Mystery

Drama

Thriller

Comedy

The Player

Avenue Pictures

Spelling Entertainment

Addis-Wechsler Productions

United States of America

English

Tim Robbins

Greta Scacchi

Fred Ward

Whoopi Goldberg

Peter Gallagher

Brion James

Cynthia Stevenson

Vincent D'Onofrio

Dean Stockwell

Richard E. Grant

Sydney Pollack

Lyle Lovett

Dina Merrill

Angela Hall

Leah Ayres

Paul Hewitt

Randall Batinkoff

Jeremy Piven

Gina Gershon

Frank Barhydt

Mike Kaplan

Kevin Scannell

Margery Bond

Susan Emshwiller

Brian Brophy

Michael Tolkin

Stephen Tolkin

Natalie Strong

Peter Koch

Pamela Bowen

Jeff Celentano

Steve Allen

Richard Anderson

René Auberjonois

Harry Belafonte

Shari Belafonte

Karen Black

Michael Bowen

Gary Busey

Robert Carradine

Charles Champlin

Cher

James Coburn

Cathy Lee Crosby

John Cusack

Brad Davis

Paul Dooley

Thereza Ellis

Peter Falk

Felicia Farr

Katarzyna Figura

Louise Fletcher

Dennis Franz

Teri Garr

Leeza Gibbons

Scott Glenn

Jeff Goldblum

Elliott Gould

Joel Grey

David Alan Grier

Buck Henry

Anjelica Huston

Kathy Ireland

Steve James

Maxine John-James

Sally Kellerman

Sally Kirkland

Jack Lemmon

Marlee Matlin

Andie MacDowell

Malcolm McDowell

Jayne Meadows

Martin Mull

Jennifer Nash

Nick Nolte

Alexandra Powers

Bert Remsen

Guy Remsen

Patricia Resnick

Burt Reynolds

Jack Riley

Julia Roberts

Mimi Rogers

Annie Ross

Alan Rudolph

Jill St. John

Susan Sarandon

Adam Simon

Rod Steiger

Joan Tewkesbury

Brian Tochi

Lily Tomlin

Robert Wagner

Ray Walston

Bruce Willis

Marvin Young

Ned Bellamy

Steve Fuji

Althea Gibson

Ted Hartley

Robert Altman

Cary Brokaw

David Brown

Nick Wechsler

Thomas Newman

Jean Lépine

Maysie Hoy

Geraldine Peroni

Carole Starkes

Scott Bushnell

William S. Gilmore

David Levy

Alexander Julian

Scott Williams

Dan Perri

Kenneth R. Burton

Matthew Iadarola

Stanley Kastner

John Pritchett

Michael P. Redbourn

John C. Hartigan

Greg Walker

Lydia Tanji

Deborah K. Larsen

Jerry Fleming

Stephen Altman

Ken Kaufman

Allan F. Nicholls

C.C. Barnes

David Ronan

John Bucklin

Matthew R. Altman

Robert Deschaine

Paul Holzborn

David Jobe

John Post

Don Muchow

Filipe Manuel Neto

**A remarkable work.**

This is one of those films that I decided to watch without having a clear idea of ​​what I was going to find. I know that there are many people who like to know, read and even watch the trailers to decide what to watch, and I also do this moderately, but one of the sensations I like most in the cinematic experience is surprise, that feeling of pleasure, difficult to describe, that happens when a film pleases us and surprises us. Of course, the opposite could happen, the surprise could be bad, and the film could be magnificent rubbish. It happens! But I think you understand me...

Robert Altmann is not a director I know much about. As far as I remember, I've only seen one film of his, “Shortcuts”, and I wasn't particularly impressed. However, I think any director has their ups and downs, and you can't categorize anyone for just one film or two. In this film, Altmann surprises in a positive way, with very careful direction and an attention to detail that I was very pleased with. The cinematography is good, the editing is very well done, and the rhythm is quite pleasant, with no dead moments. The opening scene is a true cinematic masterclass, with almost ten minutes without cuts and lots of camera movement. And throughout the film, the feeling that prevails is that we are led to peek, in secret, into a story that no one wants to be known.

The script fits perfectly into this feeling of secrecy, taking us behind the scenes of the film industry through the hands of an arrogant and obnoxious producer who finds himself the target of anonymous death threats. He decides to question the person he suspects of, a screenwriter he ignored for many months, and ends up killing him. From then on, viewers are invited to follow him in his attempts to hide everything, along with the studio he works for, which has little interest in scandals. This is, obviously, a punch in the stomach of the Hollywood industry, where there is no shortage of unscrupulous, arrogant, pedantic, obnoxious people, willing to do anything for ambition, and where the moral conduct of the studios has not always been the most immaculate, preferring to ignore and /or hush up compromising situations whenever possible.

With these characteristics, the film had everything to cause hives in many people within the industry. However, it did surprisingly well, garnered a lot of praise, a good box office and was nominated for three Oscars, continuing to be, even today, a film that is regularly shown on TV channels specializing in films. If the technical quality and the intelligent and scathing story are fundamental, the cast also contributed with the union of talents of several renowned actors. Tim Robbins leaves us with one of his most notable works as an actor, with a consistent and impactful acting, and is elegantly accompanied by Greta Scacchi who, in addition to resisting the idiotic idea of ​​appearing naked for no reason, knew how to interpret her character in a deep and controversial. In addition to them, the film also features good performances by Pater Gallagher and Whoopi Goldberg in minor characters, and with a veritable rain of cameos and brief appearances by actors, screenwriters and others, playing themselves, with many of them agreeing to donate the salary for that single day of filming for a social project at the time. The procession of notables is almost endless, making this film perhaps the American film with the most cameos and guest stars in the history of commercial cinema.

CinemaSerf

It’s the job of “Griffin” (Tim Robbins) to secure good storylines for his Hollywood studio and he’s good at filtering out the wheat from the chaff. The thing is, though, he’s getting on a bit and there are rumours abounding that he is on his way out. When “Levy” (Peter Gallagher) arrives from an erstwhile competitor, the writing looks more like it’s on the wall than on the page. He’s also been having some difficulties with a mysterious stalker whom he’s spurned, professionally, at some stage and who is now bombarding him with threatening postcards. Finally, there’s his more off than on relationship of convenience with “Bonnie” (Cynthia Stevenson) to which he is surprisingly indifferent. Under pressure and under siege, his tormentor starts to get under his skin so he determines to get to the bottom of that whilst cleverly manoeuvring his new rival into a cul-de-sac that can only end one way! What now ensues sees a plethora of genuine stars pepper a film that allows Robbins to show us a character that’s shrewd, ruthless and charmingly shallow whilst at the same time not averse to taking drastic measures. It’s those that attract the attentions of tenacious detective “Avery” (Whooping Goldberg) who has a dead body, nobody to pin it on and is curious about the burgeoning relationship between the girlfriend of the deceased (Greta Scacchi) and this outwardly brash and smarmy film executive. This has all the ingredients of a comedy thriller with loads of glamour, a good deal of pithy dialogue and it sends up the Hollywood mentality satirically and plausibly. Robbins is in his element and exudes a sort of selfish obnoxiousness that’s actually quite likeable as he treads on the eggshells of a fickle and unforgiving business. It packs a lot of story into two hours, raises a smile and an heckle in equal measure and is probably Robbins’s best performance to date.

Genre Play in Robert Altman's THE PLAYER

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Tim Robbins

Greta Scacchi

Fred Ward

Whoopi Goldberg

Peter Gallagher

Brion James

Cynthia Stevenson

Vincent D'Onofrio

Dean Stockwell

Richard E. Grant

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