Nasvhille can be a thesis on auteur theory. Not because it sprang from the mind of a brilliant filmmaker, but because it emphasizes the way that a single authors style can be imprinted on a film even when it springs from the work of dozens and hundreds of people. Every 30 second clip can be extracted and immediately recognized as Altman. But that is only through the work of the editing, the performances, the sound design (oh the sound design), the set pieces, the costume design, the list goes on. It all comes together in something that is deeply personal, impressively universal and yet somehow very much of its time.
Only Altman could have created Nashville, and I wouldn’t want anyone else to even try. Or as Pauline Kael wrote better than I ever could:
it’s apparent that he needed the technical innovations in order to achieve this union of ideas and feelings. “Nashville” coalesces lightly and easily, as if it had just been tossed off. We float while watching, because Altman never lets us see the sweat. Altman’s art, like Fred Astaire’s, is the great American art of making the impossible look easy.
I think that there is something for everyone in the film. It is rich in ideology and commentary but never at the expense of something far more human than that. It is so perfectly natural. I felt like I was living with these characters. All 24 of them. 25 if you count the enigmatic Hal Philip Walker.
Nasvhille came after MASH, and with some difficulty. It was self-funded, and not picked up for distribution until it was complete. It swung for the fences, and it made it. It is an incredible film with an incredible scope. A story and not just a narrative.
Stray Observations
- The cacophony is immediate. And the political message is not subtle, though it builds and runs through the background in a really intricate way
- It’s a real skill to make everyone dressed distinctive enough that you can easily recognize them in a wide, which is incredibly essential in the final scenes
- So much of the actual content is in the asides.
- Like McCabe and ms miller the camera often stands apart from things, always stuff in the way. Natural.
- The editing is careful and slow, not overly dynamic, but communicates a lot. Who is framed, who is excluded, what is happening. All of it matters. As much as the sound design which is the best that’s ever been done
