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dga quarterly 63 PHOTO: (TOP, RIGHT) PHOTOFEST; (BOTTOM, RIGHT) SCREENPULL: CRITERION COLLECTION Beatty) and their deaf children—one of whom is excitedly signing and talking simultaneously about his day—Altman presents a marriage di- vided. "The close-ups show you the triumph of casting here. The kid is impeccable. He's telling a story about swim class and really enjoying it, one parent is fascinated, intensely watching her son, and one impatiently waits for it to conclude." When the phone rings during dinner, a stationary camera follows Linnea from the table to the kitchen to answer it. Narcissistic mu- sician Tom (Keith Carradine) is calling, trying to initiate an affair with her. Altman, sensing a psychological turning point, starts a slow zoom in on Tomlin as her moral sense is tested. "He doesn't do it a lot, and it's not a fast zoom, just a focus-on-this kind of control," says Barclay. "That zoom also lets the actors do even less, because some- thing about that encroachment on them allows them to just feel their "This movie is off-kilter already." Then Altman cuts to the airport, where throngs await the arrival of angelic, emotionally fragile coun- try music star Barbara Jean (Ronee Blakley), who promptly faints. Barclay takes a moment to commend Altman's longtime assistant director Tommy Thompson. "He actually put together a lot of the stuff you see, like this sequence and the finale. I love ADs who can take over an airport, control it, and help turn it into art." Right afterward, a multi-car highway accident allows Altman to drop in on all of his major characters as they wait out the traf- fic jam, using the eight-track sound system he had invented. Says Barclay, "They're all stuck on this closed highway, and everyone is miked. This was the first movie where Altman perfected the idea of wire-miking everybody, then choosing whom to emphasize at any time. Altman says 'Go' and then sees what happens." Likewise, Bar- clay adds, whenever Altman cuts away mid-conversation, or adds a close-up to break up the wide shots, it's a form of tension. "He has a great sense of suspense. He knows you're going to keep watching as long as he keeps you watching, so he introduces the characters by leaving a lot of questions unanswered." Barclay is particularly impressed by how Altman creates suspense and threads it into the story through the presence of two loners. Scott Glenn plays the quiet, Barbara Jean-obsessed soldier, Pfc. Glenn Kel- ly ("very ominous, he's watching everything, we're thinking this guy's a psycho killer"), and David Hayward plays Kenny, a violin case-tot- ing "clean-cut American kid, very Howdy Doody," says Barclay. Later, at the home of Linnea, her lawyer husband Delbert (Ned START YOUR ENGINES: (above) Country music hanger-on Barbara Harris performs at a drag strip before her grand, unexpected finale; (below) the film opens with the voice of reform presidential candidate Hal Phillip Walker blast- ing from loudspeakers.