A Prairie Home Companion (film)
| A Prairie Home Companion | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Robert Altman |
| Produced by | Robert Altman Fisher Stevens |
| Written by | Garrison Keillor |
| Starring |
Woody Harrelson Tommy Lee Jones Garrison Keillor Kevin Kline Lindsay Lohan Virginia Madsen John C. Reilly Maya Rudolph Meryl Streep Lily Tomlin |
| Music by | Garrison Keillor |
| Cinematography | Edward Lachman |
| Edited by | Jacob Craycroft |
| Distributed by |
Picturehouse New Line Cinema |
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Release date
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Running time
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106 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $10 million |
| Box office | $26 million |
| A Prairie Home Companion | |
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| Soundtrack album by Various artists | |
| Released | May 23, 2006 |
| Recorded | Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota |
| Genre | Country |
| Length | 64:24 |
| Label | New Line |
| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
A Prairie Home Companion is a 2006 American ensemble comedy film directed by Robert Altman and is his final film. The film is a fictional representation of behind-the-scenes activities at the long-running public radio show of the same name. The film received mostly positive reviews and was a moderate box office success on its small budget.
The film features an ensemble cast including Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Tommy Lee Jones, Woody Harrelson, Lily Tomlin, Garrison Keillor, Virginia Madsen, John C. Reilly, and Lindsay Lohan.
A long-running live radio show is in danger of being canceled by new owners of the company that holds both radio station "WLT" and the theater where the show is broadcast. The film takes place on the night of the show's last performance. The show has two visitors: an angel calling herself Asphodel (Virginia Madsen) comes to comfort the people who work on the show and to escort one of them to the afterlife, while "the Axeman" (Tommy Lee Jones), a representative of the new owners, arrives to judge whether the show should be canceled. He makes it clear that the show is not what he considers modern popular programming, and though he too is escorted by the angel, the show is shut down anyway. In an epilogue at the end of the film the former cast members are reunited at Mickey's Diner. Their conversation pauses as they are joined by Asphodel.
To receive insurance for the shoot, Robert Altman had to hire Paul Thomas Anderson as a "backup" director to observe filming at all times and be prepared to take over for Altman in case of his incapacity. Using the working title The Last Show, principal photography for the film began on June 29, 2005, at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota (the usual venue for the radio show). Filming ended on July 28, 2005. Because the Fitzgerald is a rather small building, other stage theaters in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region had been considered as stand-ins, but in the end, the necessary film equipment was crammed into the structure. The lack of space led to the basement also being used for some sets. Set design had to make the show more visually interesting, and fake dressing rooms were used in the film. The movie's production designer noted that Keillor's actual dressing room is "about the size of a very, very small bathroom."
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