USA,
1992, 123 min
Shown in 1992
CREDITS
- dir
-
Robert Altman
- prod
-
Cary Brokaw, David Brown, Michael Tolkin
- scr
-
Michael Tolkin
- cam
-
Jean Lepine
- editor
-
Geraldine Peroni
- cast
-
Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Whoopi Goldberg, Fred Ward, Peter Gallagher
- source
-
Fine Line Features
-
COMMENTS
One of three Opening Night films. Robert Altman in attendance.
OTHER
Robert Altman (M*A*S*H*, Nashville, Vincent & Theo) seems born to direct this savage satire on behind-the-scenes Hollywood movie-making. Tim Robbins plays Griffin Mill, a senior vice president at a major Hollywood studio (the studio’s motto: “Movies—Now More Than Ever!”). He spends his days passing judgment on fawning writers and directors pitching their script ideas (of course, Julia Roberts or Bruce Willis is always very interested in the project), taking power lunches and worrying that he's about to be ousted by flavor-of-the-month producer Leonard Levy (Peter Gallagher). Mill is also being stalked by a screenwriter he snubbed months before. When he accidentally kills the suspected stalker, his life begins to unravel. Or does it? Filled with real-life stars both playing and satirizing themselves (Cher, Anjelica Huston, Burt Reynolds, Lily Tomlin and many others), The Player is the ultimate insider's look by a couple of disgruntled insiders. Altman and screenwriter Michael Tolkin (who directed the controversial The Rapture) wield a razor-sharp blade, hacking their way through Hollywood with a feral relish, presenting a world of hilarious nastiness, where no movie concept is too stupid (anyone for The Graduate II?), no principle precious enough to uphold, and murder is just another career move. You’ll never look at a Hollywood production in quite the same way again.
—Tod Booth
FACTOID #73
James Wong Howe was the first cinematographer to receive a tribute at the Festival, October 19, 1974. The legendary lenser photographed such classics as The Thin Man, Pursued, Sweet Smell of Success and Hud.
