Product Description

The Nashville Chronicles is a fascinating journalistic tour de force of the movie that legendary film critic Pauline Kael called "The funniest epic vision of America ever to reach the screen." In writing this book, Jan Stuart enjoyed the benefit of full cooperation from Altman, who sat for many hours of interviews, as well as most of the motley crew of cast and characters. Illustrated throughout with behind-the-scenes photos.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #155633 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Rightly considered both a critical and popular masterpiece, director Altman's 1975 film, Nashville, is a sprawling, audacious and brilliant mixture of political analysis and soap opera that features 23 major characters, all on a collision course with the American dream. This love letter to the film, the director and the cast is based on Newsweek movie critic Stuart's interviews with all of the cast and crew members who are still alive. He ably evokes the artistic excitement that galvanized the set amid the chaos of the filming (Altman, a great believer in improvisation, told his actors to ignore the script on the first day of filming), as well as the tensions that surfaced when the exacting, often cranky director clashed with many of his stars. Highlights are the insights of performers like Lily Tomlin, who relates how feminism and lesbianism shaped her wonderfully tender sex scenes with Keith Carradine (who claims to have "just wanted to get laid" during the filming"), and Barbara Harris, whose insistence on relying on her improvisational training at the Second City put her at odds with Altman. Stuart is at his best detailing the strained and often painful relationships between the starsAparticularly Ronee Blakley, who played the film's central characterAand the director. More an overview of the film and its principal players than a sustained critical analysis or a day-by-day account of the filming, this amiable journalistic account will please the film's legion of fans more than it will film critics or historians. (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Stuart, film critic for Newsday, gets up close and personal for this rewarding critique of Altman's well-known and affectionately remembered masterwork. There have been many discussions and serious critiques of Nashville; Stuart takes readers behind the scenes literally to reveal Altman's controversial way of working, although much of his approach was applied to film by Italy's neorealists, particularly Roberto Rossellini. There's much information here on Altman's flare at building film families and allowing actors lots of room for improvisation. Stuart includes juicy anecdotes featuring each member of the Nashville family--actors such as Henry Gibson, Ronee Blakley, Keith Carradine, and Lily Tomlin; screenwriter Joan Tewkesbury; and second assistant director Alan Rudolph. In tracing Altman's career and brand of filmmaking before and after Nashville, Stuart concludes that Altman declined, even though many of his films had critical acclaim. With The Player, Altman reemerged as a player, proving a director is only as good as his or her last film. At 75, unlike Orson Welles, Altman is still finding the money that allows him to work with the tools of his trade. Bonnie Smothers
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
Leonard Maltin Altman's brilliant mosaic of American life as seen through 24 characters involved in Nashville political rally. Full of cogent character studies, comic and poignant vignettes, done in seeingly free-form style. -- Review

Customer Reviews

It Don't Worry Me
For any fans of this film, and indeed, for its detractors also, this is a must have guide to learning more about the behind the scenes gossip. I am glad this book was not written/published until the 25th anniversary of the movie, as enough time has passed for an objective view of the film to be made. There is no denying that this is a powerful, interesting and even disturbing film. I am espcially pleased that a great number of the actors took part in this book. I have always wondered what happened to Ronee Blakley, (who played the fragile Barbara Jean to a T in the film). Do not miss this book if you love the film.

Stuart Hits The Mark
Robert Altman's Nashville is a movie that has been praised as one of the greatest American movies ever made and conversely has been derided as an overblown, preachy ego trip. Whatever side of the fence you may fall on, Jan Stuart has written an interesting, insightful account of the making of a complex film. Through interviews with just about everyone involved in the film, Mr. Stuart gives us an insider's view of not only the movie itself, but of the film's maverick director. We are transported back to the July & August, 1974 when the cast and crew invades the Music City. Mr. Stuart paints a vivid picture of the town at that time and the feelings of the city's residents towards the Hollywood people. We get detailed accounts of the origins of the film, the path screenwriter Joan Tewkesbury took to creating the 24 characters and writing the script, the casting choices for the roles (how some actors like Robert Duvall, Louise Fletcher and Susan Anspach backed out), the filming of the scenes and the mood off camera. Mr. Stuart offers so much detail that you feel as if you were actually on the set. As with any book written about a movie, Mr. Stuart obviously considers Nashville to be a masterpiece and Mr. Altman to be a genius. Although he does praise both, the book is not a gushing love letter towards them. He does not overtly interject his feelings and tempers the praise by detailing the criticism the film received. All in all, Mr. Stuart lives up to the high standards of the movie, by writing a superb book.

An Unexpected Treat
What a magnificent job Stuart has done with this intricate, intelligent history of one of the seminal films of the last century. Clearly possessing the diligence of a detective (or an archaeologist), Stuart has researched every aspect of "Nashville"'s creation and production, as well as its place in history, and has come up with a stylishly written, highly readable book. He makes a strong case for the film as a kind of happy accident in which a wild cast of characters--before and behind the camera--collided and created a masterpiece. Reading this book makes one want to weep for the state of the American film industry today, which could never produce another "Nashville" if it tried.