Trivia / A Wedding (1978)

• Follow the Leader:
  • The influence of Robert Altman's self-admitted favorite film The Rules of the Game is very evident here (Hyperlink Story, wealthy characters, estate setting). He'd later homage it a bit more directly with Gosford Park.
  • Mira Nair's later film Monsoon Wedding has a very similar concept and style to this film.
• Inspiration for the Work: The initial idea came from Robert Altman jokingly telling interviewers that for his next project he would "shoot a wedding", then deciding it would actually be an intriguing concept for a film. Then when discussing making it an Ensemble Cast film with his co-writer Patricia Resnick, she casually mentioned how he'd juggled 24 characters in Nashville, then he immediately decided to double that and have the film feature 48 characters.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The film did get a few DVD releases (the most recent one coming from Anchor Bay in 2012), but they're all out of print and a little on the steep side.
• Production Posse: Much of the cast worked with Altman multiple times in his career. His two favorite supporting character actors (Bert Remsen and Robert Fortier) are also here.
• Referenced by...: One of the films reviewed on the very first national episode of Siskel & Ebert's Sneak Previews in 1978, with the two critics splitting on it: Ebert voted "yes" (finding it entertaining in a rollicking way) and Siskel voted "no" (feeling that it relied way too much on quirkiness and Dysfunction Junction for its laughs).
• Separated-at-Birth Casting: The actors playing the three Brenner siblings, their mother, and their aunt all have similar enough shades of red hair and facial features to make it believable they are really related.
• Those Two Actors: Dennis Christopher and Paul Dooley, who play a father-son duo in this movie and the 1979 Academy Award winner Breaking Away.
• Written by Cast Member: John Considine (Jeff Kuykendall) and Allan Nicholls (Jake Jacobs) are among the three screenwriters co-credited with Altman. The third, Patricia Resnick, has a small role as well.