Week Six

Which of Altman’s stylistic techniques does Sawhill associate with "inclusiveness"?

“One head, no matter how good -- well, it just can't be the same as everyone bringing something to it." (Altman)
He involved the entire crew in creating the movie. One of the techniques was in developing the sound system with the sound engineers and using it in new ways. He did the same thing with the cinematographers where he used multiple cameras and entire locations were lighted instead of just each individual shot. Altman let his actors have a great deal of artistic freedom of movement so they could not play to the camera. He also let some actors write their own dialog and play their own music. Keith Carradine won an Oscar for his song in Nashville. To me it seems that Altman included everyone’s specific talent in his movies and was capable of funneling everything into a well-made and meaningful movie. By being inclusive Altman can always be looking for the “surprise” in his movies.

What does Sawhill mean when he suggests that Altman “was making nonlinear multimedia before the form existed,” and that Nashville “doesn't suffer from the fragmenting effects of stop-and-start, at-home viewing”?

He’s referring to the fact and states that, “Altman is instinctively drawn to multiple points of view and unresolved resolutions.” Sawhill explains that when watching in a home environment it doesn’t cohere completely but is conducive to our channel surfing mentality of the loose relationship experience. Nashville’s fragmenting effects are more like a video installation that is being played all at the very same moment. The movie’s non linear aspect; it is like wallpaper in that you can turn it on and watch it at any point and it will be comprehensible, because there is no real destination for the protagonist they just are. There is a documentary feeling to the movie, it’s like a fictional space/place in time that had very accurate depictions of real life characters exhibiting human nature in a very real Nashville.

What does Sawhill suggest are the functions of the recurring “wires, phones, intercoms, cameras, mikes, speakers” throughout the film?

“Signals get crossed, unwanted frequencies come wafting in, reflections we'd rather avoid bounce back at us, ghosts from the past sweep us up and then drop us, and when one thing comes into focus another falls out.”

I believe that he’s referring to that fact that this movie is about communication. The movie is about a city that creates music that is grass roots and these singers sing songs that are about people for people. These are devices that connect to everyone in some way.