Nashville
When I go to a city, I have a tendency to want to see films about it. In fact, this is why I finally watched “Walk the Line”. Where “Mystery Train” is the perfect Memphis film, I expected “Nashville” to be the Nashville film, and that expectation did not disappoint. After touring the city and learning about country music in the fairly well done Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, I felt sufficiently prepared for the film (apart from the fact that I thought the museum was surprisingly well-designed and popular, it also is the only way to visit the historical RCA Studio B).
It was very helpful to learn about the music genre itself before seeing this film, because the movie has a LOT of country music in it. Among the almost 3 hours of the film, perhaps 1 is entirely dedicated to some music performances, one more ridiculous than the other. Luckily there were also a few good songs and some characters who actually could sing.
Altman is probably most famous for his black comedies. Yet if one considers that my favorite Altman film is the comparably less funny “Gosford Park”, which I prefer over “MASH”, “Short Cuts” or “A Wedding”, I was not too surprised that I didn’t quite find this film very funny either. It is more an amusing film than it is a funny film, which is expected as all black comedies are not laughing out loud funny. Since such black comedies also never have any likable characters (well, if they have a likable character, he or she must suffer or die), the enjoyment from such films must come out of something else. I can’t put my finger on what it is, and in a similar vein, I don’t know why I thought “Nashville”, this strange and slightly confusing amalgam of characters and events, was actually enjoyable. Perhaps it is the characters, of which the racist ‘yellow fever’ BBC lady was probably my favorite. Or it’s the perfectly constructed end, where no questions were answered, but it brought all the characters together in a tumultuous scene.
For some reason, “Nashville” was wildly popular and perhaps it still is. At least Roger Ebert included it in his selection of “Greatest Movies” a few years back. I can definitely see where the sheer love for the film is coming from, but somehow I still find it rather dated.
When I read the first sentece of this posting, I grinned – because you still haven’t watched Philadelphia! XXD (Not that I’d recommend it to you. On the other hand… it’s about OMFG GAY RIGHTS, so maybe I should! XD)
Even though your review was rather negative, I’m extremely interested now. Black comedy is my No. 1 genre right now and I loved both Gosford Park and Short Cuts. (Though I, like you, prefer Gosford, which I definitely have to rewatch.) Yellow fever, what?! XD
(Although, I must say, I hate musical inserts. Glee is unwatchable and gained something between boredom and rage from me due to its bad, cliched teen pop music.)
Technically I did watch Philadelphia. (I used to be a huge Tom Hanks fan, remember?) It’s just been a very long time (10+ years?), and at the time of course I watched it in German.
Gosford Park is a little bit less black and more detective story than Short Cuts, but Short Cuts has the incomparably great Julianne Moore bush scene. (I took the freedom to make a silly reference to Knocked Up here.)
Yeah, yellow fever! It’s the best scene of the movie. Really, Nashville is the best where the film is really, really absurd. XXXD
Also, Nashville is nothing like Glee. The film does not have musical inserts, it’s not a musical at all. It just happens to have a lot of music in it, because it’s *about* the country music industry. Though in many ways, country music is not much better than teen pop music. Anyways, you should watch it! Especially as an old Altman fan as you (we?) are.