“The Ranch” – A Closer Look at the Final Masterpiece by Robert Altman

1905 Movie Network special articleThis week’s best film, “The Ranch” tells the story of a radio program co-founded by a group of people who love music and is about to go off the air due to survival difficulties, and the team performs their last performance to the audience at the live broadcast of the program.

This film is the last work in the life of director Robert Altman. The film was nominated for the Golden Bear Award at the 56th Berlin International Film Festival in 2006. Director Robert Altman won the “Berlin Morning Post” Reader’s Award Jury Prize.

The title of the movie “Good Company at the Ranch” comes from a real-life radio program of the same name with a history of more than 30 years. The program was performed live from 1974 to 2016. The film advances the story line 10 years and fictionalizes the program’s final performance in 2006.

Stills from “Good Company at the Ranch”

The film combines the joys, sorrows, joys and ups and downs of the column members’ experiences in front of and behind the scenes of this performance. In the form of storytelling, the audience is presented with the closing ceremony of a once smash hit radio show. As the last film directed by director Robert Altman, the film also seems like he is using “The Ranch” to make his final farewell performance to the audience.

Clip from “Good Company at the Ranch”

Robert Altman’s “Farewell Show”

Director Robert Altman was born in 1925. He is one of only three directors in the history of world cinema to win the Best Picture Grand Slam at the three major international film festivals: Berlin, Cannes, and Venice.

Henri Georges Clouzot (left) Michelangelo Antonioni (middle) Robert Altman (right)

However, compared with the great achievements in the three major international film festivals in Europe, Altman is not very recognized by Hollywood. He has been nominated for the Oscar for Best Director five times, but missed all the awards. This requires It comes down to Ultraman’s unique cinematic style.

“Anti-Hollywood” was a major label for Altman when he was creating films, and he was also known for “refusing to compromise his artistic vision,” which made it difficult for many of Altman’s works to be recognized by mainstream Hollywood.

Robert Altman behind-the-scenes photos

In addition, Ultraman’s films often use multiple characters to carry out multi-line narratives. His masterpiece, the 1993 film “Intersection of Life”, won the Golden Lion Award at the 50th Venice International Film Festival, which also made the “group “Master of Drama” became another important label for him.

And who would have thought that as early as when Ultraman directed the second movie in his life, “Space Landing”, he was even unable to get along well with the film producer because of his unique ensemble style, which led to his failure in the film. It got a bad rap among screenwriters and film business people.

Poster of the movie “Space to the Moon” (left) Poster of the movie “Intersections of Life” (right)

In 2006, Robert Altman, who was already suffering from leukemia, continued to film and complete his last work “The Ranch” despite his illness. In the same year, the 81-year-old Altman won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 78th Academy Awards and the first Oscar statuette in his life.

Poster for the movie “The Ranch” (left) Director Robert Altman (right)

Star-studded cast

In addition to director Robert Altman’s unique directorial style, the movie “The Ranch” also attracted a number of stars to participate in the show, contributing a strong performance lineup to this farewell performance.

In the movie, the female singer Yolanda is played by the familiar “Aunt May” Meryl Streep. She has created many popular screen images in films such as “Aunt May”. The actress with the most Academy Award nominations to date.

Meryl Streep (left) in the movie “The Ranch” Actor Meryl Streep (right)

Ronda, who forms a sister duo with Yolanda in the film, is played by the famous actress Lily Tomlin. She won the 23rd Screen Actors Guild Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2017.

Actor Lily Tomlin (left) still from the movie “The Ranch” (right)

The cowboy gang member Rafferty in the film is played by Woody Harrelson, who is well-known to the audience for his wonderful performance in the film.

A still from the movie “The Ranch” (left) A still from the movie “Now You See Me” (right)

Tommy Lee Jones, who played Agent K in the 1997 science fiction comedy film “Men in Black,” also made a surprise appearance in the film “The Ranch.”

A still from the movie “The Ranch” (left) A still from the movie “Men in Black” (right)

Let’s dive into this week’s best movie “The Ranch”

Witness the grand finale of a radio program and a director!

The movie “Good Company at the Ranch”

The scene of this program

In this Saturday promotion version of CCTV-6 Movie Channel’s “Good Movies”, the promoter Ma Fanshu will take you to the movie “The Ranch Home is a Good Company”. In the Sunday film review edition, film review host Tian Long invited film scholar Zhou Zhou and theater actor Xu Wei to discuss the subtleties of this film. In addition, Yuan Yi, a teacher at the School of Music and Recording Arts of Communication University of China, will also analyze the music style in the film during the interview.

Program recording site

Program recording site

Welcome to this issue of CCTV-6 Movie Channel’s “A Date with Good Films”

Sunday, November 26

14:10 “Good company at the ranch home”

15:19 Sunday Movie Review Edition Return to Sohu to see more