The Player

The Player (1992) is about a studio executive. Griffin Mill listens to writers pitch every day and turns nearly all of them down. He starts receiving threatening notes from one of them, and while trying to find out who wrote them he commits a murder. The film then shows how easily it can be covered up. It opens with a single moving shot of eight minutes. Altman had the studio lot resurfaced for it, planned the dolly and crane moves with models, and shot it ten times. Characters passing through the frame discuss films made in one take, and that conversation itself happens in one take. Sixty five celebrities play themselves. Altman used his standing in the industry to get them without letting them read the script; those who took part donated their union scale payments to the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital. It was Altman's return to Hollywood after spending most of the eighties on smaller projects. At Cannes in 1992 it won two awards, Best Director and Best Actor for Tim Robbins. It cost eight million dollars and made 28.9 million. It runs 124 minutes. Good for: Hollywood satire, Altman, and cinema about cinema. Less good for: the industry references are dense and many of them now arrive without context. Nothing at all happens to Griffin, which is the film's argument and is still unsatisfying. The parade of cameos starts interrupting the story.