Directed by Robert Altman and written by and starring Garrison Keillor, A Prairie Home Companion captures the distinctive spirit and humour of its namesake live radio variety programme, which Keillor has been writing and hosting for over 30 years.
Both Altman and Keillor are masters of observation and meaningful digression, and A Prairie Home Companion combines their sensibilities in weaving its backstage story. Like a tall tale, the movie has a relaxed quality that allows for moments of slapstick as well as sincerity.
Keillor and Altman met for dinner in Chicago, and the low-key quality of that encounter characterised the subsequent collaboration between writer and director.
“Mr. Altman’s not given to bullshit and flattery, and that’s a Midwestern trait, I think” says Keillor. “It makes everything much easier. When we first met and in any succeeding meeting, we didn’t look each other in the eye and tell each other how much we loved each other’s work. We don’t do that in the Midwest. If you want to work with somebody on something, that’s compliment enough for anybody. Work is the ultimate compliment.”
Blurring the lines between fiction and more fiction, Keillor imported three of his radio show’s recurring fictional characters – Guy Noir, Dusty and Lefty – to the screenplay and made them backstage characters.
Guy Noir became a security guard while maintaining his gumshoe persona, and Dusty and Lefty added guitars to the lassoes and chewing tobacco in their saddle packs. He also created several new characters, such as the singing Johnson sisters, Yolanda and Rhonda.
“Those characters sort of burst full-blown into the screenplay,” Keillor remarks. “The two remaining sisters of a sisters’ quartet who had this one big chance a long time ago and they lost out on the brass ring. They fell off the ladder back into making the rounds of ordinary shows, playing county fairs and schoolhouses and churches and singing on the radio. Far from a glamourous life. I love that kind of character: defeated but steadfast, and basically cheerful. Yolanda is certainly this staunch woman of courage and good humour in the face of defeat.”
He injected a note of Guy Noir-ish mystery into the backstage drama with the creation of a beautiful, enigmatic stranger, known only as The Dangerous Woman. Her motives are initially hard to discern, but ultimately she emerges as a figure of grace.
“The character of the Dangerous Woman evolved,” Keillor explains. “She started out as a fan who had conceived in her mind that the host was talking to her, and was in love with her. So she was coming to the show expecting to go away with him. But the character was very elusive. She was trying to avoid detection, and I wanted to bring her into the action. I decided the way to do that was to have her die in a car crash and then come back as an angel.”
Keillor fashioned a narrative that was streamlined and character-orientated, setting the action during a seemingly typical broadcast that may in fact be the programme’s last.
“If you hold the axe over people’s heads, well, there’s a story right there. And then if they sort of ignore it and pay no attention and don’t weep and carry on; they just sort of march up to the edge of the cliff and walk over, the way people do in real life: that appealed to me. These are supposedly Midwestern people and they would tend to accept their demise with a certain aplomb,” he remarks. “My aim was to give Mr. Altman interesting possibilities, knowing that he would cut and shape them and things would change.”
The combination of Altman, Keillor, and musical performance proved an irresistible lure, and a stellar ensemble began taking shape even as Keillor was working on the screenplay.
Meryl Streep committed to the project in its early stages, as did Altman’s good friend and longtime colleague Lily Tomlin, who portrayed a member of a gospel choir in the director’s classic Nashville.
Streep and Tomlin were paired as Yolanda and Rhonda Johnson, respectively. After Lindsay Lohan joined the cast, Keillor added another new character, Lola Johnson, Yolanda’s teenage daughter.
“I knew that Meryl Streep was going to be a guest singer on the show, because she’s a terrific singer,” the writer explains. “I think Lindsay Lohan said in an interview that she was going to play Meryl Streep’s daughter which seemed like a terrific idea. It really was a benefit to have specific actors in mind.”
A Prairie Home Companion is Lohan’s first independent project, and the hugely popular 20-year-old plays against type as the bookish, bespectacled Lola Johnson.
“Lola acts like she’s depressed and not very confident in herself. But I think that’s all a facade,” Lohan reflects. “When you’re 17, you don’t want anyone to get to know your true feelings; you’re tough and you don’t need anyone to help you. You’re embarrassed by your mother and that sort of thing. Over the course of the film, I think Lola starts growing into the person that she really is.”
Describing his path to A Prairie Home Companion, L.Q Jones, a guest singer in the film says, “I got a call from Robert Altman, and most actors heed that call. He’s well-known for being a wonderful director to work for and to work with, because he has respect for acting and looks on it as a significant part of the process, as opposed to an inconvenience that has to be gotten out of the way somehow so one can go about the real job of cinema.
As a result, he puts together some brilliant casts. When you put together an ensemble like this, it’s hard to resist even a small part in that company.”
Having set out to translate the sensibility and substance of A Prairie Home Companion for the screen, Altman is pleased with the results. “I’m very happy with the way it turned out. My obligation and mandate was to take this verbal material and make it visual. The best way to do that, I figured, was to do ‘A Prairie Home Companion.’ I tried to serve what Garrison Keillor does and his humour.”
In Keillor’s estimation, Altman did just that. “The movie shows you a great deal about the show that’s real: the texture of it, and the music,” he comments.
“The story hangs sort of loosely, and this Altman has used masterfully, I think. In cutting and shaping his scenes, he’s given each of these actors a wonderful turn. They each have moments to shine and let loose. I’m really quite astonished by what he’s done, and what the actors have done. I’ve seen the movie now three or four times and I keep seeing new little things that I didn’t notice before.”
