I'm not saying Nashville is a comedy by any means, but there are some particular moments that make me laugh so so hard. Lily Tomlin's dancing in the beginning, "Wanda Wanda," "My children are deaf," Opal's schoolbus monologue, "Cut your hair," the Tennessee twirlers, etc etc.
Anyone else agree? The first hour is pure genius in terms of comedy.
I thought it was supposed to be a comedy.
shareJust some of my favourite bits that no-one's mentioned yet:
-Shelley Duvall tapping 'Bud' on the shoulder, and he apologises and moves out of her way
-'Opal' being pretentious enough to recite "1,2,3,4" into her microphone IN FRENCH
-Opal's panic attack in Linnea's car and her reaction to the revelation of the deaf children
-Pretty much everything Opal says and does!
-Pretty much everything Barbara Harris' character says and does as well!
-The scene where Harris unknowingly causes the car crash and the two drivers get out to trade blows and the political workers put stickers on their cars while Harris remains oblivious to it all
-Haven's joyful over-reactions to everything 'Barbara Jean' says in her first scene
-The scene where the cars are all exiting the airport parking lot at once and the 'exit arm' finally gets knocked off by the tall bus
-Robert DoQui's character in the freeway pile-up getting angry at the kids touching his car, then he in turn climbing all over someone ELSE'S car
-Robert DoQui declaring 'Tommy Brown' the "whitest n#**^r in town", and telling him to drink some milk because it fits his personality!
-It's hard to go past Barbara Jean's public meltdown, with its multiple strange/sad/funny discourses, for sheer 'do I laugh or cry?' power
"In your eyes, the light, the heat; in your eyes, I am complete"- Peter Gabriel
"-Robert DoQui's character in the freeway pile-up getting angry at the kids touching his car, then he in turn climbing all over someone ELSE'S car"
And then the owner of the other car grabs DoQui's leg to get him down and DoQui says, "You almost made me fall!"
"Opal at Haven's party - "It's pure Bergman.... of course the people are all wrong for Bergman"."
And Bud agrees, even though he probably has no idea what she's talking about.
The reference to "Keen-ya" reminded me of something. Maybe someone who's seen the movie a lot can answer this. I seem to remember a scene where someone misprononounced the name of some place (maybe a city). It was very subtle (the line didn't really stand out) and I can't remember what it was. Does anybody remember that?
That's one thing I love about this movie is that there are so many different ways to watch it.... depending on what you're looking for. I love movies like this that have so many things to watch for and stuff going on outside the main point of action.
I find it hilarious at times. Henry Gibson NAILS the "Old Nashville" persona, especially when he's performing on The Opry. "Keep A-Goin'" owns me! And that scene at the club with Connie White when the guy on stage announces they have a celebrity in the audience and perhaps they would come up on stage and sing for everyone.... and Haven starts to stand up until the guy introduces Connie.
The Tennessee Twirlers with their faux guns and rebel flags.
I like how frustrated Wade gets with Sueleen after telling her she really can't sing but she's not hearing him.
I love Linnea's story she's telling to the lady during the outing at Haven's place. Lily Tomlin is one of the best storytellers....... whether they're true or not.
And don't even get me started on Hal Phillip Walker's ongoing speech! Brilliant!
Overall, the funniest thing about any of "Nashville" is how ticked off Nashville got about it after it was released. Looks like they totally made Altman's point.
ETA: At 1:53:55 -- the scene where Tom calls Linnea to invite her to the Exit/In.
Linnea is staring at the camera and just as Tom tells her who it is, you hear the cuckoo clock go off in the background. Comedy gold!
"No wonder we often know how to make a watch, but we don't know the time of day." -- H.P. Walker
Great examples but i think the cuckoo clock in the background wasn't intended, merely a 'happy accident' during filming.
share<Great examples but i think the cuckoo clock in the background wasn't intended, merely a 'happy accident' during filming.>
But that is SO Altman. Especially considering how he would often let the actor's ad lib and basically "see what happens" during a scene. I didn't think it was an intentional placemenet of a cuckoo clock but the fact that they left it in is brilliant.
"No wonder we often know how to make a watch, but we don't know the time of day." -- H.P. Walker
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I doubt many things in a large budget film are unintended. It's so easy to fix things, I'm sure they included it with intention. Not like it's ad-libbed dialogue. Don't know why there would be a random cuckoo clock on set that might go off at any time.
