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62 dga quarterly PHOTOS: (TOP, LEFT) JEFFREY MOSIER; (BELOW) PHOTOFEST American Song Robert Altman's Nashville, a brilliantly orchestrated tapestry of national malaise, never gets old. That's why DGA President Paris Barclay has returned to it over and over again—for inspiration and a guide to great directing. By ROBERT ABELE people's problems, but also be invigorated about life. The whole idea embedded in it, of America's promise and chaos and how it heals, sometimes too rapidly, was compelling to me." Barclay says he didn't know he would become a director when he first saw Nashville. "But I can't think of a film that has had more of an influence on how I like to direct than this film, which is the idea that you should be the host of a party at which everyone excels." The action takes place in the five days leading up to a political rally and outdoor concert with the characters following their own, sometimes over- lapping, stories. After a fake record commercial with an announcer introducing the actors, Nash- ville opens with the sonorous voice of presidential candidate Hal Phillip Walker blasting from loud- speakers on a van moving down the street. The campaign becomes a scene-connecting through line in the film, though we never actually meet the candidate. "The things this guy says are totally relevant today, very anti-politician, anti-lawyer," says Barclay. "So Altman's started with setting a political environment, and the message is: Watch out for the politics of what's going on." Recording sessions introduce us to the music culture of the city: self-righteous country star Ha- ven Hamilton (Henry Gibson, whose wig a laugh- ing Barclay lauds as "perfectly wrong"), gospel singer Linnea (Lily Tomlin), and chatty British interviewer/hanger-on Opal (Geraldine Chaplin). With Haven's irascibility, Linnea's high-pitched trilling amid soulful black choir voices, and Opal's loony observations, Barclay notes, admiringly, PA R I S BA R C L AY / IN THE SC R EENING R OOM don't like to be manipulated," says DGA President Paris Barclay as he settles down at home to watch Robert Altman's 24-character tapestry Nashville for at least the 30th time. "But with this, it was so subtle and so disguised, it was like an amazing magic trick. Every year, I would watch it, almost like making a pilgrimage." Barclay remembers being 19 in Chicago in the summer of 1975, his first year at Harvard be- hind him, his older brother having recently died, and the country in a war-and-Watergate funk. He bought a ticket for what he thought was a musical. "What I discovered," he says, "was a musical, and a drama, and a comedy, and an epic picaresque tale of America. Suddenly I realized that you could not only be transported from your problems into other I BIG CAST: The first time he saw Nashville, Barclay (above) was surprised to discover it was a musical, and a comedy, and a drama; (below) emotionally frag- ile country music star Barbara Jean (Ronee Blakley) winds up in the hospital early in the film.