Nashville [DVD]

During a weekend in Nashville the Grand Ole Opry celebration of country music is running parallel with a presidential election campaign. The film is meant to be a mosaic of contemporary American life. It moves from a barrage of simultaneous moments in the lives of more than 20 different characters to the presentation of multiple perspectives in a single unifying event. Although containing 27 songs and 13 on-stage performances, the film’s explicit cultural indictment runs very much against the grain of the American musical. Multi-track sound-recording, multiple cameras and low-light sensitive film stock all facilitated the impressionistic, spontaneous feel of the film. Cast includes: Karen Black, Ronee Blakely, David Arkin, Ned Beatty, Keith Carradine, Geraldine Chaplin, Lily Tomlin, Gwen Welles.