I'm not a woman much less Deanna Durbin, but the old-time glam-shot appeals to me.
I would add Alburquerque (Barbara Harris)," I'm going to Nashville to become a country and western singer - or star".
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I'm pretty sure the Opal character was put in for the laughs, and also as someone for the audience to empathize with, since, like her, most of us are visiting Nashville for the first time. My favorite moment with her would be either her monologue about the buses (reminds me of Woody Allen revising his opening speech at the beginning of Manhattan) or when she asks to hear Bud's song before turning away to see Elliot Gould.
I also enjoyed watching the Hamiltons struggle to hide the watermelon from Tommy Brown.
Oh, and for some reason I kept cracking up whenever I heard Hal Phillip Walker's "speech", he monotones everything just like the announcement speakers in M*A*S*H.
Believe me, you don't want Hannibal Lecter inside your head."
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During the scene where Bill, Mary, and Tom (?) perform at that club, there's a part where Bill and Mary clash horribly on a note, and Mary lightly coughs with a slightly embarassed look on her face. It's funny when you watch it, not so much when you type it out.
And Connie White's stupid "anyone can be the president" speech is made even funnier by the ONE person who claps in the audience. And Karen Black has a hilarious look on her face when she says it. I kind of wish she had been in the movie a bit more; she's really only there for about 15 minutes in the middle of the movie. Maybe because her character, the shallow and fake country superstar, isn't the most complex or interesting character.
I think Opal was hilarious, but she wasn't particularly empathetic - she seemed like the most clueless observer, unwilling to look beyond her own assumptions about people to see the real story there. I especially like her attempts to be sensitive to race relations in the South, all the while making blatant and clueless racist statements. For example, assuming that Lily Tomlin is a MISSIONARY to the black gospel choir (WTF!) before going on a tangent about a nice missionary woman she met while doing a story in "Keen-ya" who was evangelizing some of the "tribes" there but it wasn't working because, as it turns out, they have their "own religion" - and then her bizarre comments while watching the gospel choir dance, imagining them as naked and frenzied Africans, lmao. And then the scene in the van where she comments how nice it is that a white man is willing to employ all these "lovely people" (African Americans) before she is introduced to one of them, who happens to be Mr. Brown's wife. The look on her face (not embarrassed, but surprised) - and the awkwardness of that scene - is comedic gold.
I want to relate to her as someone who has visited a foreign culture and said embarrassing things based on my own assumptions, but I was actually mortified in those situations, while she seems totally oblivious.
Best moments: barging into the booth with Keith Carradine, she pulls out her mic and says "testing, 1 2 3, 1 2 3, un deux trois quatre..." And then the next morning when he practically shoves her out of bed, she immediately reaches down to her mic, groggily starting to count in GERMAN before she starts to ramble on about thinking she had woken up in the kibbutz in Israel. It cracks me up every time.
I agree that she was the biggest source of laughs in the movie - my choice for the funniest moment is her giggle-filled conversation about knowing Tom 'in the biblical sense' - the reactions of Bill & Mary make that scene quite priceless.
shareI especially like [Opal's] attempts to be sensitive to race relations in the South, all the while making blatant and clueless racist statements. For example, assuming that Lily Tomlin is a MISSIONARY to the black gospel choir (WTF!) before going on a tangent about a nice missionary woman she met while doing a story in "Keen-ya" who was evangelizing some of the "tribes" there but it wasn't working because, as it turns out, they have their "own religion" - and then her bizarre comments while watching the gospel choir dance, imagining them as naked and frenzied Africans....
A lot of it was very funny, but I do not feel 'laugh out loud' or slapstick funny - the humor to me is subtle, snarky, and almost sad - very human foibles which run through the movie. Altman said in his commentary that the bus breaking off the parking lot arm was another 'happy accident' - not originally intended. I can see how another poster has seen this movie 50 times - you can get something different every time.
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The parking arm bit was my least favorite part of the movie. I saw that coming a mile away. I love the movie, but that small part didn't really make me laugh, except that I saw it coming.
I'm not a woman much less Deanna Durbin, but the old-time glam-shot appeals to me.
Commentator near the end mentions H P Walkers radical policies to "tax churches, abolish the electoral college,
change the national anthem, and remove lawyers from government,
especially from Congress." And the fact that his campaign seems to be going well despite this. i'm sure going back there would be more if you listened closely to all his speechs on the tannoy
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