The Player
Dir: Robert Altman
1992
***
Robert Altman's The Player was a huge success when it came out in 1992 and is very much a film makers film. I think you'd have to be working in the film industry to actually catch all of the references, in that respect it can be quite tiresome at times. It's a very subtle satire, that is to say that the joke is understood, nothing is exaggerated but it isn't particularly funny either. I'm on the fence when it comes to Altman's films, I doth my hat to anyone who can pull off a 7.5 minute single take but I'd sooner hit them over the head with it when I can clearly see their reflection in more than one of the shots. Robert Altman has created some of the best cinema, he's also made some of the worst. In The Player he has combined every genre together, almost seamlessly. Comedy follows tragedy, tragedy follows romance, romance follows intrigue... and so on. The film plays out like the producers in the film say it should, although with a clever twist. It's very knowing and very clever and the classic film references were much appreciated. However, the editing is as lousy as ever in an Altman film and it's a bit all over the place. The cast and their performances are brilliant, a key to the films overall success but as much as I enjoyed seeing so many of my old favorites in cameo roles, I resent the likes of Jack Lemmon and Peter Falk being reduced to being merely film props. I don't care who you are, if you have Jack Lemmon in one of your films you give him a line at the very least. I can only guess that they were either all friends or everyone got paid well. I understand it was (and why it was) somewhat prestigious to star in a Robert Altman film but by the mid-nineties, when he made many of his hits, I don't believe he was the maverick he once was. The 'New' Hollywood was now the old Hollywood, I like his subversiveness but the whole production is a little slap-dash. The ideas are there but I don't think the film lives up to them, when I look at the film as a whole, it's the overall direction that I think lets it down and dates it somewhat.