor, would be the writer of this film version. More than a couple of people involved with the actual show would make their way over to this fictional version of it including Garrison himself, Tim Russell and Sue Scott.
Virginia Madsen plays a character who just goes by “Dangerous Woman”, though she’s widely regarded to be the actual Angel of Death. The “Dangerous Woman” moniker probably comes from her waltzing around in a trench coat and being all mysterious. Which, to be fair, she does pull off a trench coat quite well.
It’s not the Angel of Death you’re probably thinking of, not the way it’s played on screen at least. She’s a very serene figure with an ethereal presence. Almost soothing. It’s odd, there is almost no drama to her on screen despite you being painfully aware of what she represents. This is noticeable from when we first meet her in Kevin Kline’s office, to the way she enters the diner at the end of the film. In amongst the general chaos of the rest of the film it’s a unique performance that I don’t think just “anyone” could pull off. You very much get the impression that she’s heavily involved with the characters, deciding their fates, but the way she blends into the background and generally goes unnoticed unless she wants to be. Well, it’s kind of genius. Full credit to Virginia Madsen on this one, very subtle but very effective.
It’s all completely by design as well. Speaking with Jimmy Guerts for the Herald Tribune she’d explain;
“So I got to sit next to Robert Altman and Paul Thomas Anderson sometimes all day and just watch them work and listen to how he directed. Every once in a while, he’d say ‘Put in the angel!’ and I’d go in and he’d go, ‘No, no, bring her out.”
I realise I’ve been very complimentary about the film so far, and that’s because I very much did enjoy it. But I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. I’m not even sure there’s much of a plot, really – It’s just a film about life and due to the way it’s shot, that’s what you end up watching, life.
It’s a little slow, but it’s not supposed to be anything fast paced. It’s a sentimental old fool’s love letter to a dying form of art. It’s homely, it’s… Nice. For want of a better way of putting it.
And, of course it would give Virginia Madsen a chance to work with Tommy Lee Jones again (sort of, he only has a small role) after all those years back in Gotham / The Dead Can’t Lie. And, kinda odd that the role she plays here isn’t a million miles away from that role either. Funny how that happens sometimes.
Availability:
Good, not hard to find on DVD in many different languages and regions.
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