Altman does use overlapping dialogue like that quite a bit, but it doesn't seem as awkward in the movies as it did with Tomlin and Streep.

Really, I'd be surprised if they had rehearsed more than once for that bit, so. I got the impression (can't remember what she actually said) that Lily Tomlin felt like they were fucking it up.

ny thoughts on Altman's Nashville? It's on my to-watch list when it airs later this month.

Nashville is an unbelievably great movie. Once you see it, you'll be kicking yourself for not tracking it down sooner. It's that good. (And see it on the big screen at some point if at all possible, because it's gorgeous -- Altman really uses the whole frame. Not to mention the use of sound & music...it's really worth seeing in theatres.)

Really, I'd be surprised if they had rehearsed more than once for that bit, so. I got the impression (can't remember what she actually said) that Lily Tomlin felt like they were fucking it up.

I was pondering that. Altman avoids a bunch of rehearsal, right? But he can edit. So they needed to rehearse enough to be able to do it but not too much. Tricksy.

I love Nashville. Also, I'm somewhere in the crowd at the outdoor concert at Centennial Park.

I got the impression (can't remember what she actually said) that Lily Tomlin felt like they were fucking it up.

I wasn't sure, I kind of got the feeling that fucking it up, and Tomlin worrying about fucking it up, were just part of the bit.

ETA:

Also, I'm somewhere in the crowd at the outdoor concert at Centennial Park.

Sweet! Ginger's a movie star.

I love Nashville. Also, I'm somewhere in the crowd at the outdoor concert at Centennial Park.

I think I know someone else in another thread who was in Nashville too!

Ginger's a movie star.

It would take that CSI face-recognition software to find me. They just said, "Free concert! Filming movie!" and it was in walking distance from my dorm.

It would take that CSI face-recognition software to find me

Pffft. Just point to a corner and say "See, there I am!"

Study Proves Universe Created By Committee

The most extensive analysis yet undertaken of the structure and contents of the universe conclusively proves the universe was created not by a single entity, as has been widely suggested, but by “a fractious and disorganized committee or committees given to groupthink and petty infighting”, according to Drs. Karl Pootle and Yumble Frick, co-authors of the study.

...

“Biodiversity is the primary stumbling block,” said Dr. Pootle. “Whoever created this cacophony of species would have had to be infinitely powerful and infinitely creative, but also infinitely schizophrenic to come up with the myriad different solutions to identical problems that the creators of the universe have. Either that, or we’re looking at a different kind of process altogether.”

The Pootle and Frick study found that for any particular biological niche, a vast number of different approaches are taken by different species for solving nearly identical issues of survival. They also found that species are never static, but are constantly “being tweaked” in small but easily verifiable ways.

“If you’re one guy designing a universe, why come up with twenty different ways of tackling the same issue?” Pootle said. “If you’re omnipotent, presumably you know perfectly well whatever the one solution is that will work best, and you go with that. The fact that the world obviously doesn’t work that way is what led us first to the committee theory. The plants and animals that inhabit the Earth show the kinds of random and incoherent thinking that can only otherwise be found in the products of design committees where there’s a lot of CYA and turf protection going on.”

Heh.

Loved the Tomlin/Streep bit. Some reviewer said the academy should be required to have them present every lifetime achievement/honorary Oscar. I also loved that the audience really responded to that bit.